Tag: sabah

Your Boobs Have Angered Mountain Gods

KUALA LUMPUR, June 11 ― The antics of a British national who has been blamed for causing last week’s earthquake in Sabah when she and a group of other tourists photographed themselves in the buff atop Mount Kinabalu, has earned sensational headlines in the UK.

In UK daily The Sun, the eye-catching headline, “Your boobs have angered mountain gods”, was splattered across its front-page today, against the backdrop of a photograph showing several tourists allegedly in the act of stripping naked on Mount Kinabalu’s peak.

It also carried the words “Brit girl jailed after strip ‘causes killer earthquake’”, along with a photograph of Eleanor Hawkins, the 24-year-old British woman who was nabbed by police as she attempted to leave the state.

The Sun also claimed to have an “exclusive” story on the episode, with an excerpt claiming that the British national had said “I’m scared” and had apologised for what the paper called a “prank”.

In the same excerpt, it said the backpacker was in jail and was “accused of angering the gods and causing a deadly earthquake”.

Another paper Daily Star used the headline “Naked Brit girl caused killer quake”, while The Daily Mirror used the headline “Nude student faces jail for ‘causing deadly quake’” along with the line “Locals in Borneo say gods on sacred mountain were angered by photo prank”.

Yesterday, Sabah police confirmed Hawkins was nabbed at Sabah’s Tawau airport while attempting to leave the state, while three others surrendered themselves — Canadian siblings Lindsey Petersen, 23 and Danielle Petersen, 22 and Dutch national Dylan Snel,23 — to the police.

The four are currently under a four-day remand at Sabah capital Kota Kinabalu’s police station, where they are being detained to aid in a police probe.

The police are probing the four under Section 294(a) of the Penal code for public indecency, an offence which is punishable by a maximum three months’ jail term or fine or both.

They have yet to be charged, but their lawyer Ronny Cham was reported in The Guardian as saying their likely defence would be that Mount Kinabalu’s summit should not be defined as a public place where annoyance could be caused to the public.

According to UK dailies The Guardian and The Telegraph, Hawkins’ father Tim Hawkins is hoping that Malaysian authorities will only fine his daughter and sentence her “to some kind of relief work” and require a public apology.

“She’s going to plead guilty and then it is up to a plea bargain from her lawyer. We have faith in the Malaysian justice system, but I have a terrible feeling they might throw the book at her, make an example of them,” he was quoted saying by TheTelegraph.

According to a police report by Sabah Parks staff, 10 tourists were alleged to have stripped and posed naked for photos on Mount Kinabalu’s peak on May 30 and reportedly rebuffed their local guide who tried to stop them, telling him to “go to hell”.

The act has angered natives who believe that the mountain is sacred and carries the spirit of their ancestors, with deputy chief minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan blaming a magnitude 5.9 earthquake on June 5 that killed 18 people on the disrespectful act.

Source: www.themalaymailonline.com

June 11, 2015
Mount Kinabalu Nudists Charged In Sabah Court
Four Western tourists accused of being part of a group who posed nude at the top of Malaysia’s Mount Kinabalu have appeared in court in Sabah state.

Authorities said the two Canadians, a Briton and a Dutchman may be charged with causing public nuisance.

Mt Kinabalu was hit by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake last Friday which left 18 people dead, including children.

A senior minister last week said the tourists had angered the spirits of the mountain, which is considered sacred.

Six people sought

Ranau district police chief Mohd Farhan Lee Abdullah confirmed to the BBC that the authorities had arrested a British woman at Tawau airport in Sabah on Tuesday.

The two Canadians, who are siblings, and the Dutchman turned themselves in to police on the same day.

Their lawyer, Ronny Cham, told the BBC’s Jennifer Pak that he had requested the four be held apart from other detainees in order to ensure their safety.

A candle-lit vigil was held on Tuesday for the victims of the Mount Kinabalu earthquake

The group appeared in court on Wednesday to have their remand extended, according to Malaysian newspaper The Star. They will now be held until Saturday while police continue their investigation.

Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman, Sabah’s police commissioner, was quoted by AFP news agency as saying that the authorities may charge them with causing a public nuisance.

He said they were still looking for six other tourists from the same group “and we will catch them”.

The father of the British tourist who has been arrested, Eleanor Hawkins from the English city of Derby, said he was extremely worried about her. “I have got every faith in [Malaysia’s] judicial system. I just hope they don’t make an example of them,” Tim Hawkins told the Guardian newspaper.

‘Disrespect’

The group of 10 foreigners had allegedly stripped naked and posed for pictures on 30 May. They were also said to have urinated on the mountain.

The Muslim-majority country is socially conservative, and Mount Kinabalu is also considered sacred by Sabah’s Kadazan Dusun tribe.

Pictures posted on social media angered many in Malaysia, but public sentiment intensified after the quake.

Why is Kinabalu sacred?
- Sabah’s Kadazan Dusun tribe believe the mountain houses the spirits of their dead ancestors.
- The name Kinabalu is derived from the tribe’s phrase “Aki Nabalu”, which means resting place of the dead.
- Climbers are told by guides, many of whom are Kadazan Dusun, to treat the mountain with respect and to refrain from shouting, screaming or cursing at it.
- Every December the tribe conducts a ritual called the Monolob to appease the spirits and allow climbers to continue visiting the mountain.
- A priestess, called a Bobolian, makes an offering of seven white chickens accompanied by seven chicken eggs, betel nuts, tobacco, limestone powder, and betel plant leaves. The Bobolian leads a chant and the chickens are then slaughtered, cooked, and given to the ceremony participants.
- In the past, this ceremony was conducted before every ascent, and climbers used the cooked meat as rations for their journey.
Last weekend, Sabah’s deputy chief minister, Joseph Pairin Kitingan, had linked the earthquake to the tourists’ act. He said the tragedy was a “confirmation” that they had showed “disrespect” to the mountain.

Sabah’s tourism minister, Masidi Manjun, said later that this idea was “misconstrued”, but added that the tourists’ actions “were against the people of the largest tribe in Sabah”.

Some officials have demanded that the foreigners be tried in a native court for flouting local customs.

Mr Masidi said on Wednesday that searchers had found the bodies of the last two missing people.

Mourners left tributes to primary school victims in Singapore over the weekend

Singapore’s education ministry identified the two bodies as pupil Navdeep Singh Jaryal Raj Kumar and teacher Mohammad Ghazi Bin Mohamed.

They were part of a group from Tanjong Katong Primary School who were climbing the mountain with guides when the earthquake struck. Seven pupils, two teachers and a guide were killed.

Others killed included Malaysians and citizens from China, Japan and the Philippines.

Source: www.bbc.com
June 11, 2015
Sabah Quake: More Than $38,000 Raised For Family Of Late Tanjong Katong Primary Teacher

A website set up on Wednesday (June 10) by friends of the late Tanjong Katong Primary School (TKPS) teacher Mohammad Ghazi Mohamed, has raised more than $38,000 by Thursday afternoon.

All proceeds from the online “Remembering Ghazi” page will go to Mr Ghazi’s wife, who is also a teacher, and their three children, with the youngest being just a year old.

However, the organisers have decided to cease the campaign on Thursday, 3.30pm, so that they can keep the donations “within a manageable amount”.

The administrative aspects of the fundraiser will be managed by a colleague of Mr Ghazi’s wife, Mr Chua Wee Nam, who is the Head of Department for Discipline at East View Secondary School.

The group also hopes “to direct this positive energy to a formal charity organisation” to collect donations for others affected by the Mount Kinabalu tragedy.

They also requested the public to respect the privacy of the family.

The campaign was started by a group of about 20 hockey and football players who knew Mr Ghazi, 35, through school, university or clubs, said one of the campaign organisers, Mr Hoirul Hafiidz.

The group had kept each other updated via a mobile group chat when news broke that Mr Ghazi, who was leading pupils up Mount Kinabalu when the 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck, was missing.

