Submitted by wevoice onThu, 2014-06-12 09:20
Morale amid the Losses
By Lekha Kliangklau and Soraya Chamchuri
Translated by Areezee Awae
A tragic incident which occurred occurred in the night of May 24, 2014 in the town of Pattani Province leading to losses of lives, injuries and disabilities caused incalculable damage, especially losses of lives which could never come back. Some families lost mother, some children while some family members became crippled. In the unlucky night, over 60 Muslim and Buddhist residents were involved the incidents.
Three siblings who lost their beloved mother
Lahesaksit family lost its pillar, Somphorn Lahesaksit, the mother of three siblings: Alif, Ameen and Rosmalin. Not long before this, the three children had lost their father due to heart failure. Somphorn had to take care of her three children by herself. Alif has graduated with a high vocational certificate and succeeded the family business, auto part sale and repair.
The second son, Ameen, is in his fourth year at Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya in Trang Province while Rosmalin, the youngest child and only daughter of the family, is doing a high vocational certificate at Pattani Vocational School.
Rosmalin told us about the tragic night. She said, “as usual, I opened the gift shop which is on Charoenpradit Road or Sai Mor-or Road near a 7-Eleven store. When the incident occurred, my mother called me to close the shop and then rode her motorcycle to my shop with the two older brothers following her. While they were passing a7-Eleven store, my mother was hit by the blast. Her body was sent flying to the middle of the road. My brothers saw what happened while following her. All the of us saw mom in that state, knowing that they did not mean to harm my mother specifically but she was in the incident and affected by it.”
The three siblings’ uncle who helped them take care of many things said Somphorn was a convert from Mukdahan Province. She had changed her faith to Islam over 20 years ago and liked to help other people. When she lost her husband in late September last year, she had to shoulder everything. Her husband’s business was succeeded by her oldest son Alif but because he was inexperienced and lacked customers’ trust, he began to lose customers. As for Rosmalin, she studies during daytime and takes shift at the gift shop after school. They do not have any other source of income. He was worried about his nephew and niece who still went to school, the uncle said.
“Without the father, the family’s condition becomes bad. Now that the mother is gone too, my nephews and niece do not have their main supporter anymore. So, other relatives and I can help them at a certain level. The three of them have to take of each other. I am worried about the study of my nephew and niece. I want them to study until they graduate and have a job.”
Lahesaksit family received an amount of monetary compensation from the provincial authorities which they spent a certain amount of on the family’s debt. All of them said the money they received helped them lessen much of their debt and thanked every agency and everyone who helped them with everything. This gave them morale support to keep fighting.
“We are thankful for everyone’s morale support and help. I will study hard and graduate and come back to work in my hometown,” Ameen and Rosmalin thanked for every support given to their family.
A father and his son killed a bombing incident on their way back from school
This tragic incident killed a five-year-old boy named Muhammadilfan Side. It happened when a high voltage pole was bombed and fell on the father and his boy while they were riding a motorcycle heading home in Tambon Don Rak, Nong Chik District, Pattani Province. On that day, the father was the driver with three other people including Muhammadilfan, who was sitting in front of his father, and his younger brother and mother sitting on the pillion seat. In this incident, Muhammadilfan’s father was severely wounded and admitted to the I.C.U. of Pattani Hospital where he has remained until nowadays.
In Buetong Tanyong Community, Pak Nam Road, Soi 2 is where an old house of Muhammadilfan’s mother Rohimah Side is located. Her three children and she moved here since the night the incident took place because it was easy to visit her husband at the hospital. She did not tell her husband about the boy’s death. She said she did not dare to tell her husband and avoided when he asked about it. A psychiatrist had told her he would talk about it with her husband himself.
“Now his condition is better. He has been conscious. He has to receive a lung operation due to internal bleeding but he still has to stay in the I.C.U. to prevent infection. In the night the incident occurred, we went to pick up our son from the Quran lesson to home in Don Rak. The four of us rode a motorcycle together. When we were at the scene, power failed. An electric pole fell but I did not see clearly what happened. Later, we heard people coming to help. At that time, I did not know where my husband was. I crawled to my son and touched him but he was unconscious. I recited Surah Yasin [chapter 36 of the Quran] and said the shahadah [declaration of faith] to him. I was not aware at all, but then I got myself together at the hospital and realized that my youngest son had died. I was injured and my other son had his left hand bone cracked.”
Her husband was a motorcycle taxi rider and driver with a rented car to pick up workers, while Rohimah was a homemaker taking care of four children. Because of the incident, her family does not have income. She needs a job and income to support her family. Besides, even if her husband is allowed to leave the hospital, he will not be able to work right away and not as hard as before. Thus, she must stay strong in order to be morale support for her husband and children using the religion to soothe their hearts.
“I love my husband and children but Allah loves them more. When it is time, they have to go. It is what Allah has already decided. It is just that in this incident, there were children who died, became disabled and injured more than in other incidents.”
A five-year-old girl who has to walk with an artificial leg for the rest of her life
In a private ward in Chukiat building of Pattani Hospital, there is a girl who was injured by a blast of an explosion that occurred at a 7-Eleven shop, taking away her right leg forever. Her name is Waesiti-aicha Waelong, five years old. In fact, she is supposed to have a happy life like other children of her age. But she has to be treated at the hospital for several more months and even when she recovers and leaves the hospital, her life will never ever be the same.
