This Urban Jungle
6-year-old boy murdered: What is happening to S'porean families?

Something has gone terribly wrong with the families in our society, says STOMPer Kelly, after reading about the tragic death of Edy, a six-year-old whose lifeless body was found at the Kallang River on November 25.

Just last month, Singaporeans were shocked by the ruthless way a 23-month-old girl was bashed to death for apparently ruining her father's cigarettes.

In the Nonoi case reported in 2007, 31-year-old Mohammed Ali Johari was found guilty for sexually assaulting and murdering his two-year-old step daughter.

He had admitted to dunking her in a pail of water to stop her 'incessant crying'.

Kelly says that the recent string of child deaths involving troubled families is a worrisome trend in our society as it shows the sorry state that the family unit has come to.

She cites the recent and tragic death of little Edy as an example.

According to The New Paper reports today, the child's father was never present in his life and his mother, a drug offender, has been in and out of jail five times.

As she was imprisoned for drug offences last year, Edy came under the care of his grandmother, who reportedly left the child to play alone at the playground till 11pm nightly.

According to reports in today’s edition of My Paper, Edy’s grandmother hired a caretaker to take the child to and from school a month ago.

The caretaker, a 31-year-old man known as Boy, is also the main suspect in the murder of Edy.

Yesterday, Edy’s body was found stuffed in a trolley bag and dumped at the Kallang River, after going missing for a week. The cause of death is still unknown.

It seems that the boy had not even been reported missing to the police until Monday (November 23).
 
In an email, a disturbed Kelly says:

“Maybe many parents these days are not ready to start families of their own yet.

“These innocent children, who have been murdered or ruthlessly abused, are the victims.

“I hope we can all look at the sorry state the family unit has become in our society and stop these cold-blooded acts.”

Click here for My Paper's report 'Edy's sad life'.

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Keywords:  crime society child abuse
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justaconcernindividual said   on 5 Dec, 2009   Report as offensive  
I just don't understand why his grandma let him play alone at the playground till 11pm every night!!! Grandma wasn't strict to her daughters - in all aspect if I may say. Her daughters seems like wild girls mixing around with bad company. Guess she just let them do whatever they wanted and are pleased with. What if the little boy is still alive... I guess he will grow up to be a wild boy, judging at how irresponsible his mother and grandma were. RIP, Edy!
justaconcernindividual said   on 5 Dec, 2009   Report as offensive  
I agree with what Metal_Freak had said - 'At least the child is saved from having to go through life in misery with these wayward people around him'... but how he died is really very sad. Imagine the pain and agony he had to go thru before he took his last breath. Evil murderer!!! I hope he will rot in hell. Doing drugs and having a child out of wedlock is nothing new in our society, but if his mom had loved him, she should have seeked for help in her drugs habit and mend her ways to be a good parent to her child. I don't see that she would want to change her life for the better for she had a 2nd wedlock, too! Poor children being victims of irresponsible adults. It's partly her fault for not being a responsible parent and hence the innocent child had to be taken care of by others. But then again, she couldn't even look after herself, whatsmore her child.
Metal_Freak said   on 3 Dec, 2009   Report as offensive  
It's a call for help. Sometimes we get caught up with life we just can't relate to what all these low-income groups are struggling about. But for racists, I don't know if you noticed that stuff happening in Stomp itself involved ALL races. So stop being an immature prick. At least the child is saved from having to go through life in misery with these wayward people around him.
72346769 said   on 1 Dec, 2009   Report as offensive  
hierarchy666 said on 26 Nov, 2009 72346769: Dont try to be racist ok. Saying things are similar. What about the recent Ang Mo Kio 543 Case? Father kill both children then jump of from building. You freaking yellow dont live to insult others can? @hierarchy666... hmmm.. look who's the racist here? did i mention anything about race in my post? all i mentioned was the 3 cases have similarities.. u just slapped yourself across the face, dude! lol
wrongturn said   on 29 Nov, 2009   Report as offensive  
Thanks annacactus for answering such a sensitive q, Im not finish with fizajunior's comment, lets work together as a community and not just throwing bricks at each other and hide behind a wall. This 3 incidents concerning kids are only a small dark corner of our society went wrong. On the other end, alot of ppl are pushing their responsibility even abandoning their aged parents leaving the problems to the government, lack of communications among siblings, another big social problems. THis is one area we can learn from the average malay family which I notice has better family and community value. Just go to the beach on sundays and public holidays, youll know why.
starystary said   on 29 Nov, 2009   Report as offensive  
But they give birth to many,only let their kids suffer with them.We all knows if we doesn't have a proper income its better not to have a child.Don't tell me they don't know how to prevent it.My cousin and her husband earns $9k plus per mth but they only have one kid,and they gives the very best to their child.
annacactus said   on 28 Nov, 2009   Report as offensive  
in reply to wrongturn, in our religion, we do believe that children are god's gift, just as what other religions do believe in. in their answer of "God's Willing" when they have a lot of children and are not earning much, it is rather a sensitive issue here but i, personally as a malay muslim girl, have to reply that just as much as God gives us with trials and tribulations on earth, He also gives us brains to think (thats wat makes us different to animals right..) with that said, as much as children are god's gift, and as much as trial and tribulations are given from god to test or faith, we are not to keep pushing it all up to Him because at the end of the day, He has given us brains to plan, decide and choose. i have answered in a rather subtle nice way but my point is there. i hope it clears ur doubts or curiousity in a helpful way.
annacactus said   on 28 Nov, 2009   Report as offensive  
people...this is sad yes. but its disappointing to see the reactions and comments. we dont have to go immature and start comparing cases done by different races. seriously...those kind of immature comments are really not needed.
i agree with wrongturn. we should all have an open discussion and in trying to not be racist, we should not pretend we dont see that there is definitely something in common which is its all happening to the low income malay families.
i am a malay muslim and i do realize that yes, there seem to be some problem brewing within the low income malay society. i honestly feel there is a desperate need for whichever organisation to do more in depth outreach to these society so as to curb whichever problems that may arise in the future or in fact is already present right now.