EMOTIONS ran high in Penang today as more than a thousand people attended the funeral of T. Nhaveen, the aspiring musician whom many remember as a nice boy who never fought with others. 

Nhaveen died yesterday after a week in coma. He was 18.

At the Bukit Gantung funeral parlour this afternoon, there were shouts of “We want justice” from the crowd as family members gathered around the casket.

Flower petals were tossed into the air as men carried the casket on their shoulders from the Batu Gantung funeral parlour to the crematorium. 

Drums were beat for him by youths at the front of the procession. 

Friends and family members held posters with the hashtag #justicefornhaveen. 

All the way to the incinerator, the procession of mourners called for “Justice for Nhaveen”. 

Family and friends laid flowers as they took their last look at him, before the final rites were performed and the casket was closed and consigned to the flames.

The drums continued beating for Nhaveen until the very end. During  the intervals of a few seconds when the drumming ceased, the lamentations of his mother and legions of aunts and uncles and friends could be heard. 

But during the last moments when the casket was sent into the incinerator at 4.30pm, even the drums could not drown out the cries. 

Nhaveen, from Taman Tun Sardon in Penang was beaten up last Friday by a group of boys. He had gone to school with some of his attackers, who had bullied him back then. 

By the time Nhaveen was sent to the Penang Hospital early Saturday morning, he was already unconscious. 

He died at 5.31pm yesterday without coming out of coma. 

The five suspects caught by the police were previously probed for rioting with weapons. 

The case has since been reclassified as murder.

A woman, said to be a close relative, said something like this should not have happened to one so young. 

“Please get him the justice he deserves. Don’t let something like this happen again,” she said to Penang state leaders who had came to pay their last respects. 

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, Deputy Chief Minister II Dr P. Ramasamy, excos Jagdeep Singh Deo and Phee Boon Poh, and Seri Delima assemblyman RSN Rayer were among those present at the crematorium. Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh and Bagan Serai MP  N. Surendran were also among the crowd. 

Lim said schools must take action against bullies, even if the incidents took place outside school grounds. 

“The responsibility of the schools must be extended. They must lodge police reports to tackle incidents of bullying if they know it involves their students,” he said. 

Lim said there should be a standard operating procedure (SOP) to compel teachers and schools to lodge reports, and to explain if they failed to report such cases.

“If the teachers know of bullying incidents, like if they spot bruises on their students, then they must report to the cops and answer if they fail to do so. 

“Now schools are not held responsible because incidents happen outside school grounds,” he said, adding that the Education Ministry must issue new orders to schools to make them accountable.

He said what happened to Nhaveen could had been prevented if the school had taken action back when he was allegedly bullied by his attackers.

“Nhaveen was no longer a student but his former schoolmate still went after him, because he was used to bullying him. 

“He continued (to hurt the boy) because there was no action by the school. This, we must stop. Schools cannot wash their hands.

“We will urge schools to do the necessary. This is not just a Penang problem. It happens everywhere. Our children should be safe in their schools,” he said. 

The bullies who had gone after Nhaveen might be facing the law now, Lim said, but it was too late as a life had been lost.  – June 16, 2017.