Where’s Mo? – Part 1
“Hello class, did you have a good holiday? Well, guess what? We have to start polishing your English proficiency so that your school teachers and parents see the results of your efforts in this extra class.”
“Now, before we begin, let’s have a quick chat about your experiences over the break, shall we start with Elly?”
***
“Well done class, now that’s about all, let’s see from the list if we’re missing anyone…”
“Miss Farhana, Mo is not here”
Indeed, he isn’t here and any further enquiries as of his whereabouts are futile. Although I carried on with the tuition lessons, I still can’t stop feeding imaginations into my subconscious mind, was he really sick or did anything else happened? Mo was the most enthusiastic of the bunch, he’d surely tell his friends or at least the tuition center if he is under the weather and will be taking some time off…
“No miss, we did not receive any information about Mo. I tried calling his parents but the line was cut off.”
“It wouldn’t break privacy rule if I can get his address or at least the school that he goes to?”
***
The sea of bright light darted through my windshield as I drove to Mo’s school. It’s nearly 11 am and everyone seemed that it’d be a good time to head out. As I made a left turn and passed by two green lights, Mo’s school rests on a hill in the middle of a narrow, yet busy road.
As I drove to the school guard, a young lady walked by.
“Hello, may I know if you have a child to pick up?”
“Hi, I’m actually here to ask about a boy, I’m his tuition teacher. I know it sounds odd, but I’m concerned about his whereabouts as he usually keeps the tuition center updated about his activities and recently, we lost total contact from him and his family members. I’m checking to see if the school has any news about him.”
The young lady granted me access into the school compounds and brought me to her office. “Please have a seat. Actually Miss Farhana, something did happen to Mo and initially we tried to keep the event hushed down but now I guess it’s only respectful that the situation is brough to light. I will have a press conference later in the evening regarding the issue and speculation will be abound, but I hope that you will judge this fairly.”
Where’s Mo – Part 2
She introduced herself as Ms. Alia, I listened tentatively to her recounts.
***
“OK class, now you know that it is very important for you to know what is going on with the outside world okay? This will help you to be a good citizen and a good human being. OK Mo, do you have anything to say? If you don’t then please stop trying to balance erasers on your nose.”
Mo tossed the eraser at Miss Alia, stood up from his seat at the back of the classroom and shouted.
“Cikgu, are you sure knowing about the Middle East war does any good to us and makes us better humans? What is the meaning of a good human?”
“Mo, there are rules in this class, you are free to ask questions politely and behave in appropriate manner.”
“No cikgu, you don’t know what is it to be a human being. All my life, I see my mother suffer from people’s bad mouth because she has a defect while my father always going to save people in international wars. Why is my mother treated worse than the immigrants in our society? Why can orang asing have freedom to be a Malaysian? Why is my mother less than a Malaysian? Is it because of her name? is it because she is mixed-blood? Why should she choose to be one race and not the other? Why are we born with a religion but cannot find our own spirituality? Why is my father always going to end the war in Arab but never trying to stay at home and give us peace? Everyday I see my neighbours live with uncertainty wondering if the people who mingle around national facilities are local. Hari-hari orang tuduh-menuduh siapa pendatang, siapa bukan pendatang, otherwise, everyone keeps upholding religion and shouting support to end Islamophobia but never realise that they are the ones who started it first. Nobody has the guts to make society right because they can only make society wrong.”
“Now Mo, if you need help…”
“I don’t need anything from you. I can make my own decisions. I’m a teenager I know what’s best…”
“No Mo, you are still in school and school is a place for you to learn to obey so sit down now and don’t waste your friends time.”
“Everyone is wasting everyone’s time! Why do you call yourself cikgu when you don’t even try to read between the lines of my words? Cikgu ni layak jadi guru sebab pandai mengarah pelajar je ke? Degree cikgu tu dapat sebab pandai bercakap, bukannya boleh pikir. I don’t have a mother and a father anymore and its all your fault, as a civil servant you should pay the consequences of society’s downfall.
My father only filled with passion to help people affected in the Middle East war is dead. He was not supposed to go there, he is supposed to treat patients in our local community, now my neighbourhood has lost a doctor but my mother lost her support… she was not accepted anywhere in the community just because she doesn’t look like either races. Her singular name is the cause of her death and it is all because she wanted to leave the community she was chosen to be by birth.”
Where's Mo? - Final
Ms. Alia shed a tear realizing that she never tried to be a more empathetic person.
“All that I know after Mo left the class is that he was found dead in a factory and the murderers were a group aiming young children to sell their organs in the black market. The immigrant officers deported the group and yet I still feel that its not fair for Mo as the perpetrators remained free to roam. Perhaps, it’s a tremendous lesson for me to bear this guilt.”
“Who are we to meddle in other people’s affairs when we don’t even know who is our friend and who is our foe? No matter how far we look, we shall always bear the greatest sin of all sins, that is to be a defect which caused our society to fall apart.”
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