The Nurin debate

A follow-up to the debate on the Nurin alert.

From tembam.wordpress.com:
What?? After Nurin still not enough thinking??

My original letter to the editor appeared in the NST on the 11th of December:

On the 16th of November, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen was quoted saying that the Nurin Alert was not part of the Child Protection Policy to be submitted to the cabinet for approval. The system was supposed to be a mechanism to disseminate information on missing children so that it reaches the public in the shortest time possible and ultimately help locate the children.

On the 23rd of November, the minister claimed that the system was in place but not with the name Nurin Alert.

The ministry should show more sensitivity and consider the requests of Nurin's family for the alert to be named after her. After all, it was an idea mooted by Nurin's uncle Jasni Abdul Jalil and his group of blogger friends following the tragedy. Also, the American AMBER alert system it is based upon was named in honour of Amber Hagerman, a nine-year-old who was abducted and murdered in Texas.

The minister followed by saying that it was inappropriate to "splash the news of a missing child in newspapers for the first few hours". I recall a case last year where a child was found within a few hours after the parents sent out text messages about the kidnapping to the public. It would seem obvious that the dissemination of information would be the priority after a child goes missing, and this is in line with the aim of the alert system.

The minister is totally out of depth serving a ministry that is expected to show sensibility and care in these matters. She should change her ways or resign.

Just a cleaned-up version of my earlier rant on this blog.
The crux of the matter was how the minister in question just brushed off the suggestion that Nurin's name be used.

“I’ve said it clearly that the name ‘Nurin Alert’ is not in our programme or part of our plans on child protection. But the whole mechanism and processes from A to Z have been discussed and is already in place” NST 23 Nov 2008

I felt that statement was uncalled for.

Should read an earlier post by Tembam too:
Will Someone Wake This Minister Up Please!!


Good to note that there is a healthy debate going on.