Sufiah

About a decade ago a girl named Sufiah Yusof astounded Malaysians with her genius. She got into Oxford at the age of 13 to study maths. Malaysians cheered and supported her achievement due to the fact that she is half Malaysian on her mother’s side. She made us proud, and she became a role model.

 

Being ‘generous’ and crazy for limelight as always and living up to the ‘Malaysia Boleh’ slogan, the Malaysian government sponsored, perhaps part of, her studies in Oxford, thinking that that given scholarship would act as a prudent investment for the ‘good will’ of our country. True as other investments, there are risks involved. It can either be profitable or not. In Sufiah’s case all those investments seems to go to waste. Instead of continuing to be role model, she became a hooker.

 

The recent exposures made by a newspaper in the UK with regards of Sufiah have left many of us Malaysians in the state of shock and awe. (Read NOW report)

Shock for the fact that she is now a hooker.

Awe for the fact she is now ‘hot’. (Read another NOW report)

 

Whatever our reactions would be, nothing beats the Malaysian government’s predictable reaction on this matter. Regardless of the fact that Sufiah went public saying that she is now content with her princess-like life as a prostitute, the government vigorously and immediately launched a ‘Save Sufiah Campaign’. (Read NST’s report on this matter). Spearheaded by some ministers in the government the purpose of the campaign is to rescue Sufiah from her current situation, which I believe she herself doesn’t want to be rescued. Maybe due to the fact that there is no much work to do here, ministers and officials from Malaysia will fly to the UK to try to solve this issue. Hmm… where does the funds needed for this campaign and all those trips to UK come from? Of course from the coffers of the tax-payers, the Rakyat.

 

Is there actually a need for all those officials to go there, spending the Rakyat’s money for a purpose, most likely, in vain?

 

In my opinion the government should not directly meddle in this issue. Help should be offered but not in the way of confronting her head on. It is better to let her family, the ones who know her well, to make the approach and the rescue. For me, I would be more touched by my mother’s advice rather than the advice given by a bunch of suit-clad officials. Government officials a.k.a foreign strangers to Sufiah can never make this job done, and I bet that the only results of the trip made to the UK are depletion of the Rakyat’s money and a fully paid ‘vacation’ for those officials. I doubt that they can bring her back (to her senses) but I guarantee that they will bring back souvenirs, chocolates and pictures from the UK for families back in Malaysia. No naughty pictures I hope.

 

This is a family matter, not a national matter. All the fuss made by the government and media will only further torments the already tormented family. Let the Yusof family sort it out themselves. I know that the family with all their intellect is able to look after themselves. The only thing that we should do is to give moral support to the family and lots of prayers so that Sufiah will be guided by ‘hidayah’ from Allah.

 

P/s: No jerking off while visiting the links, aku tak nak tanggung dosa. By the way visit the Yusof family blog and read about their part of the story. (Visit Yusof family web site).