It is indeed sad to read the news about the parents being depressed over untimely death of the children during Kuala Dipang, Kampar bridge collapse.

The emotional upheaval and mental anguish of the families has been exacerbated by the knowledge that the bridge at the Kuala Dipang 1Malaysia camp was constructed without the required permits. It collapsed on Oct 26.

Lorry driver T Nathan said he has not slept properly since the death of Dina, his favourite child. She was born after her mother S Mogana had suffered several miscarriages. They have two sons, now 19 and 17.

Nathan, 45, said Dina “was the live-wire of the family and her smile lingers in my mind”.

“Before she was born, my wife used to serve my food. When Dina turned seven, she took over…she knew what I like,” he said in distress.

Technician K Vasudevan, 43, has become withdrawn and depressed after Divyashree’s death.

He wakes up frequently in cold sweat, thinking of the ordeal his daughter would have experienced when she was thrown into the water and fought for survival.

Vasudevan last saw his daughter alive on Oct 18, after Deepavali, when he and his wife K Kanakam,41, returned to Kuala Lumpur where they work.

Divyashree (right) was the eldest of three girls and a bright student who wanted to become a doctor. She scored 4As and 3Bs in her UPSR examination this year – results that she never saw because these were released last week.

Vasudevan said he was told at 1.30am on Oct 27 that his daughter was reported missing in the incident, and he had dashed to the camp site with his wife.

They waited, hoping she was alive but two days later, were told that her body had been found. Relatives prevented him from viewing her remains at the Kampar Hospital because he was so distraught.

“It is like the right hand of my body has been chopped off. Every time I see small children now, memories of my daughter come to haunt me and I choke up,” he said.

He has had to resign from his job because his employer refused to grant him compassionate leave to attend to the funeral rites. [what kind of useless employer is this?]

His wife has quit her job as a clerk in a private firm to look after her other two daughters. She said her husband no longer smiles and has a lost look, as he was very attached to Divyashree.

K Mageswaran left it to his wife R Nagarathna, 41, to talk about Devatharshini as he is in deep depression over his loss.

Devatharshini (left), the only girl and the youngest of four children, was the darling of the family. She was conceived after Nagarathna prayed for a daughter, and was named after a Hindy deity.

Mageswaran had initially refused her permission to attend the camp, as he was concerned about her safety. When she pleaded and cried, he relented.

A good cook, Mageswaran made her a meal and took her on his bicycle to her school, from where she reported to the camp. Her brother Sarveswaran,12, was also a participant.

About 1.30am on Oct 27, Nagarathna received a phone call from her friend who told her that the bridge had collapsed and that her daughter had been swept away in the current. By then, her husband had left with a friend for the camp site.

Nagarathna said she fainted on hearing the news but, on recovering consciousness, stayed up the whole night, praying for the safety of her other two children.

On three occasions, she went to the camp site but could not locate her daughter. Her relatives even sought the help of a bomoh.

When the body was retrieved from the river three days later, identification had to be made based on the school uniform that Devatharshini was wearing.

“It’s hard to accept that she has gone. But her spirit remains with us in our home,” said Nagarathna, consoling herself.

Mageswaran’s relatives, worried for his health, have tried to persuade him to change residence, but he refuses to leave the house where his daughter once lived.

Did anyone provide emotional support for the parents and families of the deceased? Apparently not. But look at what Education Ministry is doing:

The Education Ministry will provide counselling for the teachers involved in the Kuala Dipang incident, in which three schoolchildren attending a 1Malaysia camp drowned after the suspension bridge they were crossing collapsed and plunged them into the Kampar river.

… Deputy Education Minister Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi said the teachers who were directly involved when the incident occurred on Oct 26 had been traumatised by the tragedy.

”They will be given counselling to help them ride out this difficult period,” he told reporters on Wednesday after opening the national teachers education research seminar.

Dr Mohd Puad said that the teachers were not to be blamed for the incident.

”The incident was not due to negligence by the teachers,” he added, claiming that parents of the three deceased pupils told him that they were proud of the teachers for their quick action.

Deputy Education Minister said that part of the trauma counselling is due to harrassment faced by the teachers:

… More than 20 teachers have been traumatised, partly because they feel responsible, but also because they have have been harassed and threatened by parents.

Deputy Education Minister Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi said the teachers have been advised to lodge police reports.

“But in fact, those who harassed or threatened the teachers are not parents of the victims but others who took advantage of the tense situation.” he told newsmen after launching the 3-day National Teachers Education Research seminar today.

He was asked to comment on the statement by the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) president Hashim Adnan urging the ministry to hold counselling sessions for the teachers.

Hashim said two teachers who were punched by parents following the incident had requested transfers to other schools.

