From Lianain Film.
We met Vui Kong’s mother, and our hearts broke a little bit more.
We visit on our third day in Sandakan. She looks surprised to see so many of us. But we’re even more taken aback by the state of her little two-bedroom flat. Vui Fung had told us earlier that she lives alone. We’d half-expected her home to be gloomy and untidy. But the place is immaculately kept. Clean, and bright and airy. There are photos of her children and grandchildren everywhere. A large, framed family portrait takes pride of place in the living room.
We’re all nervous about meeting her. Terrified we’d somehow let slip what she must not be told – that Vui Kong, her youngest son, sits on death row. We’d all heard her heartbreaking story. We know of her mental illness, her struggles as an impoverished single mother, her visit last year to Changi Prison, to see Vui Kong just two days before he was originally scheduled to hang. He had told her he was going away to seek penance for his sins and that he would never ever return.
That narrative had confused me back then. Did she really buy the story? Surely, a mother must know?
Meeting her now, I finally understand why Vui Kong felt he had to protect his mother from the truth. It is impossible to have a conversation with her. She hardly says a word. Doesn’t acknowledge anyone’s questions. It is as if she’s living in her own little bubble, a bubble you dare not burst. Vui Fung blames it on anti-depressants.
“They make her sleepy and slow.”
But her older kids don’t want to wean her off the pills – they’re afraid she might sink back into depression and try to kill herself again.
*
The previous day, we’d visited their old house, a two-storey building in the middle of an oil palm plantation. No one lives there now. It’s where the family keeps their unwanted junk.
Inside a room full of odds and ends, Ravi (Vui Kong’s lawyer) found an old cupboard full of children’s things. Her children’s things. Vui Kong’s mother had carefully preserved his old textbooks. Primary 1 to Primary 4. He’d dropped out of school after that, to find work in the city.
We found Yun Leong’s report card. He was an excellent student. If only he had kept on studying. We found an old school t-shirt and tiny shorts. All meticulously packed away.
“My mother never visits this house now,” Vui Fung told us. “Too many bad memories.”
*
The flat is overflowing. Full of relatives and community leaders and other well-wishers. Sabah MP Chua Soon Bui drops by for a visit. She is a warm woman, dynamic and committed and full of ideas.
“Let’s take your mother out tomorrow,” she tells Vui Fung. “ We’ll go for a walk in the orangutan sanctuary!”
We are all sceptical at first. What good would it do her to go see a bunch ofmonkeys? But it turns out to be an excellent suggestion.
*
She is carefully dressed for the excursion. A pretty top. Silver sandals. Ravi remarks that it’s clear there’s a part of her that wants to live and live well. Shebothers. She’s not given up on herself.
It’s a lovely day for a walk. But we’re afraid she might be bored. It’s hard to tell. She doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t tell anyone how she feels. We wonder if she’d rather be at home.
But then, after the walk, we go to a coffee shop for kopi and cakes and a relative remarks that in her youth, Vui Kong’s mum loved karaoke. The revelation sets Ravi off. He starts singing a Chinese ditty – something he learnt in the army. None of us know the song. But there is a flicker of recognition in her eyes. She smiles, and then breaks out in laughter. Laughter. It is infectious. We join in, amazed.
There’s a suggestion to go eat durians. Sabah’s best. We look at Vui Kong’s mum.
“Durian?” Vui Fung asks her tentatively.
“I want to eat durian,” she says in Hakka. A complete sentence.
*
All of us who were there that day still talk about that outing. Her laughter. The way she attacked those durians. We talk about how she makes you instinctively want to protect her. We talk about the awfulness of the whole situation, the way her lips trembled when she looked at that family portrait.
Surely, she must know.
*
Vui Kong writes movingly about his mother in his clemency petition. She’s one of the reasons he cites for his decision to deliver those drugs. He says he wanted to help pay her medical bills. It’s easy to dismiss his assertion as a desperate attempt at justifying his actions. But then you meet her. You see what her illness has done. And you see flashes of the person that used to be, before life destroyed her spirit. And you understand how an illiterate 18-year-old kid could have gone down that path.
