Residents found the young girl outside an apartment in Bandar Sunway yesterday evening and alerted the police. The police arrived at the scene shortly after and advised the 30-year-old mother to release her daughter.
Both mother and daughter were brought to the Subang Jaya police station for questioning and have since been released after recording their statements. The mother revealed that she punished her daughter because she refused to go to school. But this was the first time she had resorted to chaining her daughter. The case is currently being investigated under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001 for neglect and exposure of a child to physical injury.
Photos of the chained schoolgirl made the rounds on social media and as we do, many people called the mother out for being cruel and abusive. Some also expressed that this form of public discipline could lead to a lasting emotional trauma on the young girl.
On the other hand, another group of people did not exactly disagree on the mother’s actions. Netizens are often fond of becoming experts on issues that become the talk of the town and some felt that we should not jump into conclusions because there are always two sides to the story.
Some thought that it is highly unlikely that the mother intentionally punished her daughter with evil motives just to humiliate her in public.
As the saying goes, ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’. There are also people who felt that this punishment was not as extreme as what they experienced back in the day. Things could have been worse.
Others suggested for both mother and daughter to undergo counseling and find out the exact reason why the young girl refuses to go to school.