MM Online - Pahang child crosses broken-down bridge over river for school (extracts):
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KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 2 — A video of a child making a dangerous river crossing in Pahang using a bridge that has been broken down for months — to allegedly go to school — has gone viral today.
In a video posted by Facebook user Siti Zaharah this morning, a young boy is seen with a man, both gingerly inching their way along the edge of a metal bridge that hung on only one side.
The two were seen holding on to each other and to the sole railing on the bridge using one hand each, with parts of the 1.24 minute video also showing the child clutching the man’s arms with both hands.
“The child of the mother [sic] is spirited and wants to go to school. But have to cross this sophisticated bridge...Already a year, no change at all...Suspension bridge at Pamah Aur, Bukit Betong, Kuala Lipis,” the Facebook post accompanying the video said.
On 26 January 2006 or 11 years ago, I wrote about Pengkalan Pasir village near Kota Baru, Kelantan, where its villagers cross a canal by means of a rotting wooden bridge - the precarious crossing injured a couple of people and killed even more, including the last two in 2005, 5-year old Noralili Mohd Yusof and 65-year old Khatijah Rahmatullah.
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The villages had actually raised notice of the decrepit and dangerous state of the bridge to the authorities, but as usual in such a rural village, especially in PAS-controlled Kelantan, nothing was done.
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The current Pahang/federal government is no better with regards to the suspension bridge at Pamah Aur, Bukit Betong, Kuala Lipisin Pahang.
Related: a 2006 postMalaysian 'Cynics' will have 'Scenic' Bridge to Nowhere!.
In a video posted by Facebook user Siti Zaharah this morning, a young boy is seen with a man, both gingerly inching their way along the edge of a metal bridge that hung on only one side.
The two were seen holding on to each other and to the sole railing on the bridge using one hand each, with parts of the 1.24 minute video also showing the child clutching the man’s arms with both hands.
“The child of the mother [sic] is spirited and wants to go to school. But have to cross this sophisticated bridge...Already a year, no change at all...Suspension bridge at Pamah Aur, Bukit Betong, Kuala Lipis,” the Facebook post accompanying the video said.
On 26 January 2006 or 11 years ago, I wrote about Pengkalan Pasir village near Kota Baru, Kelantan, where its villagers cross a canal by means of a rotting wooden bridge - the precarious crossing injured a couple of people and killed even more, including the last two in 2005, 5-year old Noralili Mohd Yusof and 65-year old Khatijah Rahmatullah.
The villages had actually raised notice of the decrepit and dangerous state of the bridge to the authorities, but as usual in such a rural village, especially in PAS-controlled Kelantan, nothing was done.
In such a situation where a non BN Party governed (still does) the State, there would be the perpetual argument over who the responsible authority had been, the State or the Federal government, but the people who were either injured or killed were all Malaysians.
One wonders how many such rural bridges and how many pot-holed tracks in the kampongs (villages) could have been repaired and how many personal computers purchased for use in the kampong schools with the RM2 billion a previous government allocated to the construction of a ‘scenic’ & very crooked bridge to nowhere!
One wonders how many such rural bridges and how many pot-holed tracks in the kampongs (villages) could have been repaired and how many personal computers purchased for use in the kampong schools with the RM2 billion a previous government allocated to the construction of a ‘scenic’ & very crooked bridge to nowhere!
What a wastrel.
In that same year 2006, in Pasir Mas, to get to school near Kampung Lati would be virtually a life-and-death struggle for the school children.
In that same year 2006, in Pasir Mas, to get to school near Kampung Lati would be virtually a life-and-death struggle for the school children.
They have to cross the Banggol Jering river by treading precariously on floating plywood boards strapped together over bundles of bamboo. This has served as the pupils’ makeshift bridge for six years (up to 2006).
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Student Sharidan (who is by now 11 years older) said: "We have to be very careful so that we do not rock the boards. Sometimes the (river’s) rapid current makes it very dangerous."
Student Sharidan (who is by now 11 years older) said: "We have to be very careful so that we do not rock the boards. Sometimes the (river’s) rapid current makes it very dangerous."
The school is 200 metres from the river. Two years ago, an eight-year-old pupil drowned after losing his balance on the wobbly boards.
Another 12-year old student, Nor Aimuni Shafikah Che Awang said she would always pray before crossing the 'bridge' although she had been using it for five years.
Yes, 11 years ago I said I was sick of seeing poor Kelantan school kids being subjected to sub-3rd world conditions in their daily lives, when a previous government, with a talent for wasting billions of ringgit, wasted billions more building a non-existent crooked bridge to syiok-kan his grudge against the lil' dot.
The current Pahang/federal government is no better with regards to the suspension bridge at Pamah Aur, Bukit Betong, Kuala Lipisin Pahang.
Related: a 2006 postMalaysian 'Cynics' will have 'Scenic' Bridge to Nowhere!.