Laid to Rest . . . Rest in Peace Hwei Yen
28th of November, I believe this is the day, where many Singaporeans would remember. And it is this very day that the family of late Miss Lo Hwei Yen, and the Puhaindran family would always remember.
Singapore received its rude awakening to end its Friday in a mixture of grief, anger and shock. News report has been flowing in with news of the death of Singaporean hostage. The nation was in grief. Though Miss Lo might not have been any one who is famous but it is this very touch of been a Singaporean, where we lived in this small red dot. Every one of us bond in closely whenever, we heard any Singaporeans’ tragic faith.
Singapore for the past 11 years has its own encounter with our own people in tragic ending. The lost of flight MI185 and SQ 006 have deem enough for Singaporeans to cope with. And I have been through at least one of these incidents, where I lost my senior from my high school. Despite the fact that I might have known her directly, but the lost of someone from your community or circle deems someone close to you.
Singapore has seen two hostage incidents in 34 years. In the cases of the Laju hijack in 1974 and the hijack of an SQ flight from KL in 1991, the hostages lived to tell their stories. Hwei Yen’s date with terrorism is very different.
For this 28-year-old lawyer’s friends, family, colleagues and those who knew her only through the smiling photographs and endearing reports in the newspapers, closure is difficult to come by. Such wound takes time to heal. And in most circumstances, such ordeals might not be able to obliterate, it just dexterity its recollection into ones’ heart! Hwei Yen was in Mumbai for a brief business trip, something many of us do these days without even batting an eyelid. And none of us would have ever think that her life was taken away in such a brusquely approach!
Her sisters have spoken about living with the cruel reality of not knowing what really happened to Hwei Yen.
“It’s going to take time to sink in,” said one of them.
Can any Singaporeans have a bearing or anyone in the world, consider ourselves away from impairment?
Mumbai attacks have given us an unswerving respond hitherto another time: No way.
The terrorists have shown all over again that if somebody out there with an insane mind and the espousal to thump a hole in the world’s sanctuary device, they will do it. Believe me, they will and previous incidents have shown it. Incidents in Bali for example, are one such case. The terrorists, for they can fail many times nonetheless they only need to clout once to make their point heard and seen.
If we had thought that it couldn’t get any more vivid and damaging than the 911 attacks, what happen in Mumbai has revealed otherwise. To the world, terrorism is not only unpredictable in its timing and also in its execution.
There are ways to prevent such incidents to happen, even before they have a chance to realise it. Foil their plans before
they can be executed. Cross intelligence gathering and cross intelligence sharing among countries, especially with your friends next door, does help. India failed miserably in this, exposing its messy links with neighbor Pakistan for all to see. India have been too occupy with its armed affairs with Pakistan. And this has been on-going for years, with no results. In addition to due to the lack of a central command that further punch a hole while combating terrorism. The paramilitary elements and the military elements are not working together as one. There has no communication links between these 2 agencies. No coordinating agencies have ever set up to look into any possible similar events that took place in India. One such important element to the successful launch of the terror attack is the lack of funding to the respective agencies has caused these agencies to function normally, or even at time operations came to a halt.
And it is important to tell the terrorists that even they have put up a ‘massive’ 60-hours showdown in Mumbai, they have not succeeded. As people are still continuing with their daily activities, like travelling and vacation.
It takes a lot of effort to stomp terrorism.
Below are extracts from Channel News Asia.
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‘Friends continued to stream in to pay their last respects to Lo Hwei Yen on Monday, the second day of her funeral wake. The 28-year-old Singaporean was shot and killed by terrorists in the Mumbai attacks. Flowers to the family streamed in throughout the day, a testament to how much Ms Lo will be missed. Several members of the public also offered their condolences to her family. Although they may not have known Ms Lo personally, they said they too shared in the family’s loss. “We felt very saddened. Such a young girl (and she) just passed away like that,” said one. . . ‘’
‘’ SINGAPORE : Singapore’s Foreign Ministry has said 28-year-old Lo Hwei Yen, a Singaporean held hostage in one of the Mumbai hotels, has been killed.
At a news conference late Friday night, officials confirmed her body was found on the 19th floor of the Oberoi Hotel. She is believed to be the the first Singaporean victim of a terror attack.
Jai Sohan Singh, director, Consular Directorate, Singapore Foreign Affairs Ministry, said: “We were told at about 8 o’clock this evening that there was a possibility that a body has been found matching the description of Ms Lo. A final confirmation was made by the husband only at 2135 hours this evening.” Details of what actually happened remain sketchy.
However, Mr Singh did give an outline of how the situation played out. He said that the terrorists conveyed a message through Ms Lo to Singapore’s mission in India for the Indian parliament.
He elaborated: “As you would have read in the Indian media, the terrorists demanded that the Indian authorities refrain from storming the Oberoi Hotel, otherwise they would harm her…We ask for your understanding that we could not confirm this earlier, as the situation at that time was fluid and fast evolving. It was not appropriate at that (time) for us to do this for operational reasons.” Ms Lo, who is a lawyer at a Singapore-based offshore law firm, was in Mumbai on a working trip. Her husband, Michael Puhaindran, had flown up to Mumbai on Thursday, after the crisis broke. He is accompanied by an aunt.
The Foreign Ministry is helping the family make arrangements to bring the body back.
It is confirmed there are no more Singaporeans stranded in any of the hotels in the financial capital.
115 Singaporeans were known to be in Mumbai either for work or leisure during the attack on Wednesday night, which has killed some 130 people. Meanwhile, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has expressed his sadness over the death of Ms Lo. He knows the family and had attended her wedding last year. Upon learning the tragic news, SM Goh visited Ms Lo’s father-in-law, Mr S. Puhaindran, and his family on Friday evening. Mr Puhaindran is a veteran grassroots leader in Mr Goh’s Marine Parade constituency.
“It’s a tragedy for Mr Puhaindran. The son was married last year. They just celebrated their first anniversary this year. I was there at the wedding. So I too was quite shocked by the tragic event,” said Mr Goh. Acting Prime Minister Professor S Jayakumar said he and his Cabinet colleagues are also painfully saddened by the news of the death of Ms Lo.
In a statement issued late Friday night, he said the loss of any life to terrorism is sad, and the loss of a fellow Singaporean is a pain more keenly and closely felt by every Singaporean.
Professor Jayakumar said the foreign ministry officials have been on the ground with the victim’s family in Singapore and Mumbai since the first time Singapore learnt of Ms Lo being held hostage. The officers are working with the Indian authorities to bring her back home.
Professor Jayakumar stressed that terrorism is a threat that spares no one, and this tragic event underscores the imperative for all to be constantly vigilant, and the need for the international community to band together to combat this threat . . . ‘’