Dr Mohd Puad agreed with NUTP that the affected teachers need counselling. He commended the teachers involved, especially those who joined the search for the missing pupils.

“I am willing to defend these teachers as it was not their negligence. In fact, the parents of the three children even commended the teachers for their quick action,” he said.

Its good that NUTP and Education Ministry is concerned about the teachers, but don’t forget the parents. They are also in dire need of counselling!

BTW, what happened to the report by the Education Ministry after being handed over to DPM Muhyiddin? Has it gone AWOL or branded under OSA? The PR report was very fast, within days, but Education Ministry is taking 30 days (and still counting). I hope its 5 volumes and thousands of pages thick!

The deputy Education Minister of course was unhappy with the PR’s version:

Dr Mohd Puad slammed a report by a Perak Pakatan Rakyat investigation committee, which had stated that the three teachers were not present to supervise the children during the crossing, claiming it was based on assumptions.

”They did not call witnesses or teachers when preparing the report. They are just assuming,” he claimed, adding that the state Opposition was “only good at pointing out people’s faults rather than finding solutions.”

The Pakatan committee claimed that the three teachers who were supposed to have been supervising the schoolchildren when they were crossing the suspension bridge had gone “missing” prior to the incident.

According to its chairman V. Sivakumar, deceased student Devatharshini’s elder brother, Sarveswaran, who also took part in the camp, had told him this after a visit to their home in Mambang Diawan.

Meanwhile Dr Mohd Puad said that the report by the committee set up by the Government following the incident had been completed and handed over to Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the Education Minister.

Below is some of the findings of PR’s investigation:

The metal pillar anchoring the cable of the collapsed Kuala Dipang suspension bridge incident which took three young lives on Oct 26 had broken off from its concrete foundation causing the walkway to fall into the Kampar River.

At a press conference held at the PAS state headquarters yesterday, Su said: “Our initial finding is that the foundation of the anchor block B is very shallow only 2.8 ft deep whereas the actual depth should, according to the chartered consultant structural engineer, be about 10 times that depth.”

He showed Malaysiakini a sketch of the foundation block B with a height of 5’10” , width of 2′ 3″ and depth of 2’8″.
According to the Pasir Pinji assemblyperson, the anchor block B should have been the size of a container.

“Furthermore the initial soil testing done by a civil engineer yesterday (Tuesday) at the bank where the tragedy took place showed that the soil there is very soft.

“This is the preliminary findings of the collapsed bridge tragedy and the final findings report will be ready by the weekend and we hope to reveal the full details on Monday,” he said.

Earlier during the same press conference, Sivakumar said they interviewed Kinta Selatan district education officer Raja Abdul Raman Raja Amaran on Tuesday.

“The surprising fact is that his department was not aware that a suspension bridge had been built by a contractor linking SK Kuala Dipang with the 1Malaysia camp site across the Kampar River,” he said.

“Pupils of SK Sentosa were the first to notice the suspension bridge when they camped at the site on Oct 9. The school notified Raja Abdul Rahman who visited the site on Oct 16 (10 days before the collapse),” he added.

Sivakumar said the education officer told him that a party had approached him early last month with a proposal for a bridge but the project was put on hold because it was deemed too costly at RM110,000.

Raja had informed Sivakumar that the directive to build the bridge came from the Co-curriculum Centre in Pangor Island.

The committee will call on the centre at Pangor Island today to gather details on construction of the bridge and contractor’s identity, said Sivakumar.

Raja also had stated that initially he had directed 40 teachers to attend the 1Malaysia camp but only 23 turned up for the four-day event.

Asked why 20 of the teachers were holding a meeting when 22 children were on the bridge at 10.30am on that day, according to Sivakumar, Raja had replied, “They (teachers) were within the vicinity of the camp area.“

The team also held a public inquiry:

Thirteen eyewitnesses narrated their version of the horrifying incident during the four-hour ‘inquiry’ held in Kampar on Saturday.

Most vocal of them was lorry driver T Nathan, 44, (right in photo) who lost his daughter Dina Deve, 11, that night. M Davadharshini,11, and V Diviyasri,12 also drowned in the incident.

“Why weren’t measures put in place to safeguard the 300 pupils?” asked Nathan in anger and anguish.

“There were no bomba (fire and rescue services), medical or Rela personnel on hand to help the 22 children when they fell into the river. If a VIP or a minister’s child was taking part in the camp, there would have been adequate safety measures.

“But who are we? Just poor people whose lives are not important and can be sacrificed and forgotten.”

M Balan, 41, a teacher with the Sri Murugan Centre, said 21 of his students had reported for the four-day camp, involving 298 pupils from 64 schools in the Kinta Selatan district

It was organised by the Education Ministry to foster better ties among the races under the1Malaysia concept. The district education officer had directed 40 teachers to be on duty but only 23 turned up.

