Stop, let us mourn for today

Let us mourn for how much humanity we have lost so far.

By Jeevindra Kumar

Kids pester their parents to follow them fishing at the pond. 

Girl, eight years old, slips and falls into the pond. She can’t swim. Brother, 15, jumps in to save her. He can’t swim. Twins, 12, jump in next. They can’t swim. 

All four drown. The mother who also jumped in, saved herself by holding on to a rope that was there. 

This happened in Kuantan a day or two ago. 

To lose a child is probably the greatest fear any parent would have, to lose four is unimaginable. Yet God in His wisdom had decided that these four souls would be born in the same womb, and die at the same moment. Tragic? Yes. Saddening? Yes. But also shows the human capacity for love, two young brothers and a sister losing their lives to save their baby sister. 

Let us forget for today about cow head steppers, “bloody racist” parties, political one-upmanship, the debate whether a certain Tun is Malay or a Mamak Kutty, BTN, the bloody economy, who stays and who leaves the country. Let us leave aside questions on Ketuanan and neo-Apartheid. 

Just for today, let us go about our business, and every hour or so, remember the love that bound these four young children together. Let us pray that God already has them by His side in his heaven.  

If we cannot come together in spirit to spare a prayer and the odd tear or two for these four beautiful souls, we have slipped too far. Let us mourn for every untimely death, let us mourn for all parents separated from their children, let us mourn for how much humanity we have lost so far, let us mourn for a people that have lost their love for each other, let us mourn for a nation that has lost it’s soul.  

Let us mourn for today. 

Mohd Shukri, 15

Syafiqah and Mohd Syafik, 12

Baby sister Norsyakirah, 8.