Attempts to help mother and son yield murky situation

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Fatimah (front, fourth right) hands over cash to Guat Eng at her tent at Siburan, prior to placing the mother and son at Anjung Singgah for temporary shelter. With the minister are Sharifah Hasidah (third right) and Chee Haw (third left). — Photos by Muhammad Rais Sanusi

Fatimah (front, fourth right) hands over cash to Guat Eng at her tent at Siburan, prior to placing the mother and son at Anjung Singgah for temporary shelter. With the minister are Sharifah Hasidah (third right) and Chee Haw (third left). — Photos by Muhammad Rais Sanusi

KUCHING: A minister and government officials were left puzzled after visiting a mother and her son living in a makeshift tent at Siburan, as the two failed to give clear details about their background when quizzed by offi-cials yesterday.

On Aug 21, thesundaypost reported that Lim Guat Eng and her son Sufian Khong Abdullah were living in a makeshift tent by the roadside near the Siburan overhead bridge.

Their place of stay is far from being sanitary and they have no access to water for cleaning as well.

When interviewed, both gave confusing accounts of their origin, including where they were from and where their family members are.

Very few details are known for sure – one of which is that they have been living in the makeshift tent for about three months and their MyKADs both have ‘10’ in the middle section of the identity numbers; denoting that they are from Selangor.

However, the address on their respective MyKADs is listed as No 17, Kampung Semaru, Padawan, Kuching.

Sufian’s claim of his father’s identity was also baffling, whom he said ‘is a Muslim’.

“The fact is that his father’s name is not Abdullah,” revealed Community Welfare Department (JKM) officials, who also visited them.

“We are Sarawakians, but we had been living in Klang, Selangor for many years. We moved back to Sarawak recently, but were chased out by our relatives from our home at Kampung Semaru,” said Sufian.

Apart from that, Sufian also claimed that he had ‘three to four more siblings’ living with their relatives at Kampung Semaru; and that he and his mother were stay-ing temporarily at the tent while waiting for the opportunities to find a living come to them.

Siburan Chinese community leaders Kapitan Irene Chia and Penghulu Voon Min Sen were also pre-sent during the visit.

When interviewed, both said they tried to help Guat Eng recently by offering to take them to meet Kampung Semaru chief and officials, but they declined.

“There is nothing that we can do since they both do not want to be helped; and I did try to offer them all the help (I could) by trying to solve their problems. I did all that I could – they just refused to be helped,” said Chia.

Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Datuk Fatimah Abdullah, who visited Guat Eng and Sufian yesterday, said she has asked the JKM to investigate the background of the two before deciding on further action to be taken.

In the meantime, she recommended Guat Eng and her son to stay at Anjung Singgah – the state government’s temporary shelter for the homeless – near Jalan Rubber here for about two weeks.

“Whatever their background is, there is no way that anybody should live in a makeshift tent by the roadside like this. We will help them in all ways possible to make sure that their living condition from now on would be better than living in a makeshift tent like this one here,” the minister said.

Fatimah revealed that for now, JKM would help find Sufian a suitable job and help search for a low-cost house for both of them to rent at Batu Gong in Siburan – in addition to giving them some food supplies and RM300 assistance to buy basic necessities.

The minister was accompanied by Assistant Minister of Early Childhood Education and Family Development Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali, JKM Sarawak productive welfare branch head Mordiah Sulaiman, various government officials and voluntary social worker Lim Chee Haw, who highlighted the story about Lim and her son to the me-dia recently.

In Sarawak, there are currently 66,454 poor and hardcore poor individuals registered under the e-Kasih system, with 56,431 individuals receiving monthly welfare assistance.