Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email A four-hour public inquiry held by the PR investigation committee produced more shocks. Malaysiakini reported that about 50 people. mainly parents, attended the inquiry.
One of the victim’s father said:
Lorry driver T Nathan, 44, who lost his 11-year-old daughter Dina Deve in the incident, demanded for the camp’s closure.
The visibly distraught father said he did not want the same fate to befall other parents.
“The lives of my daughter and her friends were sacrificed needlessly in the name of the 1Malaysia concept of (Prime Minister) Najib (Abdul Razak) which is a political stunt to fool Malaysians.
“My daughter would be still alive if not for the 1Malaysia concept camp,” he added.
Nathan cited seven reasons as to why the camp should be closed. They were:
1. There is a durian tree inside the compound of camp and there is a danger of the fruits falling on the children and killing them.
2. There is a six feet deep pond filled with greenish smelly water located in the compound which participants cross over using ropes.
3. There is a one-foot high broken wire squared maze on the ground where the children have to jump from one square to another to reach the other end of the maze. There is a danger that the children might hurt themselves in jumping from these broken wire squares.
4. The area of the 1Malaysia camp across the river is too small to accommodate the 298 pupils.
5. The area of the present camp is a former Orang Asli burial ground.6. There is no proper water supply to the camp and the children had to break the closed water pipe to quench their thirst. [wah! this is serious!!!]
7. There is no proper lighting for the camping area.
Met later, Nathan told Malaysiakini that when he went looking for his daughter on the other side of the river on that fateful night, he saw that the camp tents were only about five feet from the edge of the river bank.
According to him, the camp authorities quickly dismantled the tents located near the river after the bridge collapsed.
More serious is the comment by some of the children:
Meanwhile, some of the children who attended the camp told the inquiry that they were the ones who threw the life-jackets to the 19 pupils who fell into the water and not the teachers as reported in the media.
They added that the life-jackets were kept in a storeroom away from the bridge.
Committee chairman assemblyman Sivakumar said that the contractor did not get permission from the relevant authorities with regards to building the bridge and the main reason it collapsed was because the foundation was weak.
Speaking to reporters later, Sivakumar said that the committee could not meet up with the director of the Perak state education co-curriculum centre situated in Pangkor Island as the state education director, the Kinta Selatan district education officer and the co-curriculum director were urgently called up by the Education Ministry to Putrajaya on Friday.
