New Straits Times - PARALYSED SON SAYS: AYAH, DON'T CRY!My heart goes to Afiq and his father Baharudin!
Do something! The country is falling into the deepest crevise. We are rotting!
Make the culprits pay, and make it costly! The accused(s) should be sent to face the court and if found guilty should be made to serve a very long time. At the same time, a quantum should be fixed as payment to Afiq and his father for the trauma and any inconveniences cause! Inconveniences? He's paralysed at this juncture!
Damn bullies! Where did they get their ideas from?
PARALYSED SON SAYS: AYAH, DON'T CRY!
But father blames himself
By Shahrum Sayuthi
Turn the other cheek when someone bullies you. Fighting back would only make things worse, National Park ranger Baharuddin Mohamad advised his boarding school-bound son Mohd Afiq Qusyairi, 13, in January. But today, as Afiq lies broken in his hospital bed, Baharuddin’s words haunt him and he sobs ceaselessly. "Turning the other cheek" led to Afiq’s seniors stomping on his back and throwing him against his locker, causing his spinal cord to be damaged at the base of the skull. Doctors fear Afiq will never walk again.
"He has always been an obedient son," said an inconsolable Baharuddin, 44. "I told him not to fight back when anyone bullied him. I told him it would only make things worse. I never imagined this would happen."
It was all the more heartbreaking when Afiq, the second of six children, turned to his father and said: "Ayah, jangan nangis-lah." (Father, don’t cry).
Afiq does not appear to fully comprehend the extent of the damage he has suffered although he was told today that he is likely to be paralysed from the neck down for life.
Baharuddin feels an unshakeable burden of guilt, however.
Afiq went to Form One at the Sekolah Menengah Agama Padang Tengku in Kuala Lipis and was beaten up at the hostel by his seniors, first in April.
Heeding his father’s advice, he took the beating and did not complain to anyone. But that only meant being beaten up again two weeks ago.
"He never complained of anything until last Friday when he called me saying he was feeling some pain in the neck and could not walk," Baharuddin said.
"I took him to the the Kuala Lipis Hospital and he was then transferred to the Temerloh Hospital."
A scan at the Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital in Kuantan showed that Afiq’s spinal cord was damaged at the base of his skull.
The doctors persuaded Afiq to relate what happened.
It was then that Baharuddin found out that, unprovoked, two Form Five students wearing police cadet boots had stomped on his son’s back. Then, two weeks ago, three seniors threw him against his locker.
The two beatings led to the spinal cord injury.
Baharuddin has lodged a police report and investigations are underway.
He is also contemplating legal action against the youths who beat up his son. "If what the doctors say is true, then Afiq would have to be cared for the rest of his life."
But still, he says, the family will try to remain strong as they see what happened as God’s will.
Afiq remains warded at the intensive care unit of Temerloh Hospital. He retains some movement in his left arm, fingers and toes, and doctors are hoping that his condition does not deteriorate.
© Copyright 2004 The New Straits Times Press (M) Berhad. All rights reserved.
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