Couple waits for son's return in vain
Missing after a shipping accident off Kuala Rejang, Sarawak, Malaysia 7 years ago.
ALAPPUZHA: The parents of Arun Mathunny Raj, 26, who went missing following a shipping accident off Kuala Rejang, Sarawak, Malaysia, seven years ago, are still waiting for his return.
Four Indians, including their son, had gone missing after the merchant vessel MV Soon Bee II sank in the rough seas about nine nautical miles off Kuala Rejang on January 11, 2011.
Of the 18 crew members in the ship, half were locals and the rests Indians. They escaped in two life boats. While a lifeboat carrying 10 people reached Kabong beach after three days, another which Arun got into didn’t make it.
His parents P.G. Raju and Annie knew about the accident only on February 9 after a telegram from the High Commission in Kuala Lumpur reached the district administration. Arun was the elder of their two sons. The younger one is a private company employee.
Raju, an occasional employee at a dry cleaning shop at Mavelikara, said, “we are praying for him at every moment. We made a lot of enquiries with the central and state governments to know about his whereabouts, but in vain,” he said.
“We don’t know whether the death certificate will be issued by Indian government or Malaysia. Mr Kodikunnil Suresh MP had contacted the insurance company and Malaysian counterparts for compensation a few years ago. But nothing happened later,” he said.
The Indian government has not put pressure on Malaysia to conduct an effective search operation in the sea. “He was supposed to reach home on February 28 that year, his first visit after he left for the job in Malaysia three years back,” said his mother.
The Malaysian government had sanctioned about 25000 Ringgits for four families ('3.4 lakh each), but they couldn’t receive it because the India government didn’t provide legal heir certificate. The authorities claimed that the certificate would be issued only after seven years of missing. “We had approached the Malaysian embassy in Chennai to know about the latest situation, but they made no effort to help us,” he said.