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Equip children with open-water swimming skills: DPM Tharman

SINGAPORE — Following the death of a 12-year-old boy who drowned in the waters near East Coast Park, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that there is a need to do more to equip children with open-water swimming skills. He was at the boy’s wake on Tuesday (May 9).

Family members of the drowned school boy at the scene near Xtreme Skate Park on 8 May 2017. Photo: Wee Teck Hian/TODAY

Family members of the drowned school boy at the scene near Xtreme Skate Park on 8 May 2017. Photo: Wee Teck Hian/TODAY

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SINGAPORE — Following the death of a 12-year-old boy who drowned in the waters near East Coast Park, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that there is a need to do more to equip children with open-water swimming skills. He was at the boy’s wake on Tuesday (May 9).

In 2010, a national water safety programme called SwimSafer was introduced with the goal of arming Singaporeans, especially children, with water safety knowledge and water survival skills, as a safeguard against drowning.

This was introduced after the National Water Safety Council called for a review of the national water safety programmes in July 2008. It was deemed then that a national framework, emphasising on drowning prevention, was needed.

Speaking to reporters at the wake, Mr Tharman said: “It’s something that we have to do more about, not only because of this tragic incident… It’s a very useful life skill and it’s just a very useful form of physical endeavour.”  

Last year, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital reported that the number of children involved in near-drowning or drowning incidents in Singapore had risen drastically for the period from 2011 and 2015, compared to the six years before that. The hospital saw 104 such cases — 94 near-drowning, 10 drowning —  involving children aged below a year to 15, and these incidents mostly happened at private pools. This is about 17 to 27 cases a year, compared with one to 14 cases a year from 2005 to 2010.

On Tuesday, Mr Tharman, who is also Member of Parliament for Jurong GRC, was one of many people who visited the family of the deceased, Muhammad Suhaimi Sabastian, a Secondary 1 student of Jurongville Secondary School. Others included relatives, friends as well as his former and current schoolmates. The wake was held at his grandmother’s home along Ho Ching Road.

On Monday afternoon, Suhaimi and six other schoolmates went to East Coast Park for a swim after completing their examination paper earlier that morning. 

He ended up being one of four boys who struggled in the sea, about 50m behind the shoreline. Three of the boys were later saved by housewife Silvia Hajas, 47, an Australian. The rest had earlier swam back to shore. 

Suhaimi’s body was later found at around 3.30pm in the waters off Bedok Jetty by Singapore Civil Defence Force officers, after a three-hour search operation. 

At the wake, Suhaimi parents appeared visibly distraught and did not want to talk to the press. With two older brothers, the boy was the youngest of three children.

His former schoolmates from Lakeside Primary School remembered him as a cheerful and helpful boy.

Fahmi Amirrudin, who has known Suhaimi since Primary 1, said that he loved playing sepak takraw and was the vice-captain of the school’s team. 

He was also “very good” in mathematics and tutored Fahmi in the subject. Fahmi, now a Secondary 1 student at Yuan Ching Secondary School, added: “Whenever I didn’t understand a math sum, he would always help me. You could count on him to be there for you.” 

Another former primary schoolmate and close friend, Faris Mohd Farid, 13, said that he last met Suhaimi two weeks ago. They had planned to go to the Xtreme Skatepark, near where he drowned, at East Coast Park this week. With tears in his eyes, he said: “I didn’t know that was the last time I would meet him.”

Ms Hajas, who rescued Suhaimi’s other schoolmates, was at the beach with her eight-year-old daughter when she noticed the boys. She told TODAY that by the time she went back for Suhaimi, he could not be seen. Saying that the water in the area was “very choppy, with very strong currents”, she added that the boys did not look like they could swim, as they were not making any strokes.

Despite her brave efforts, Ms Hajas refused to call herself a hero, saying that she was just “extremely grateful” she was at the scene when the incident happened. 

“I tried as best as I could (to save him), but I only have one body. If it meant that I changed the outcome of the situation, that’s good enough. But I wish I could have saved him. I’m still wishing that now,” she said.

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