“There was chaos and confusion among the teachers as to what to do when the bridge collapsed and the children fell into the swift-flowing river, as none of them (the teachers) were given prior training as to how to cope with an emergency,” said Balan. [was he there as well?]

A 12-year-old student (name withheld to protect his safety) said: “It was not the teachers who threw safety vests (as was reported in the media) to (the 19 students in river) but it was us (the students) who ran to the storeroom and got these items to help save them.”

He said the 19 were left clinging to the metal cable of the collapsed bridge in the darkness for about 30 minutes before any attempt was made to save them. He said he had jumped into the river to save two of his classmates.

The student also claimed that there was only one teacher standing in the middle span of the bridge to control the pupils just before the bridge collapsed.

Earlier, the inquiry heard that pupils who had finished dinner were told to go back and clean used plates left on the other side of the river.

The to and fro movement of the pupils on the suspension bridge resulted in the weakened anchor block being ripped off its foundation, caused the bridge to collapse.

It is learnt that only six pupils were allowed at any one time on the bridge but that this guideline was ignored.

Balan said: “The bomba personnel were searching for survivors in a boat and refused to allow anxious parents to dive into the river to search for the pupils.”

He then used an alternate route about 5km away to get to the other side of the river to search for his students. However, the school authorities prevented him from leading the students back by the same route.

A frustrated Balan said he waited about three hours in the darkness for a rescue truck to come, and finally, in desperation, took the students over to the other side. It took another half an hour for a police truck o come to the rescue of other stranded students.

“There was very poor coordination and an indifferent attitude among the authorities concerned,” he alleged.

Another participant asked for the attendance list of the teachers so that they can be held accountable and not claim that they were not on duty during the incident.

An angry participant blasted the media for reporting that Indian Malaysian students had been jumping on the bridge, leading to its collapse.

“You mean to say that it is always the fault of the Indian community for any untoward incident in the country?” he asked.

However, Tronoh assemblyperson V Sivakumar (extreme left in photo), who is heading an ad hoc committee investigating the incident, told the parent that the fault lay with poor construction of the bridge.

“The authorities will find excuses to divert the blame from their shortcomings in building the illegal bridge but we will nail them,” he assured the 50 participants.

A 41-year-old mother of one of the drowned girls lamented that none of the school teachers came to pay their last respects and counsel those bereaved in their hour of need.

“Furthermore they (the teachers) had the cheek to say that we had assaulted them after the incident, when we did not do this,” she said.

The parents are now suing various parties for RM105 million (no doubt advised by the PR lawyers):

The fathers of the three pupils who drowned in the recent Kuala Dipang bridge collapse tragedy have filed a RM105mil suit against the Malaysian Government and Education Ministry.

The suit, which was filed on their behalf by their lawyers at the High Court here Friday, named nine others including bridge donor GS Synergy Sdn Bhd and contractor CWL Enterprise as defendants.

The others are the heads of SJK (T) Mambang Diawan and SJK (T) Gopeng, the Kinta Selatan education officer, Perak Education director, Kampar district council president, Perak Public Works Department director and the Kuala Dipang 1Malaysia Camp commandant.

Plaintiffs K. Mageswaran, K. Vasudevan and T. Nathan are each seeking RM35mil in general damages and a further RM100,000 in exemplary damages besides RM19,120 in special damages, and costs.

They claim that the deaths of M. Devatharshini, 11, V. Divyashree, 12, and N. Dinadevi, 11, on Oct 26 had been due to the defendants’ negligence.

Speaking to reporters outside the court, their lawyer A. Sivanesan said the papers would be served on the named defendants in the next few days.

Asked why he had decided to file the suit, Nathan said it was not about the money as all the money in the world would not bring back Dinadevi.

”We want to know who’s fault it is and make sure everyone else knows about it too so that no other parents would have to lose their children like this,” he said.

Vasudevan stressed that he wanted justice to be served.

”We want the teachers and the Government to be held responsible,” he said.

Nathan added: “I had sent my daughter to school but she was returned to me in a coffin.”

Also representing the plaintiffs are Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham, M. Kulasegaran, Nga Kor Ming, Keshvinder Singh and A. Magesan.

Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said the Government would not stop the grieving families from suing it.

“This is about lives. The parents have lost their children and it is their right to pursue the matter,” he told reporters after a study loan presentation ceremony here.

“Most importantly is that we want to ensure that the Kuala Dipang incident would not be covered up,” he added.

He said the Government was still working to provide concrete studies and suggestion for the future so that similar tragedies would not recur.

Dr Zambry added that the government was not conducting the investigation to gain political mileage.