We get worked up pretty fast on sensationalize news in the media, be it in the printing presses or the electronic media like tv, radio or even the net. However, we also tend to forget things very easily too as times goes by. Am I right, my precious readers? We do tend to forget things that was plastered all over the media as time passes. Let’s be frank. We often see thought provoking news, gossip about it for a couple of month and then, one day, wham, we’ll forget about it and will never bring up the matter that was once so important that we sometimes discuss it over our tea session or small talks ever again.
Today, I would like to talk about a girl who was forgotten by most Malaysian. She made quite a headline in the news almost one year ago, and she had been a topic to gossip about during tea breaks or family dinners. Bloggers blogged about her for quite some time. She was a hot topic in mainstream media and new media. She was a star. Her poster was plastered all over public and private premises in Malaysia. But today, nobody talked,write or blogged about her anymore. She was all but forgotten and became another news that’s fading away with time. Her news reports, her poster are worth nothing but a nasi lemak wrapper now.
Do you know who am I talking about? Do you remember who that girl was, my dear readers? Do you remember her name? Some might have forgotten about her, so allow me to jolt your memories a little bit. The girl who once was a figure that have her posters plastered all over Malaysia but now forgotten is Sharlinie Mohd. Nashar. She was reported missing on 9thJanuary2008. It’s almost one year since she was reported missing from the safety of her home. The authorities suspected that Sharlinie was kidnapped. Below was the poster that used to be plastered all around Malaysia and cyberspace.
Almost one year ago, the police, the media, bloggers and even those bloody politicians alike were working like a mad dog overdosed on caffeine to look for her. Last year, politicians took advantage of the missing girl’s news to campaign about it and made the public believe that they truly care for this missing girl as general election was near and it’s a good publicity to ‘talk’ about this girl. They tried to gain popularity by pretending to care about this girl. What happened to those hypocrite and unscrupulous politicians now? What happened? Why were they silenced now? Bloody hell, all those asshole of politicians care now is just about their party and lust for power. I am truly disgusted with those two-faced hypocrite bastards.
The police even went as far as checking private residential without warrant during Chinese New Year to look for this girl,which I seriously think is damn wrong as searching for something or someone in the civilian’s home who is not a crime suspect is a form of abuse and invasion of human rights as well as privacy. How do we know the one who’s doing the freak search is a real police or some thief or rapist dressing up as one? What’s more, it was done during festive season who most went back hometown to spend time with their families. What happened to the aggressive search for the missing girl now? Did the police give up looking for this girl and considered the case close? Have they forgotten about the little girl too like most Malaysians? Or they simply found better things to do like stopping cars and issue summonses to people who do not buckle up their seatbelt behind?
Almost everyone I know forgot about this girl. What happened, actually? Why everyone forgot about her? The search for her seems to be halted and went on hiatus. There was no updates about her, the latest news about her family was in September 2008, which is more than three months ago. Even the families are no longer venting and ranting or even begging the authorities and the media to look for their daughter. Last check, Sharlinie’s family moved away to another state so that they could ‘start a new life’. What does that supposed to mean? Did they lost hope on her or something? Don’t they want to know if their child is dead or alive?
Everyone seems to move on, but why can’t I forget about the horror of the news that’s seems no longer hold any importance anymore? Why the news is still haunting me after one year? Am I a freak?
Sharlinie is not my child. But I could not help wondering what happened to her, where she is right now, and whether she’s still alive somewhere or suffered the same fate as Nurin Jazlin Jazimin, the cute little girl who was found sexually abused and dead on 17th September 2007. I wonder if Sharlinie is a victim of murder or a victim of child trafficking and prostitution? Nobody gives me updates now. She seems to be erased from everyone’s memories. Nobody talk about her or even remember her now.
I would have gone crazy if she was my child. I wouldn’t be able to move on, and I would definitely be hit by a severe case of depression and anxiety she was my child. I can have another child to fill my longing for my missing child, but it would never be the same. I would still give my missing child a thought if I am in those parent’s shoes. I will not forget easily. Well, I probably would have, but I can assure you, if it happened to me, I would not forget in just one year time.
