SINGAPORE – In his haste to cross the road, a young boy nearly lost his life by running into an oncoming car, and ended up learning his lesson on road safety the hard way.

The unidentified boy is lucky to be alive, probably because the car was not travelling at high speed at the time.

Footage from the driver’s dashboard camera was uploaded online recently, and while the exact date of the incident is unknown, the video has garnered over 435,000 views since Facebook user Suzy Adorabella Lyliana shared it on Tuesday (July 12).

At the start of the video, the boy, dressed in a green tee shirt and knee-length shorts, can be seen dashing across a two-way road in an HDB estate.

Boy lucky to be alive after dashing onto road, getting hit by car

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In less than a second, he collides with the oncoming car and is tossed into the air. He lands a short distance away from the car, while his spectacles and one of his shoes end up metres away from him.

Sitting up, the boy is conscious but seems to be in shock. After a few seconds, he reaches for his bag and appears to have difficulty standing up. He then kneels on the road helplessly as passers-by approach him to offer help.

With their help, the boy gets up on his two feet and slowly limps towards the sidewalk.

Netizens who have seen the video have mostly expressed shock, with many pointing out that the boy had recklessly dashed across the road.

One Facebook user, Au Kah Kay, said: “Fortunately the car was equipped with a (dashboard) camera which proved conclusively that the child was 100 per cent at fault. Otherwise, the driver could have been unfairly penalised”.

However, some netizens also criticised the driver for not rendering assistance immediately.

A Facebook user by the name of Vincent Ong said: ” Yes, obviously not the driver’s fault; though I seriously wonder why he/ she would not get out of the car to help the boy”.

ljessica@sph.com.sg

SINGAPORE – In his haste to cross the road, a young boy nearly lost his life by running into an oncoming car, and ended up learning his lesson on road safety the hard way.

The unidentified boy is lucky to be alive, probably because the car was not travelling at high speed at the time.

Footage from the driver’s dashboard camera was uploaded online recently, and while the exact date of the incident is unknown, the video has garnered over 435,000 views since Facebook user Suzy Adorabella Lyliana shared it on Tuesday (July 12).

At the start of the video, the boy, dressed in a green tee shirt and knee-length shorts, can be seen dashing across a two-way road in an HDB estate.

In less than a second, he collides with the oncoming car and is tossed into the air. He lands a short distance away from the car, while his spectacles and one of his shoes end up metres away from him.

Sitting up, the boy is conscious but seems to be in shock. After a few seconds, he reaches for his bag and appears to have difficulty standing up. He then kneels on the road helplessly as passers-by approach him to offer help.

With their help, the boy gets up on his two feet and slowly limps toward the sidewalk.

Netizens who have seen the video have mostly expressed shock, with many pointing out that the boy had recklessly dashed across the road.

One user, Au Kah Kay, said: “Fortunately the car was equipped with a dash camera which proved conclusively that the child was 100 per cent at fault. Otherwise, the driver could have been unfairly penalised”.

However, some netizens also criticised the driver for not rendering assistance immediately.

A Facebook user by the name of Vincent Ong said: ” Yes, obviously not the driver’s fault; though I seriously wonder why he/ she would not get out of the car to help the boy”.

ljessica@sph.com.sg

He was so engrossed in a game on his mobile phone, he would not stop playing it even when his wife asked him to feed their three-month-old infant.

Instead, Mr Mohamed Shiddiq Sazali, 27, decided to multitask.

He sat on a bed and placed little Reyhana Qailah on his lap. He then continued playing the game with his right hand while using his left hand to feed his daughter milk from a bottle.

His decision would prove fatal for her, a coroner’s inquiry into her death was told yesterday.

The baby died last October.

Investigation officer Tony Won testified Mr Shiddiq was so engrossed in his game that he did not realise his baby had been thrashing about for two minutes before she apparently choked on the milk.

Even then, he still did not realise something was wrong until his father-in-law walked in and noticed that the baby was pale and motionless.

TOO LATE

Several people tried to apply cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on Reyhana, but it was too late.

Mr Won said Mr Shiddiq was alone at the family’s Telok Blangah Crescent flat when the tragedy occurred at around 10.20am last Oct 12.

About 20 minutes earlier, his wife, Madam Nurraishah Mahzan, 31, had made 180ml of milk and handed the bottle to him to feed the baby.

When he said the baby was rejecting the milk, Madam Nurraishah took over the feeding till about 10.15am, when she had to go for a urine test at Clementi police division.

She handed Reyhana (right) to Mr Shiddiq and told him to continue feeding their child.

As he tried to feed her while playing his game, Reyhana protested by kicking her legs and moving her hands, said Mr Won.