He was young and he was foolish. But he thought he was doing his best. For his mum.
*
The Online Citizen and the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign are organising a gathering in support of Yong Vui Kong this Sunday. We’re planning to go and hope to see you there too.
Time: 4pm to 6pm
Where: Speakers’ Corner, Hong Lim Park
When: Sunday, 1 August 2010
If you think the boy deserves a second chance, please sign the online petition here.
Related posts:
- Yong Vui Kong meets his mother in jail
- Mother Machine
- Flaws in our education system go beyond mother tongue
- Mothers’ Day: Becoming a special mother
- Wanted – Youths who believe in second chances
Well done Ravi.
This article gives the TOC readers an insight into the life of a 19 year old and his relationship with his mother, whom he had naively tried to do something to help, but ended up getting himself into more trouble then he deserved.
If the Singapore authority is concerned in dealing a blow to the drug trade, they should have worked with Vui Kong to trace “The Brain” behind the plot that got Vui Kong into trouble.
“What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined for life – to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent, unspeakable memories.”
Mr Ravi. Can I vote you as TOC Man Of the Year?
Hmmmm… hoping for a 3nd chance.
Ravi is a nice Singaporean. Salute!
Everyone deserves a second chance.
I’m not interested Vui Kong’s stories. I just feel that he don’t serve to die like that while on the other hand the govt keep talking about Yellow Ribbon.
Why cigar and cigarette can be sold legally, isn’t these are addictive, too?
@wang – 1 August 2010
The situation is “worsterer” then “cigar and cigarette can be sold legally”.
The fact is about – “Singapore hypocrisy: hang the drug courier while investing with the drug barons” as can be read at the following site
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/07/31/singapore-hypocrisy-hang-the-drug-couriers-while-investing-with-the-drug-barons/
Ravi, I salute you once more and more. What you do for you clients (pro bono), I believe, is more that any of the highly paid lawyers would do for their clients. I propose we nominate Mr Ravi – Lawyer of the Year.
If I were to get into trouble, you would be the first I call.
Ravi you have the spirit of god
ravi, do take care. GOD is with you.
Is Religion above the Rule of the Law or is Rule of the Law above Religion? Only when oneself walks nearer to death and knows how important a life is, would one look back at the lives put to ‘death’ due a ‘Law’ that approves execution. Execution by hanging is no less brutal than cold blooded gun shot in the head, for the thoughts that run through one who is to be hung, day in day out, must be extremely torturous. Knowing and facing death, reminiscing the love of the beloved, leaving the world into the unknown…would certainly be very painful. For those who have been committing offences such as drug peddaling that destroy and kill people, they deserve punishment for they are very experienced and they know their trade. To a young man who just turned 18….just out into the society, facing the ills of society, getting influenced by the bad company, should not deserve the death penalty unto him in totality. He should be given a chance, give him the duty to go catch those responsible, and turn him to a good citizen over time. Is he so bad that he cannot do good for society if given a chance? Maturity is relative, and one’s environment circumstantial. Can one’s conviction of love and filial piety towards one’s parents be mitigational factors in considering a reprieve? By putting him to death, it could be a substantial influence to his mum commiting suicide, and thus, the taking of another life. In sentencing this boy and in considering his ultimate sentence, lets hope that the people who put the Rule of the Law are people who still understands the need for humanity in exercising the Law, humanity that allows us to make decisions that is for the betterment of mankind, both to the afflicted and the people who afflict. Lets hope the considerations be there for this boy, not as a condonement of what he did, but for his level of maturity and the cirscumstances that he lived in. Must he die now?
GOD bless you for giving strength to the boy’s mother.
please bless this guy have the 3rd wish
to be a alive.people sure do mistake.
hope for kuan mi po sa can help him.and
pu cho can help him.om ma mi pai mi hu.
A moving article no doubt, but just wonder why people who traffic drugs think
they could get away with it, surely these people know Singapore has capital punishment for such crimes for half a century already.
However we really admire Ravi for his steadfastness and relentless endeavours
in trying to get his client a lesser harsh sentence than hanging.
Also his courage to defy the Singaporean authorities is commendable. Bravo.
give vui kong a chance,let him have his day in the court of law.
