Woman, 52, faints in Camerons heat while waiting to lodge police report

Sharifah Hanim, 52, being given water by other Cameron Highlands residents after she fainted outside the police station.

CAMERON HIGHLANDS: A 52-year-old mother of five fainted in front of the Cameron Highlands police station here on Monday while waiting for police to record her report.

Sharifah Hanim was among the 34 bottom 40% (B40) Cameron Highlands residents who came to the police station to report the prime minister’s political secretary Jailani Ngah and his assistant Mohd Azizol for allegedly not carrying out their duties and making false promises.

“It’s too hot outside,” the others heard Sharifah complaining after she regained consciousness.

The families were upset with the two aides for failing to set up a meeting with Prime Minister Najib Razak to discuss their difficulties getting affordable homes.

According to PSM Cameron Highlands secretary B Suresh, Sharifah fainted while waiting for her turn to be admitted to the police station.

B40 Cameron Highlands residents in front of Cameron Highlands police station.

“Groups of five people each were let in gradually. It was very hot outside. But then when the lady fainted, police asked her to be taken inside the station and they provided mineral water for her,” he said.

He said that after the police had taken Sharifah inside the station, she had commented about how kind the police were to her.

Suresh explained that only two computers were available to record the reports and while the two policemen on the first computer were efficient and accommodating, another policeman on the second computer was taking a lot of time-off and was inefficient at his job.

“All of us came to the police station at 4pm and only finished at 9pm because we had to make all the reports basically on one PC,” he said.

Initially, he added, the Cameron Highlands police were unsure where to register the reports until they finally decided the best place was the Presint 7 police station in Putrajaya.

When asked about the heat in Cameron Highlands of all places, Suresh said it could get hot in the highlands during the afternoon but usually was cool because it rained often.

“Yesterday was an exception. Usually it rains after 2pm.”

Although Sharifah is married and has children, she had apparently come to the police station alone that day.

“Her husband is an Indonesian national with a red identity card (IC). So he doesn’t follow the wife for activities like this. Usually, she comes with her children but not yesterday,” Suresh said.

Last month, members of 22 poor families from Cameron Highlands went to the prime minister’s office in Putrajaya to convey to him their difficulty in affording housing under the 1Malaysia People’s Housing (PR1MA) scheme.

Suresh said the families had written three letters to Najib over the previous three months requesting to see him but received no reply.

He said his office had received complaints from 40 families about their housing woes but he believed the actual number of families affected could be closer to 100.

He also claimed Azizol had assured the families that he would get them an appointment to meet Najib. -FMT