When Mr Ghazi’s body was identified on Wednesday through fingerprinting and personal belongings, they “decided to do something to help instead of just talking about it”, Mr Hoirul said.

Mr Ghazi was remembered by friends, former students and colleagues on Wednesday at the TKPS tribute centre.

He was an avid hockey player who coached the TKPS hockey team, influencing at least one student to take up the sport and later become a national player.

The June 5 earthquake that struck Sabah claimed the lives of 10 people from Singapore – seven pupils and two teachers from TKPS, and the adventure guide who accompanied them on their learning journey to Mount Kinabalu.

Education Minister Heng Swee Keat expressed his condolences in a Facebook post on Wednesday, and said that the opening hours of the tribute site at TKPS will be extended by two hours to 9pm. Thursday (June 11) is the last day for members of the public to pay their respects to the victims of the earthquake.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

June 11, 2015
Earth In Period Of Active Seismic Activity

Nature’s wrath struck in 2004, when a tsunami hit the coasts of several countries around the Indian Ocean. This marked the beginning of what geologists call an “active cycle”, where the Earth experiences greater seismic activity.

Said Professor Kerry Sieh, director at the Earth Observatory of Singapore: “The Earth goes through cycles of seismic energy release, and less release and more release.

“We have definitely been in the active cycle in the last 11 years since 2004. All the magnitude-8.4 earthquakes and bigger, up to 9.2, they all happened in the last 11 years. Several of those have been in Asia.”

The previous active cycle was in the 1950s to mid-1960s, which saw several earthquakes with a magnitude of a high 8 and above 9. But for the next 40 years, there were no records of a quake with a magnitude above 8.3, until 2004.

Since then, a string of devastating earthquakes has caused much destruction, like in Sumatra in 2005 and Fukushima, Japan, in 2011.

“We don’t know whether we are at the end of the cycle or not,” said Professor Sieh. “My hunch is we will continue to see a larger number of large earthquakes. But that’s only a hunch because we don’t really have a way of telling whether we are at the end of the cycle or not.”

In response to the recent Sabah quake, Professor Sieh supported the call by Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin to relook safety protocols for climbers on Mount Kinabalu and also offered his team’s expertise.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

June 10, 2015
Sabah Quake Victim Muhammad Daanish Amran Remebered As Always Happy

“He was looking forward to this Mount Kinabalu trip,” shared Syafiq Abdul Ghani, a close friend of Muhammad Daanish Amran, the Singaporean adventure guide who lost his life in the Sabah Quake last week. That was the last time Syafiq spoke to Daanish.

The 22-year-old’s final trip was with Tanjong Katong Primary School on an expedition. Along with seven others from Singapore, he did not make it down the mountain.

Syafiq met Daanish in 2011 when they were both volunteers with a Malay youth literary association, 4PM. They soon became fast friends. The group of volunteers often participated in activities together and had regular gatherings. “He was always excited about doing his job, he was always happy, he was always looking forward to every next project, every next event,” Syafiq told Channel NewsAsia.

Another volunteer from the association, Mysara Mohamad Aljaru, remembers Daanish with equal fondness. “From the mischievous grin he always had on his face to our inside jokes and ‘deep talks’, he always never failed to annoy yet cheer me up when I was feeling down. Daanish was someone who accepted you as you were, I never once felt I had to be someone else around him.”

On Monday (Jun 8), the Day of National Remembrance for the Sabah earthquake victims, both Syafiq and Mysara attended Daanish’s burial at the Muslim Cemetery at Lim Chu Kang. The burial took place in the morning between the hours of 9am and 11am.

“His father had a stoic look on his face,” said Charles Phang, a producer of INSIGHT, who filmed the video. “He definitely seemed as if he had accepted what had happened.”

Daanish, an eldest child and graduate of Nanyang Polytechnic, had been working as a freelance adventure instructor for 2-3 years. According to his friends, he was passionate about the outdoors and leading people.

For the full story on the Sabah Quake, don’t miss the special episode of INSIGHT: When the Earth Rumbles this Thursday (June 11), 8pm on Channel NewsAsia.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

June 10, 2015