When I see how easily the family, the public and the authorities alike have forgotten about the missing child, I could not help but wonder if the news is merely a tool to earn public attention and sympathy. Sometimes I really wonder… if the news about her was merely a political game or even a conspiracy.
Frankly speaking, if my child went missing, I would not rest until he or she was found and safe in my arms again. And I would not be such a bloke to make the news of my missing child public because I would be scared to death that my child would be harm as soon as the news is made public. If it’s a kidnap, there is possibility that my family would be contacted for a ransom, so why would I tell and shout to the whole world that my child has gone missing and practically tell the kidnapper through national TV that I know that they had kidnapped my child and tell them to watch out as I’ve sent the authorities to catch them and look for my child?
That would be telling the kidnapper to go ahead and sell my child or even worst, kill my child, isn’t it? I would have allowed the police or private investigators to do their job discreetly so that the kidnapper would not be alarmed. Wouldn’t that raise the possibility that my child will be returned to me safely? Sometimes, I really cannot understand why the parents of some missing children made their case public. Were they having death wish for their kids or something? Did they not know that by making such things public would alarm the criminals and would anger them and the consequences would be fatal to their child?
I pray such thing will never happen to my family and yours, but if that happens, I do hope the families involved would put their child safety a thought first before making the news public and alarm the criminals. I humbly think if the search for missing child is done in a more discreet manner, the possibilities that your child is still safe is higher.
Anyway, before I end this article, I would like to put up the picture of Sharlinie and how she could possibly look like now…though I am not sure if the authorities and the family is still looking for her. I know that the chances of her being safe or even alive is low, but all is not lost yet as long as we do not find her dead body in a sports bag or something. Perhaps, she is still around, and if you see her somewhere, you can contact the authorities for further investigation.
Cleffairy: Do you prefer to announce to the world that you know a thief’s trick and alarm him about it or would you prefer to keep quiet about it and ambush him?
Hi dear…
Oh my…how could people forget about this?
In Berita Harian and if I’m not mistaken, NST as well, they have it everyday. Ahh, but that’s something normal in Malaysian cultures…
They make it too “gempak” at one stage, like we are damn concerned, but then, at last?
Nothing…
Huh…make me ashamed with that kind of attitude..
Hi dear…
Oh my…how could people forget about this?
In Berita Harian and if I’m not mistaken, NST as well, they have it everyday. Ahh, but that’s something normal in Malaysian cultures…
They make it too “gempak” at one stage, like we are damn concerned, but then, at last?
Nothing…
Huh…make me ashamed with that kind of attitude..
Akimashte Omedetou! Happy New Year! I just dropped by to say my greetings to you!
I hope you’d continue being a CITIZEN PATROL! Keep up the good work Cleff…. See you on my Magic December ♥
With love 09,
Bridge
agreed with Zara…
However, I always keep my eyes around for her and sometimes I even wonder why childs are set loose There was olce when I saw a child running here and there without any presence of adults in 100m radius. What if I were to be the rapist/kidnapper?
*sigh*
agreed with Zara…
However, I always keep my eyes around for her and sometimes I even wonder why childs are set loose There was once when I saw a child running here and there without any presence of adults in 100m radius. What if I were to be the rapist/kidnapper?
*sigh*
Maybe after so long, they’ve given up hope…but of course, it will be a pain for the parents that time cannot erase. That’s why with my daughter, even though she’s a big girl now, I am always worried for her…all the way at the other end of the country – especially when she has to travel alone by taxi to Penang to catch her flight home…and on the way back, from Penang to her college in SP! I dunno why the ministry must send students so far away when there is one in Sarawak running the same course and a couple in Sabah. Even in KL, it would be better – just one flight home!!! And by MAS, it is SOOOOOO expensive – almost RM2K return!
The police better concentrate on crime prevention rather than trying to do something when a crime happen. Everywhere is not safe nowadays!
everytime this Sharlinie’s case happens, there is sure to be huhah about it, after a while it dies off, and samething is going to happen again.
so i heard even now the want to star rate our highways but i bet it will not help to reduce the accidents if there is nothing concreate coming out of it,,,,
I still see this poster in some of the express buses (Transnational). But it seems like the Mat Selamat poster is more popular.
