Sarawak teen jumps to death hours after asking Instagram friends if she should kill self

KUALA LUMPUR — A 16-year-old teenager was found dead on Monday (May 13), believed to have fallen from the third floor of a shop lot in Kuching after she conducted an online poll to decide if she should kill herself or not.

According to online news portal Astro Awani, Padawan district police chief Supt Aidil Bolhassan said the teenager had conducted the voting via Instagram.

“As many as 69 per cent of the teenager’s Instagram friends had supported the decision for her to kill herself via a voting poll which was uploaded at around 3pm (on Monday),” Mr Aidil said.

The teen had reportedly posted the headline “‘Really Important, Help Me Choose D/L” on the voting poll.

“D” reportedly meant “die” while “L” stands for “live”.

The teen had also uploaded a Facebook status that read: ‘WANNA QUIT F**KING LIFE I’M TIRED.’

“The teenager was believed to have felt stressed when her stepfather married a Vietnamese woman and seldom returned to their home,” Mr Aidil was quoted as saying.

Her body was found at about 8pm by a member of the public who then reported the discovery to the Batu Kawa Police Station.

Mr Aidil said the body was brought to the Sarawak General Hospital Forensic Department for a post-mortem, which was scheduled to take place on Tuesday evening.

No criminal elements were detected at the scene and the case has been classified as sudden death, he added.

Responding to the case, Malaysian youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman voiced deep concern on Wednesday (May 15) about the state of the country’s youths’ mental health following the suicide of the 16-year old teenager.

On Twitter, the minister said the incident, which was linked to an Instagram poll, must prompt urgent contemplation in the country.

“I am genuinely worried about the state of our youth’s mental health. It’s a national issue which must be taken seriously. A national discussion must take place. I’m free at 5.30pm on Friday.

“Let’s dialogue at the IIUM (International Islamic University) Econs Cafe,” Mr Syed Saddiq said while extending an invitation to break fast with him.

Separately, Bukit Gelugor Member of Parliament Ramkarpal Singh urged the government to investigate interactions on the deceased teen’s social media accounts, saying the suicide appeared to follow an online poll she had initiated.

He pointed out that 69 per cent of the teenager’s Instagram followers had reportedly voted for the late teen to take her own life.

“In the circumstances, I urge the authorities, particularly the Communications and Multimedia Ministry to investigate the social media accounts of the victim and the circumstances that led to her death to prevent further abuse of social media in similar circumstances in the future.

“With respect, classifying the case as sudden death at this stage may not be the right decision without such further investigations,” he said in a statement.

The Democratic Action Party (DAP) National Legal Bureau chairman noted that under Malaysian law, attempted suicide is a criminal offence, which could mean that supporting it may be construed as abetment.

Although Mr Ramkarpal acknowledged that it is still too early to determine the reason behind the girl’s death, it was possible she had suffered from depression and decided that suicide was the way out.

He further noted that in a 2017 case in the US, a woman was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself, but stressed that he was not saying the two incidents were directly comparable.

However, he questioned how social media users could condone and openly encourage the girl to kill herself.

“Various questions arise from this unfortunate incident. Would the girl still be alive today if the majority of netizens on her Instagram account discouraged her from taking her own life?

“Would she have heeded the advice of netizens to seek professional help had they done so? Did the encouragement of those netizens actually influence her decision to take her own life?” Mr Ramkarpal said.

MALAY MAIL