Son's violent acts took centre stage in Dewan Rakyat

 

PARLIAMENT | A harrowing story of a single mother injured by her son, who was under the influence of drugs, was the hot topic during the debate on the motion of thanks to the royal address in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

Relaying his experience, Mohd Suhaimi Abdullah (Perikatan Nasional-Langkawi) said that he was once visited by a single mother who lost one breast following a violent act by her son.

Even more heartbreaking, Suhaimi (above), who is also the deputy president of the Drug Prevention Association of Malaysia (Pemadam), said that the woman did not dare to go to the hospital for treatment, and only used coffee powder to treat her wounds as she was afraid that her son's actions would be discovered by the police.

“Her son had asked her for money several times but she refused to give it. Angered, he went to the kitchen and took a knife, snatched his mother's necklace and slashed her left breast as he was high on drugs,” he said.

Suhaimi, a first-time elected representative, expressed hope that the government takes the issue of drug addiction seriously and implements more effective measures to address it.

Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman (Pakatan Harapan-Muar) interrupted by saying that the government needs to change its strategy and approach through treatment, especially in non-serious cases.

“Especially soft drugs, wouldn't it be better if we don’t place them in prison, but let experts and doctors treat them so that the recovery process is better, similar to what Portugal does,” he said.

In a separate development, Syahredzan Johan (Harapan-Bangi) proposed that the Election Commission (EC) reviews the parliamentary constituencies that have large numbers of voters so that the re-delineation of electoral boundaries can be carried out.

Citing the Bangi parliamentary constituency, which has 300,000 registered voters as an example, Syahredzan said that the size of the 'mega' parliamentary constituency has an impact on the value of a voter's vote.

The Dewan Rakyat sitting resumes on Monday, Feb 20.

- Bernama