Use a lie dectator on him or any other means to prove his innocence.
i support the death penalty for trafficking of drugs,but not Mandatory.
Never mess with heroine,it’s more expensive than gold.
if not for the death penalty,many would have taken the risk,especially most of the addicts.
with more supply,samples can be easily given to those who wants to try.
All it takes,the most, is seven days to take away the dignity of your son
and turn your daughter into a whore.
Dear All
The question we should ask of ourselves is how much does a life of poverty excuse the decision to turn to crime ? Does one become a criminal overnight or does one turn to more and more serious crime finally leading to that one step to far over time ? Even taking the TOC’s report at verbatim and at face value, we note the following points. Whilst they may have lived in poverty at the start at his youth, the family has been able to improve their lot in life. Moving from a hut in an oil plantation to a two room flat in the city remains in itself a story of economic and social progression. But likewise we note a similar progression in Vui Kong’s brushes with the law leading to ultimately his drug trafficking offense, from selling DVDs to Debt Collection working for his ” big brother ” If anyone imagines debt collection in Malaysia to be as simple as well throwing paints and scribbling graffiti swiss style , they should start reading more Malaysian Newspapers.
So ultimately it is about choices for better or for worse and yes I have hired clerks and store hands for Malaysia who will save just to give their mothers and fathers back in some small town / village in Malaysia a better life
The TOC would like you to believe that poverty lives one with little choice. I submit that in reality life gives us many choices and some choose wrongly.
Locke
Give him a chance to live? So we are inviting all drug lord from all over the world to come here.
Singapore accept DRUGS traffickers in society ?
*ponders*
@rio
We regularly invite drug lords to come stay with us.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=5597&page=5
In fact, we’re pretty good friends with them.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=5597&page=5
http://bnionline.net/feature/narinjara/1278-maung-ayes-wife-in-singapore-for-treatment.html
Lets be very clear. DRUG TRAFFICKING IS A MEANACE AND A SERIOUS OFFENCE THE WORLD OVER.
Lets not be coy and make friends with Vui Kong. He is no angel.
The law is the law.
Okay some people dont believe in the death penalty. But let us not pretend tha this menace did not know what he was doing.
Every mother loves her son. Even he is a rotter.
Yes,a chance to prove his innocence in court, else he die.But if he is convicted on mandatory technicality,pray that you are not next!For vui kong to carry 47g of heroine proves he is not an ant trafficker feeding only his group of addicts.The trust is on him to deliver and profit from this drug run.Protest as you may against the mandatory death penalty,but for our sons and daughters,death penalty for drug trafficking must stay.
Not too long ago, there was a 19 yr old who, for survival, interpreted intercepted ally messages for the adversary to wreak havoc and carnage to his own people. Who knows how many innocent lives could have been saved if not for his ‘information’.
We understand that he did what he had to do for survival and at 19 we can forgive him (and even forget). This 19 yr old even became the leader of the very people he betrayed.
Now his people are shouting ‘kill this young man’ for he knew what he was doig. I am confident that he is not half as intelligent as the other 19-yr old mentioned above. So why the hypocrisy?
What a second chance could do for society:
“GLENN LIM is an inspiring role model and gifted public speaker.
As a young rock musician he came close to a life sentence for importing drugs in his youth.
Thankful for his second chance, he has made good and has since served as a youth specialist consultant, curriculum developer, counselor, trainer and ambassador.
A multi-award winner, Glenn has been recognized for his efforts in youth outreach & rehabilitation through his many diverse creative platforms. He works closely with government and community agencies, actively serving in his capacity as youth advisor and sits in many community and youth committees.”
http://www.glennlim.net/
rio
Why don’t you say if we don’t hang a thief, we are inviting thieves from everywhere to this country? If we don’t hang violent people who cause grevious bodily harm, we are also inviting…..
Doesn’t it occur to you that this Govt might be in bed with the barons? Killing him is a must to provide a scapegoat as well as silencing the key witness to the partner they are sleeping with. Is this completely impossible?
Doesn’t it occur to you that it is much easier for the authorities to show people that they they are strict on drugs too?