The Malaysian Insight

THEY were the kids who everyone in the neighbourhood noticed but didn’t care about. But now they have the whole country’s attention.

To the residents of Kampung Datuk Keramat Hujung, the seven children who were arrested over the fire at a religious school represented the growing and worrying trend of juvenile delinquency.

They accept that living in a fast-paced city will strain family ties and make parents turn a blind eye to their children’s problems.

Though they hung out at a lake near the playground till 4am, these children kept to themselves. Though they were suspected of being glue addicts they did not rob anyone or steal handbags.

Yet residents could not believe that the vagrancy that they worried about would lead to a religious school being burnt down in the wee hours of September 14, resulting in the deaths of 21 students and two wardens.

“The kids who hung out at the lake were problematic. They were on drugs and noisy. But they kept to themselves,” said resident Adnan Zakaria, who has lived in Kampung Datuk Keramat Hujung for 40 years.

“They were a large group, sometimes there were boys in their 20s, and even 13-year-olds, I think.”

Adnan believed that most of the children lived in the Jelatek low-cost flats, and some were from broken homes.

“They have working parents, I know some of the parents as well. I’ve sometimes spoken to them and told them to go home if they are hanging out late. But they never threatened me or retaliated, maybe because I know their parents,” said Adnan, who lives close to the lake.

Seven kids, some of whom were believed part of the group that regularly hung out at the lake behind the school, have been remanded on suspicion of being involved in the fire.

The Kuala Lumpur Fire and Rescue Department said a partition that was indiscriminately erected on the second floor of the three-storey religious school prevented any chance of escape by the victims when the fire broke out.

That partition, the department said, was not included in the original floor plan that was submitted by the architect of the school in 2015 for safety inspection. Furthermore, there was no application to the Fire Department for a safety inspection after the building was built.

Nurul Syazwaneey Zahari, who is heavily pregnant with her first child, is worried about the environment in which she will be raising her children.

“Even the teachers here tell parents to send their children to other schools, which I intend to do,” said the 25-year-old housewife.

She said it was normal to watch children as young as 10 loitering during the day.

“We cannot advise them. They will not listen. They will usually spend time doing nothing in groups,” said Nurul Syazwaneey.

Other residents, such as Bani Omar, also makes the effort to talk to these children but the results are sometimes less than positive.

“We do reprimand them and they will not talk back. But beware, you will wake up and find that your car has been scratched, your tyres slashed, things like that,” said the 75-year old retiree.

Some residents blame the children of Indonesian immigrants, who had problems in school, for being an unhealthy influence on local Malay kids.

But Titiwangsa MP Johari Ghani cautioned against generalising the immigrant community given the problems they have integrating their children into mainstream Malaysia society.

“What many don’t know is that sometimes these kids can’t even enrol in schools because their parents only have permanent residence status.

“The kids are born here, but they only get their ICs when they are older like when they turn 12. But by that time, they already have a problem fitting in, and their parents are at a loss on how to help them.”

A long-term approach Johari said, was necessary to integrate kids from migrant communities, including changing school policies about enrolment.

“These migrants have nowhere else to go, and they are crucial to the ecosystem of the city because they do the jobs Malaysians don’t want to do.

“We have to have better policies when it comes to migrants, which include integrating them into the mainstream of society,” he said.

Other residents, such as Rahman Nik, who works at the neighbourhood surau believes that the local Malays themselves must take a more active approach towards juveniles instead of just ignoring them.

“After this (the fire) I am going to be more stern. I won’t keep quiet or turn a blind eye. I will speak to the parents of problematic kids to tell them to look after their children. We cannot let things slide any more.” – September 19, 2017.