A Life Lost In The Name Of Justice

My friend,

We are living in a sad time indeed. A time where life holds little value, and could easily be snuffed out on a whim. People end others life or their own without even considering the consequences. Be it murder or suicide, the price of a life can never be paid fairly, other than with another life.

Let me share with you my view about the act of taking a life (your own or another). When a life is taken, the owner of that life lost everything; their past, present, and their future. She/he can never get it back. And they are not the only ones who lost something. The wife lost a husband, who was supposed to stand by her side through happiness and sadness. The child lost a parent, who was supposed to teach him/her about the goodness of life. The husband lost a wife, who was supposed to be the one supporting him when he is insecure. The father lost a child, whom a future was entrusted upon to. Such is the loss when a life is taken. And the price to pay for that loss, the burden to offset the loss, is heavy enough to crush the person who took a life away.

Yesterday, 7am, a life was lost in an attempt to protect something that was not of his own. To some, he had shown courage few had. To others, he was just a busybody and a fool. How about you?

Man dies in bid to foil car theft

By ANDREW SAGAYAM

saggy@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: A factory worker who tried to prevent a car theft was stabbed to death in Taman Megah here.

Tan Chee Wai, 31, (pic) from Taman Seri Cheras, was said to have walked to the area near his home in Taman Seri Cheras to buy breakfast for his family at about 7am yesterday when he noticed four men behaving suspiciously near a Perodua Kelisa parked outside a house.

He then hid behind another parked car to observe what was going on.

The four surrounded the car and kept looking inside, and one of them used an iron rod to prise open the driver’s side door.

At this juncture, Tan shouted: “Oi! Curi kereta orang kah”? (Hey, are you stealing the car”).

One of the men, who saw Tan, then asked his accomplices to get to Tan.

The four men started to assault Tan and stabbed him thrice in the chest.

Kajang OCPD Asst Comm Rosli Mohd Nizam said Tan, a bachelor, was found dead sprawled in a pool of blood along the road.

“Two eyewitnesses told us that Tan tried to fight back but was overpowered.

“They told us that the four men fled the area in two motorcycles,” he said.

ACP Rosli urged those with information to contact the Kajang police headquarters at 03-8736 2222 or the nearest police station.

The face of all victims

Posted by: Davin Arul

I would like to exhort the authorities to take a look at the photograph of the late Mr Tan Chee Wai of Cheras, KL, that was published in the newspapers today. It is the face of a brave man who called attention to criminals in the act of stealing a car, and paid for it with his life. Mr Tan was killed by the would-be car thieves, whose horrendous act is typical of the kind of mad dog criminal that we have in our midst today. The kind of mad dog criminal who slashes and assaults victims, who preys on the elderly and disabled and weak, who seems to be able to operate with impunity, laughing at and mocking our law enforcers' efforts to bring them in. The kind that will continue to do so as long as the authorities seem more focused on bickering over statistics and questioning one another's information sources and hurling allegations of corruption at one another, than on presenting a unified and mighty front to put this sort of mad dog criminal in the ground. Please look at Mr Tan's photo. It is the face of a man who only wanted to go out and buy food for his family, and who will never see them again in this existence. Please look at it before you feel the need to puff up for a few extra column-inches in the papers, and consider that the effort expended in that could have been directed towards something, anything, more productive and more reassuring to the people who put you in your various offices. Settle your internal disputes internally, and let the nation see a united team working for a brighter future for the decent citizens of this country. You owe it to people like Mr Tan, and the scores of other victims whose deaths have gone unpunished.