SARAWAKIANS are calling for the police to investigate and charge the Instagram respondents who allegedly “pushed” a 16-year-old Kuching girl to suicide on Monday night.

They have reacted in horror after finding that the majority of the teenager’s followers had responded to her Instagram poll when she was trying to reach out for help, by telling her to choose death over life.

Politician and state rights activist Lina Soon asked “what is our society coming to” as she reacted to the report that 69% of the respondents told the girl she should choose death.

“Depression is an illness. She needed professional help.

“You will have to live with your conscience. If you don’t have a conscience, you are not human,” she said in apparent reference to the respondents.

Local DAP leader Abdul Aziz Isa also called for the police to investigate the Instagram respondents and charge them under Section 306 of the Penal Code for aiding and abetting suicide.

The penalty, if they are found guilty under the section, is a 10-year jail sentence and a fine upon conviction.

“To classify the case as sudden death at this stage may not be the right decision without further investigations,” Aziz said.

Aziz, who is also an aide to Sarawak Pakatan Harapan chief Chong Chieng Jen, said since a suicide attempt is an offence in this country, similarly abetting one to attempt suicide, or suicide, is similarly an offence.

The Padawan police, which are investigating the death of the girl who jumped out of her third floor apartment at MJC Batu Kawa, are no longer giving investigation updates “at the request of the family”.

“Family of (the) deceased requested (that we) not share about this case,” Padawan police chief Supt Aidil Bolhassan told The Malaysian Insight.

The police had found the girl’s Instagram poll on her mobile phone which read: “Really Important, Help Me Choose D/L”.

Aidil in a statement yesterday stated that “according to a close friend of the victim”, the “D/L” meant “death or life”.

The poll was reportedly created just hours before she jumped from the rented unit she had shared with her mother.

Social media users, meanwhile, slammed those who voted for the teenager to choose death.

“Nobody, particularly a 16-year-old who is not mentally matured, will just jump from a building without someone encouraging her.

“You guys who voted ‘D’ are murderers,” said Facebook user William Liam in his account today.

“Don’t ever think that is funny. You guys don’t know what she was facing.

“Depression is real,” Liam added.

Another Facebook user, Buln Ribos wrote that “those who voted for ‘D’ will regret their stupid actions for the rest of their lives”.

“They are murderers.”

One of the girl’s cousins said in a poorly written Instagram post: “Just now you guys voters for ‘D’ and this happen ... happy now?” with a smiley attached.

However, not everyone wants the Instagram respondents punished.

Wanita PKR vice-president Voon Siak Nee said while it was saddening and shocking to read the news of the girl’s suicide, nobody should be blamed for the teen’s death.

She said the incident should instead serve as a wake up call to all social media users to seriously take note of their friends’ “distress calls”.

“Social media users can save lives and extend help and support via (the various) social media apps.

“Indeed many times, lives have been saved and crimes cracked with the help of these social media apps and as they are indeed a very fast and effective means of circulation of information,” Voon stated in a statement.

Voon, a lawyer, said she is also not calling for punitive actions because prosecuting the respondents could be fraught with difficulties.

“How to charge them for murder? Proving these respondents murdered her beyond reasonable doubt is difficult.”

Voon said if the respondents are friends of the victim, then they must be of the same age “with no sense of reality”.

The teen, found sprawled on the road below her three-storey apartment at around 8pm Monday, reportedly came from a broken home and her parents were divorced.

Meanwhile in Bangi, Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman described the teen’s suicide as depressing, saying that the country lacks a honest discussion on the issue of mental health.

The 26-year-old minister said there are people who brand the issue of mental health as petty and fake while in reality it is an uphill battle which could claim lives.

“They see mental health issue as fake but in reality it kills people slowly but surely,” he said, adding that it is a growing trend in Malaysia and around the globe.

“When I read the case it was truly disheartening, and the fact that it (mental illness) predominantly affects young people, and a vast majority of people who commit suicide are also young.”

Syed Saddiq said it was a serious issue that needs a national discussion around it. – May 15, 2019.