KUALA LUMPUR: Former newscaster Norzie Pak Wan Chek took to social media to express her gratitude to Foreign Minister Senator Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir, Wisma Putra and the Malaysian embassy in Ireland for helping her niece and friends who experienced a racial attack in Dublin, Ireland recently.
On Saturday, Norzie said her niece, a friend and the friend's two siblings had gone out for a last minute shopping before they were to fly home very early the next morning.
She said all four of them were waiting for a bus to take them back to their Airbnb rental when they were jeered at by a group of teenage boys who started throwing an empty can at her niece and tossed leftover fries picked up from the floor of a restaurant they were at.
Norzie wrote that when more people came to join the group of boys, they decided to walk to the bus station to avoid any confrontation, but the attackers refused to leave them be.
She said the group pursued and circled around them on their bicycles, occasionally braking hard near her niece and the rest to scare them and even threatened to kill her.
"Four of the boys removed their bicycle seat posts and started hitting my niece at the back of her neck. My niece's friend and the friend's brother quickly shielded her, and not once laid a hand on the attackers as they were clearly outnumbered.
"The rest of the boys then stepped in and started punching the friend and my niece's arms, eyes and backs.
"The boys only left after my niece managed to dial 999 and got through to the police, while the friend's younger sister screamed for help. It was raining and dark," said Norzie.
She added that when the police did not arrive 30 minutes later, a kind passerby gave them a lift to the nearest police station about three minutes away to file a report.
The worried Norzie then said she decided to contact a friend at Wisma Putra and within minutes, Zambry had personally called her and promised that the four would be taken care of.
They were given medical assistance before leaving Dublin and arrived home today.
"What had happened to my niece and her friends that night should not happen to anyone.
"But, I must say this, that on Sunday (Dec 4), Zambry had yet to clock in (officially as the foreign minister), but he came through for me. He and his team went all out (to offer assistance).
"From the bottom of my heart, thank you sir. I know now that Wisma Putra is in good hands."