In Memory of Mihail Hyder

An ex-classmate and a friend died a few days ago. Mikhail Hyder. Most of us had known him as one of the grandsons of the founder of modern Sabah. But all of us had known him for his good heart, his wicked sense of humour and the confidence he brims us over with. The following entry is by Nadira from her blog.

Hey Malaysia, did you hear about what happened to my friend? Sure. You have some standard report written up on him filed under the drawers where you would never have to see them again and you can pretend this never happened.

My friend Mikhail lived all of his short life in Kota Kinabalu. He was rather popular, pretty much everyone knew him and adored him. He got into an accident a few years back and had a taigon implant in his leg. From what I am told, Mikh told the cops that he would need an operation sometime to replace the implant. This was when he was put into lock up at the age of 20. 20. A juvenile still. He turned 21, his final birthday, in a cell.

Mikhail's legs were already giving him a lot of pain before he got sent into lock up for possession where he stayed... for a long time because his hearing kept getting postponed. Technically he was already being sentenced long before he got to know how long he would be in there for. Your police wanted a RM20,000 bribe. The only people there looking out for him were gang members and we wonder why.

He was a skinny guy as it was and lost more weight while in lock up. He must have looked pretty gaunt after all the torture you put him through. He was feeling ill but only on Monday, he started puking so they finally took him to the Luyang Medical Center where he told them what was wrong but all they gave him was panadol. Apparently they even had time to go get tapau in between all of this. Mikhail then deteriorated as the metal in his leg turned to pus and he got septicemia. Toxic poisoning resulting in his lungs collapsing. He was still handcuffed to the bed while he was in a coma. In the ICU where his mother stayed with him by his bedside, these were her last moments with her youngest son who she couldn't touch for a year because you took him away from us all in his final year of life. He was only 21 when he died on the 7th of February. In a hospital. Never being able to see the people he loved for nearly a year. He died on a Thursday and who knows how long he had been sick for. He had to be near death before they gave him any sort of medical treatment but by then it was too late.

Regardless of how accurate this is in its depiction, the bottom line is Mikhail's passing could have been prevented if he was given better medical attention sooner. He wasn't yet a prisoner, he was still a juvenile. Mikhail was a beautiful person. He was warm, generous, humble, had a big laugh and a big heart to match. He encouraged us all to achieve what we wanted in life. He was really sweet and just about the funniest guy you would ever meet and you took him from all of us. All the people who love him have to look forward to every year for the rest of our lives without him, knowing he was abducted and abused by your 'highly-trained officers'. That's not even injustice. I can't believe you call yourself a Muslim country. Is this how you treat your children?

For everyone who knew Mikhail or everyone who doesn't know him but feels touched by this story of blatant inhumanity, please blog about Mikhail's story and pass it on.

Mikhail Hyder

08.11.1986 - 07.02.2008

Loved and never forgotten.