But he placed the teat inside her mouth and did not look at her or know what she wanted when she started crying.

Mr Won told the court: “(By his) own admission, he was so engrossed (with the game), he didn’t pay any attention to his child.”

Then the baby fell silent.

Around that time, Mr Shiddiq’s father-in-law, Mr Mahzan Ahmad, returned from a nearby market and realised something was wrong.

When Mr Mahzan, 57, questioned him, Mr Shiddiq was unable to tell him what had happened.

Detecting a pulse on the baby, Mr Mahzan performed CPR on Reyhana, who vomited some milk. He also told his son-in-law to call for an ambulance.

Mr Shiddiq also sent his wife a WhatsApp message to tell her to return home immediately.

When she got back at 10.26am, her father told her in Malay: “Reyhana is no more.”

The desperate mother took Reyhana’s limp body and performed CPR outside the flat – she thought there was more fresh air there.

A policeman and a paramedic also tried to resuscitate the baby when they arrived at the flat.

It was all in vain. Reyhana was pronounced dead at around noon at Singapore General Hospital.

An autopsy revealed the baby had previously suffered fractures to her right ribs and skull.

A pathologist reported that the old injuries would not have caused or contributed to her death, which was certified as “cardiorespiratory failure pending further investigations”.

While the cause of death could not be ascertained, the final cause of death report mentioned smothering or suffocation and choking on milk as possible causes.

Investigations also revealed that Mr Shiddiq had accidentally dropped Reyhana at the void deck of Block 986B, Buangkok Crescent, last Aug 26.

Her pacifier had dropped on the floor. When he squatted to pick it up with his left hand while holding Reyhana in his right arm, she fell backwards and hit her head, which he had not supported.

She was still crying even when she was taken to her mother at a friend’s home in the block.

In hospital, Reyhana was found to have a fractured skull.

Mr Shiddiq kept silent about how his daughter had got injured.

Reyhana was discharged on Sept 9 after her mother agreed to a “discharge plan” set by an officer from the Ministry for Social and Family Development that at least two adults must accompany Reyhana at all times.

The condition appeared to have been breached when Mr Shiddiq was left alone with Reyhana that fateful day.

During yesterday’s hearing, State Counsel Sheryl Janet George asked Mr Won if Mr Shiddiq had initially admitted to dropping Reyhana during police interviews.

Mr Won said he had not.

He “revealed (the accidental fall) only after a few rounds of interviews” after Reyhana’s death, the IO added.

Madam Nurraishah, Mr Mahzan and Mr Shiddiq were given polygraph, or lie detector tests, and only Mr Shiddiq failed, said Mr Won.

A police spokesman told The New Paper that a voluntary polygraph test is not standard procedure but is “generally used when there are conflicting accounts provided by the persons involved and all other investigative leads have been exhausted”.

Dad: Nobody knows how I feel

After the coroner’s hearing yesterday, Mr Mohamed Shiddiq Sazali, 27, went to his Facebook page, Locca Locca, to share his grief of losing his daughter, Reyhana.

The page features Reyhana’s portrait as a cover photo and a profile photo.

Below are excerpts of what Mr Shiddiq wrote in Malay:

“You want to tell the whole world that I don’t know how to take care (of children). But in this situation, I did not intentionally do that (to her).

“I loved her like how others loved her too. But I loved her more than the love given by others. In this world, who doesn’t love his own child?

“I deliver cargo for a living. When I’m in the lorry, I see families with their babies walking together and I feel sad. I almost tear, nobody knows what my heart feels. I just have to endure. God, please give me strength.”

TIMELINE OF TRAGEDY

June 28, 2015: Reyhana Qailah Mohamad Shiddiq is born.

Aug 9: Reyhana put under observation for eight hours at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) after she vomits blood. No abnormality is observed after she is discharged.

Aug 26: Reyhana’s father, Mr Mohamed Shiddiq Sazali, accidentally drops her at a void deck in Buangkok Crescent. She is warded at KKH after she is found to have a fractured skull.

Sept 9: Reyhana is discharged only after her mother, Madam Nurraishah Mahzan, agrees to a condition that Reyhana must be accompanied by two adults at all times.

Oct 12: Reyhana stops breathing while being fed milk by her father who is engrossed with playing a game on his phone. She is pronounced dead in hospital.

This article was first published on July 13, 2016.
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The lies of the former wife of alleged match-fixing czar Dan Tan Seet Eng affected no one but herself. So a judge jailed her for two months instead of the minimum four that prosecutors sought.

