SHOCKED, sad and ashamed. 

Kampung folk where the 11-year-old child bride lived in Gua Musang, Kelantan, are still grappling with the uproar the underage marriage has attracted.

“Of course, people have been talking about it. No one is happy about it. It’s shameful,” a Thai migrant farmer who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Malaysian Insight.

The 11-year-old lives in a kampung in Gua Musang, a town that borders Pahang, Perak and Thailand deep in the state’s hinterland, some three hours’ drive from Kota Baru.

She lives in a small, single story wooden house with her Thai parents, who settled in the kampung about two decades ago. 

The kampung is made up of local settlers and Thai migrants. Most work as rubber tappers, stall assistants or run small businesses.

Kelantan is still considered one of the poorest states in the country. In 2016, it had the lowest monthly median income at RM3,079. This is well below the national average of RM5,228.

The child’s plight grabbed international headlines as news broke that a rubber trader, 30 years older, had taken the child as his third wife last month.

The rubber dealer already has two wives and six children between the ages of five and 18. Scorched by the public backlash, he said he will only consummate his latest marriage in five years.

According to previous reports, the child’s parents had consented to the marriage to the rubber trader, who is Kelantanese.

The girl’s father is a rubber tapper who sells his harvests to this man who married the daughter.

The girl’s family have now gone missing.

Nur Hafizah, who knows the child, was shocked to read news reports that she started dating the rubber trader when she was seven.

“She was still a kid. And she is good friends with one of the first wife’s children,” said Nur Hafizah, 20, a food stall assistant.

Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said two days ago, the authorities are investigating whether there were elements of sexual grooming before the marriage.

The child briefly attended kindergarten but did not enter primary school because of poverty, Nur Hafizah recalled.

“She is still immature. Still likes to play around (main lari-lari),” she said of the girl.

“It’s sad,” said Nur Hafizah, adding that some of the local girls married young but only after turning 17 or 18.

Retired school principal Wan Mohammad Yusoff said villagers heard about the marriage before the news broke but most did not expect the swift public outrage.

“We knew about it before it went viral,” he said when met at a food stall where the girl’s mother once worked.

Struck by a heart attack earlier this year, the mother sold her motorcycle to Wan Mohammad to pay for medical treatment in Thailand.

The mother of three has since recovered and resumed working at another food stall.

Wan Mohammad said the family’s eldest daughter married when she was 15 or 16. Now a widow, she is living in Malacca and returns during the Hari Raya holiday. – July 5, 2018.