Around Waesiti-aicha’s sickbed, there are many dolls given to her by her visitors to comfort her heart and make her forget the painful experience. When someone touches or holds her leg, she cries because the wound still hurts. Her mother Nada Sawichai, who was always beside her, said that Waesiti-aicha was adjusting to the new abnormality in her body.
“She is still too young and has not adjusted a lot. When she sleeps, she still gets startled, frightened and suffers from the pain in the uncut leg which was hit by the blast as well. The flesh on the shin and foot was gone. She has to be spliced and get her wounds dressed every day. Her cut leg has been in plaster cast until the top of the thigh. She can lift her leg and move by herself and has to lift it often because the doctor cut off the entire bone because he was afraid of infections. He said my daughter would have to stay at the hospital for months.”
Nada’s family rents a house in Bana Sub-district, Mueang District, Pattani Province which is not far from the town and near her husband’s old house. He is a defense volunteer and the only one who works to support the family. As for Nada, she is a homemaker taking care of three children. After the tragedy, she received morale support and help from many agencies and people including Anusat Suwanmongkhol, the former Pattani senator. Anusat helps pay the private ward expenses for her family and delivers food from his hotel every evening.
“Many agencies and various groups have given my family things and morale support. I am so thankful. Those make our family have more morale.”
As for the monetary compensation, Nada said she would spend it on what is necessary and keep it for her children’s education. What she wants to do in the near future is making her daughter get used to the prosthesis as soon as possible so that she can live a normal life.
Nada said that, “when we go home, I will have to make her get used to the artificial leg as soon as possible and make her know that with it, she can live a normal life like other people. She needs time to adjust and I have to be her hands and legs for a while. If I stay weak, my daughter will be worse than now. I must be very strong and not become burden to my husband. In that night, had my youngest kid not been asleep I may have brought her together to the store. I cannot imagine what would have happened if I had lost another child.”
A young man whose life and dreams are gone forever
This incident also killed the life and future of a Buddhist young man named Aphisit Mungmaithanarak, 19, who came from Ban Pa Si, Talo Sub-district, Yaring District, Pattani Province. He was the oldest son of the family with separated parents. He had been raised by his mother and grandmother and freshly finished high school from Decha Pattanayanukul in this year and was studying at Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya, Nakhonsi Thammarat campus.
Aphisit was a good boy. He studied hard and was grateful and loved by his friends, seniors and juniors at school. His family had high hopes in him. Every day he got up at 4 o’clock in the morning to help his mother and grandmother tap rubber until dawn. After that, he took a taxi to school in the town. During the last summer, he took an internship at Grand Auto Sales Company in Mueang District. He wanted to be a policeman, so he applied for police test. But he could not swim, so he took a swimming course, too. The boy rode his motorcycle to the company and back home every day. Being worried about Aphisit’s safety, his grandmother told him to rent a house in the town which he stayed there for only five days before the incident occurred.
In the tragic night, Aphisit and his friends parked their motorcycles in front of the 7-Eleven store next to Pattani Industrial and Community Education College. When the power failed and the bomb exploded, he told his friends to go home and tried to start his motorbike. Nonetheless, he did not make it and the blast sent a piece of glass flying to cut his throat right on an artery, killing him instantly. His grandmother keeps blaming herself that because she had told Aphisit to rent a house in the town, they young man died in the incident.
Morale toward the families who lost their loved ones
Members of the Civic Women’s Network have visited and soothed the hearts of the three affected families who have lost their loved ones. Civic Women’s Network leader Khamnueng Chamnankit or Ka Yah [sister Yah], who was responsible for the visits said that, “I feel depressed and am aware of everyone’s pain and losses especially the young children. In fact, everyone including Buddhists and Muslims, like us, is all humans. We are a creation of Allah. We all feel pain, fear and loss. The surviving children have become disabled, parents have lost children and children have lost their parents, brothers and sisters are on their own and family is not family anymore.”
She also said that seeing Waesiti-aicha, the girl who lost her right leg reminded her of her niece who was same age. At the hospital, she could not bear watching the girl and had to walk out of the room to cry. When she visited Somphorn’s family, she very much sympathized with her because this family had lost the father before. She could only give morale support to Somphorn’s three children who survived the bomb, telling them not to be discouraged and to keep studying hard until they graduate even though their parents were no longer there, because education is their future.
Khamnueng said that the Civic Women’s Network focused on visiting and comforting people who were affected by the unrest to keep them from feeling abandoned. Whether they are Buddhists or Muslims, they have all been affected especially women and children who are innocent. It is surely difficult for them to live the rest of their lives after the losses. Visiting them shows that there are still people who commiserate with them for what they have experienced and that they are not idle toward the deaths of brother and sisters in this place and are ready to stay beside and support them. This makes the affected ones become strong again.
The Civic Women’s Network head said if there were any issues regarding the right to compensation or any needs that the affected people wanted, the network was ready to listen and collect information in order to coordinate with related government agencies for further assistance. In addition, she said if any families wanted to join activities for compensation, communication and potential development and social activities with the network, it would invite them to join in the future.
Once the explosions or gunshots stopped, what remained were lives that suffered losses and were affected. Even if they have been well compensated, it will still be hard for the affected to be the same.
“Morale support and feeling that they are not abandoned are important to help the affected get through their pain, losses and crisis in their lives even though they can never be them same again,” Khamnueng ended.
“Public communication under the Empowering Women for Democratic and Peace Dialogues in the South of Thailand project”
Source: http://www.deepsouthwatch.org/node/5816