Whatever Guan Enmei’s intention and motives were, “when she lied, the falsehood did not delay or hinder CPIB’s (Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau’s) investigations,” said District Judge Lee-Khoo Poh Choo.

The offence was also not “a sophisticated and well-planned deception”, she added in written grounds for her decision, released last week.

Guan, 41, who divorced Tan in July last year, was found guilty last month of lying to an anti-graft investigator about two of Tan’s laptops, which she tried to hide from the CPIB.

Guan had lied when she said in an interview on June 6, 2013, that she had left her home with only a handbag and had not taken along a paper bag containing the laptops.

But the false answers were not material, given that the CPIB had already seized the laptops from another man who had been nabbed.

Prosecutors Jasmine Kaur and Stacey Fernandez had told the court there were no precedents for offences of this nature where the offender hid the evidence and then lied to obstruct justice.

The district judge said they had “argued arduously” for a jail term of up to six months, but agreed that she was not involved in match-fixing.

However, although Judge Lee-Khoo did not hand down the prosecution’s requested punishment, she had harsh words for Guan. She noted that during the trial Guan had cast “baseless aspersions” on the integrity of CPIB officers, insinuating in particular that the officer who had interviewed her had made a false e-diary entry.

She found her to be a savvy, knowledgeable woman of strong will and character, and with a mind of her own. She said Guan’s “sharp retorts” when cross-examined during the trial reflected her character.

The judge added that Guan lied when she claimed that she did not know Tan was being probed for international match-fixing, among other things.

Guan’s lawyer Foo Cheow Ming had said in mitigation that she had shown remorse by apologising to the CPIB in writing in May last year. But the judge pointed out that there was no mention of what lies she was apologising for, discounting Guan’s claim that she had apologised for lying that she had taken a taxi to the CPIB when she had, in fact, been driven there in a limousine. At best, Guan’s letter of apology showed that she was not truthful, said the judge.

She said the offence could not be swept aside as a minor offence and that Guan’s blatant disregard and disrespect justified a jail term.

“The accused must know the enormity of this international match-fixing saga and the effect on Singapore’s repute,” she said.

Prosecutors are appealing against the sentence while Guan is appealing against the conviction and sentence.

This article was first published on July 13, 2016.
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The terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) poses a threat to Singapore and the region that is far worse than that of older terror groups like Al-Qaeda, terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna said yesterday.

At least 34 militant groups in neighbouring countries have links with or pledged allegiance to ISIS, and there is a “tiny minority” of sympathisers and supporters of the group in the region.

Two years after declaring a caliphate in areas it controls in Syria and Iraq, the militant group has produced “very seductive” propaganda material, he noted.

These include “near-Hollywood quality videos” in English and languages such as Malay, Bengali and Turkish, to lure young men and women through social media, Professor Gunaratna added.

“ISIS and Al-Qaeda ideology are very similar, but ISIS is more violent and more bloody, it’s a more barbaric group,” he said.

He was speaking to reporters at the National Library at the launch of a book he co-edited on the history and rise of terrorism in the Asia-Pacific region, titled Handbook Of Terrorism In The Asia-Pacific. The launch comes as the authorities in the region are concerned that ISIS’ first Malay-language newspaper, launched online last month, is being circulated as the group seeks to expand its support.

Called Al Fatihin, which means “The Conqueror” in Arabic, the 20-page newsletter distorts Islamic teachings, including those on Ramadan, and instead encourages readers to commit violence, seek martyrdom and kill disbelievers and Muslims who oppose ISIS.

Malaysia’s Home Ministry said this week it would take action against those caught producing and distributing the publication.

Prof Gunaratna said ISIS’ use of various languages shows the threat it poses as a transnational movement with global reach.

At the same time, he said that many governments in the region do not understand that the threat landscape has shifted to one that is “ISIS-centric”.

This was what prompted Prof Gunaratna and Ms Stephanie Kam, Associate Research Fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) to produce the book to detail the emerging threat in the region.

“It is a tool to educate governments to fight the emergence of ISIS in the region,” said Prof Gunaratna, who is Professor of Security Studies at RSIS.

Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs Amrin Amin, who was at the launch, said as Singapore strengthens legislation and enhances security measures, “we will also need to continue safeguarding our community against terrorist and extremist ideology”.

“With ISIS ideology being disseminated widely on the Internet, its extremist and exclusive ideas have the potential to breed intolerance, prejudice and suspicion,” he said.

“The book attempts to go beyond the media headlines and simplistic analyses based on alarmist narratives,” he added.

The book, published by World Scientific Publishing, has chapters on the fight against terrorism in 30 countries, from Australia to Uzbekistan. It costs $168.

This article was first published on Jul 13, 2016.
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