It’s been a while and there used to be posters at the old jb customs. However, with the new CIQ now, I was not reminded of her anymore, everytime I return back to JB.
How about writing to the press to ‘awaken’ the folks?
I still see her posters at the johor bahru customs! It’s in terrible shape now though…
malaysians will always be malaysians……couldnt agree more. im caught red handed as well and that is not a good thing… 🙁 we often take things for granted and your post is an eye opener….good post clef. cheers and god bless.. 🙂
Dear all, I apologize for the late response, I have my hands full over the weekend… LOL…
Zara, *sigh* this is Malaysian attitude… hangat-hangat tahi ayam… just got excited over something for just a short time…I sometimes wonder if they really care for her well being or just using her to boost rating, gain popularity, etc etc.
Bridge… happy new year to you too, my friend…:-P hope this year will be better than the last for you.
Arc… exactly my sentiments… sometimes, parents are so ignorant… or rather, they take things for granted.. Just look at shopping complexes… how many kids are lost and sent to the customer service counter so that the kids can be claimed by parents after the announcement? Stupid, really… shop shop shop, but dun even know that their kids are lost!
Cikgu… a few more days only reach one year mark that she’s reported lost. How come the parents can give up so fast? I wouldn’t give up so fast if I were the parents… well, at least until I saw the kid’s dead body or something…the parents moved away to Kuala Terengganu, you kno? Like dun care abut her oredi! OMG, you miss your daughter, I miss my mum and dad… die la, homesick oredi!
Pete… police too busy asking people to treat them Starbuck where got time to prevent crime… last time kopi, now Cuppocino, Latte, Mocha and Fruppocino oredi… LOL…
Eugene…sometimes i get sick of this kind of news… not that i dun have sympathy towards the family, but sometimes, children get lost because of their own negligence… it’s just too bad that the children have to pay for the parent’s negligence.
Jo… in KL here, I hardly see any…like she’s completely forgotten. But then again, why would people want to remember, when even the parents are trying to forget?
Chris, I think not only in JB… KL also same… dun have her posters anymore…at least, I haven’t been seeing it anymore.
Ju Ann… yeah, even though there’s posters of her, it’s not in good condition… fading oredi…
Calvin I think I’m guilty of it too sometimes. I tend to take things/people for granted… like my family, my husband, my friends, just because they’re always there for me, and people like us, constantly need some knock on the head to keep us ‘alert’. LOL.
I still remember her. Being of a different race, i think it was kinda weird. Just saw her leaftlet posted in the toll collection booth and am still disgusted tat the nation failed her.
The police spend more effort catching cyclists than trying to find her. Told ya that they look for an easy job.
More importantly, how many more children is missing?
I got to admit. I am one of those that push these kind of bad news and images to the back of my head. I think most of the people I know have this kind of mentality and this mentality needs to be changed. Instead of celebrating the xmas and new year or etc maybe we can do a vigile or a memory day for these kids.
Anyway, I did saw in the news back in Dec 08 that they are seeking FBI’s help. I thot they already did and if they didn’t, only after a year they do so? The trails sure have gone cold by now.
Thanks for reminding, Lizzie.
Amoker, so they still have her posters in toll collection booth? *sigh* But it seems that no one is searching for her anymore. What a poor thing. Police? They’re useless! They’re just concentrating on issuing summonses to those people who dun buckel up behind, or like what you said, hunting Jerit cyclist… dammit, they are doing useless things while the safety of our children are at stake.
Tera, the problem in malaysia is people do not like to remember sad or negative things. Ask any youngsters, 9 out of 10 would probably prefer to party instead of remembering such things like innocent children being rape, murdered or kidnapped. Tera, I believe the news that you say is THIS… the police are asking for FBI’s help to trail the murderer of another child. that’s not Sharlinie’s case, I believe, but it’s Nurin’s case?