Yesterday, I received an email from Jasni, Nurin’s uncle, asking me about the proposal we sent to the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development Ministry late last year and I promptly forwarded him the email without asking what he needed it for. This morning my daughter excitedly told me NURIN Alert was in the New Straits Time. Sooo…that’s why Jasni needed to get that email.
On reading the article, I congratulate NST for highlighting this much needed system which has been sadly forgotten in the aftermath of Datuk Seri Shahrizat’s loss in the March 2008 political tsunami of a general election. She should not have lost that vote and I hold it against Nurul Izzah for challenging her when Shahrizat had done so much and had more to do. I really don’t care for this personality cult kind of politics when winning is more for personal glory than for the people or the nation. I had actually given up on the initiative seeing the light of day as there was no word on the Child Protection Policy that it was supposed to be tagged onto either. Until I read the NST article below by Tan Choe Choe that is.
However, the question Tan raised on the NURIN Alert for the incoming Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen was actually explained in the other article “A department just for children” when the Minister explained about the CPP. I’ll be happy if the Ministry adopts the AMBER Alert system of finding missing children in whatever shape or form. No matter what they name it, we need a system that can help us find those children fast.:
To kick it off, the ministry will be submitting the much-awaited Child Protection Policy (CPP) to the cabinet for endorsement.
The ministry is also drafting a comprehensive Child Policy that will look into the survival, development, protection and participation of children — the key guiding principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child that Malaysia signed in 1995.
“It’s tied in with the CPP,” added Dr Ng.
The Children’s Department will play a major role in monitoring and ensuring the proper implementation of CPP and the Child Policy once it is set up.
Dr Ng said there were five major elements in the CPP and they addressed the creation of a safe and child-friendly environment, setting-up of after-school care facilities to avoid leaving children alone at home, screening of childcare providers, adoption of appropriate protocol for dealing with children and introduction of standard operating procedures that should be taken when a child goes missing.
2008/11/16
Authorities still sleeping: Nurin Alert remains just a proposal
By : Tan Choe ChoeKUALA LUMPUR: The much vaunted Nurin Alert is still in limbo — more than a year after the brutal murder of Nurin Jazlin Jazimin.
In fact, it is possible that the Nurin Alert may not see daylight at all. The authorities appear uncertain as to who should handle it.
The Nurin Alert was to have been 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.
It was proposed after the body of Nurin, 8, was found stuffed inside a gym bag on Sept 17, 2007, slightly more than a month after she went missing.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen told the New Sunday Times that the Nurin Alert was not part of the Child Protection Policy to be submitted to the cabinet for approval.
This is in sharp contrast to the statement by her predecessor at the ministry, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, on Jan 20, that the implementation of the Nurin Alert was just a matter of formality and that the system was already in place and working.
“We’ve decided to park the alert system under the Child Protection Policy as one of its components — it’ll be our last module because we’re first looking at more preventive measures,” Shahrizat had said.
That was about four months after the murder of Nurin. The Nurin Alert was mooted by Nurin’s uncle Jasni Abdul Jalil and his group of blogger friends following the tragedy.
Nurin means “Nationwide Urgent Response Information Network” and was modelled after the United States’ Amber Alert.
It was earlier reported that a proposal on the Nurin Alert system had been submitted to Shahrizat. However, Dr Ng said no such proposal had been received by her ministry.
When contacted, Jasni said he had emailed a copy of the proposal to the Welfare Department’s director-general sometime late last year and had subsequently received a note acknowledging receipt of the proposal on Nov 2.
Jasni had told the New Straits Times in September that he wanted the police to take ownership of the system, but the police had said that it was the ministry’s initiative.
Dr Ng, however, said the ministry was not in charge of the alert system and that such a system was related to enforcement work.
Her ministry, she said, was more involved in awareness and advocacy work.
So does this mean that the initiative is not under the ministry anymore?
“I won’t say it’s not under me, but to start the process, it should be inter-agency. It’s not an easy matter,”she said.
“But there is a section in the CPP that suggests that an early warning alert system for missing children should be developed, but with input from government agencies, non-governmental organisations, academicians and, more importantly, the police.”
Madeleine Yong, director of P.S. the Children, said she was not surprised at the state of affairs.
“Looking at the trends over the past years in child rape and murder issues, we have too many suggestions that are knee-jerk reactions.
