A 16-year-old girl charged with attempting to commit suicide.

A 16-year-old girl was charged yesterday in the Court for Children with attempting to commit suicide.
The teenager was alleged to have committed the offence at the YT Midtown Hotel rooftop on Nov 21 by attempting to jump off the building.Prosecution was handled by Nelson Ensit. The girl, accompanied by her mother, was unrepresented. Court registrar Kahirul Anuar set bail at RM2,500 in one surety and set Jan 22 for mention.It was reported on Nov 22 that the teenager threatened to jump off the ledge of the 10-storey hotel following a quarrel with her boyfriend.
This is the first in many years that anyone has been charged with attempted suicide.The measure is being taken after a spate of suicides and attempted suicides in recent weeks prompted Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar to tell the New Straits Times that police were considering enforcing the law.

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Thursday/Frontpage/2425174/Article/index_html

This has to go down as a lazy and simplistic attempt by the authorities to deal with something which has far more complex reasons behind it and especially something so delicate as suicide. There are two ways of looking at it. The first is the need to prevent in future suicide amongst the general public. The second way is to look at the impact on the said suicide attempt victim. Apparently the authorities are more concerned with the first in providing a form of deterrent. This overlooks the welfare of the present suicide attempt victim .This also overlooks suicide attempt cases as a special type of case which cannot be equated with other offences such as robbery where deterrence would be more appropriate.

What is saddening is that no attempt has been made to deal with the underlying reasons which led this victim to such a course. Therefore there can be no assurances that despite whatever the outcome of the case , this particular person will not resort to such action in the future. This person needs help , not thrown behind bars and made the subject matter of juicy tabloid tales. She needs therapy to get her mind thinking straight and to realise that suicide is not the only option.

Such actions by the authorities would leave those who are pushed to such actions with little choice but to go ahead with their plans if only to avoid the wrath of the authorities should they not do so. If the authorities are so concerned, then there should be a concerted effort by all to seek out the reasons.This would be a far more intelligent approach. Malaysia has no shortage of experts in this area who would be more than willing to lend assistance. Some in-depth study could be undertaken. We should find out the reasons for such suicide cases. Is it because of the influence of drugs and alcohol? Or are there underlying psychiatric problems? Such findings can then be used to formulate an approach to deal with such a problem . It will also enable the identification of persons who are at risk. Such preventive measures would be far more beneficial in the long run than simply throwing the book at those who attempt it. In Dublin, Drs Patrick Mc Sharry and Kim Wilson, examined suicide cases dealt with by the coroner's court over the 13-year period. The research was then presented at the winter meeting of the Irish College of General Practitioners in Dublin in 2007. It is such an approach which we should adopt. Not all laws are good laws and the law cannot always solve all problems. Sometimes there are other options which we need to look at.