“We have too many programmes or services created that are ad-hoc.
“We need to have a lot more discussions and strategic planning for this system to be implemented effectively,” said Yong.
“The entire system should be framed around the primary objective — to promote the wellbeing of children — rather than to meet the requirements of organisations or departments,” she added.
For Nurin Alert to be realised, there must be teamwork between the lawmakers, the Women, Dr Ng’s ministry, non-governmental organisations that deal with children, the media, law enforcement officers, social workers, hospitals and the entire community.
The Amber Alert system, Yong said, had a series of strategies to support the authorities and communities to increase the likelihood that abducted children would be recovered swiftly and safely.
One important lesson learned by Amber Alert implementers, she said, was that while it was an outstanding tool, it was ultimately only a tool to help in law enforcement.
“Training and having an investigative plan or strategy are the most important components.
“We need to start with these steps.
“We can have good ideas but the implementation, monitoring and sustainability of a programme or system needs a lot more effort.”
“So am I surprised Nurin Alert didn’t take off? Absolutely not.”
Me neither! Its so typical of Malaysian with these kinda attitude. Hangat2 tahi ayam. Those ppl who contested in the election has only themselves and power in their mind. Like what I said before when Teresa equate her being taken into ISA to child abduction. Who cares abt those kids kan? Screw them. That’s exactly wht these politician have in their mind.
Exactly my point. I am ashamed to see the way our politicians behave, even the so called “reformers”. What they preach is how to hate one another. If that is the change they are talking about, they can forget it lah Farina.
With so much crap coming from our politicians, can you wonder why nobody takes them seriously. It’s just for personal glory and for power. Who cares about the people or the country let alone the innocent children.
Frankly, I get sick of reading the newspapers and blogs lately. No wonder Obama was seen as such a beacon of hope in the recent US elections, his campaign was built on loving one another. I guess you need brains to see that and our politicians from both side of the fence don’t seem to have any.
I feel sad. I feel disappointed. I feel hopeless. After all that, and it finally sums up to nothing. Absolutely nothing. After all that rage and cries and so-called call for change. Nothing. Not a peep from either quarter – pro or anti-govt. They claimed they want the best for the nation, for our children. And here we remain, we linger, we wait for nothingness. Time passes in a constant motion, while we linger and burn the nation with our prejudice and competitive racial superiority.
The next time a child is abducted, they will be raging again, and all blame and wrath will again go to the victim and/or family. Those who are tasteless will pinpoint ethnicity as the reason for being victimised.
My point? Nobody learns. Nobody cares. Nobody gets educated.
[...] to blog about right now. I just swung by Tembam’s blog today, and I was disappointed to see an unresolved issue (yes yes, while I do enjoy blogging like I’m an airhead, there are a few things I do care [...]
Munira, I feel the fury and pain with you girl. I’ve given up with this so called “change” brought by politicians who fancy themselves the champions of their respective races and the new Obama’s of this country. When Shahrizat lost, I had hoped they would not shelve the long promised and eagerly awaited CPP. Instead, we get political babble and childish hijinks from newbie politicians and deadwood political has-beens trying to monopolise the floor for the feckless world media limelight.
The thing is, I am not hopeful that the system will be adopted in toto or that it will be named NURIN Alert. What they need to do is get is to be centrally coordinated and to mobilise all communication channels pronto, within the first four hours. I doubt that the Minister has been studying this issue nor will MPs like Teresa Kok have any interest in such less “glamorous” issues that won’t enable them to shine like the heros and heroines that they fancy themselves to be.
A politican with brains and a conscience is what we need, not someone who needs to play the race and the religion card, a decent person to lead this nation for once, irregardless of race or religion.
Kak Tembam, long time no see you. I am totally clueless as to what is happening with Nurin Alert, not even sure if it’s still on. Hope you are keeping fine.
Hi there M Kate. Been busy on the home front and not so into the blogging scene lately.
As far as I know the C4NA is still awaiting registration with ROS. As for the Ministry, there is an interesting writeup by Koh Lay Chin in the NST that sheds some light on what the hell is wrong when newly assigned politicians come into the picture. I wonder if politicians campaign to get elected becuase they want to help the rakyat or because they want the rakyat to help them? As far as I can see, when new people take over they don’t share the same committment and passion as the people before them who were seized by the tragic events that led to the Nurin Alert initiative. No glory for them lor!!