“ANAK menantu pakat gheja makan gaji. Tinggai cucu konon-konon Tok Wan sunyi. Tok Wan jaga Tok Wan mengasuh haghi-haghi. Walau jantung kencing maneh darah tinggi. Pagi-pagi Tok Wan keluaq pegi gheja. Ambek upah motong getah taboq baja. Cari duit nak bagi cucu belanja. Dengan cucu Tok Wan sayang habeh meta.”
This is part of the lyrics of a satirical song released by a local deejay, known as DJed two years ago.
He presented the Tokwan sayang cucu song with a thick Kedahan dialect, which poked fun at the devotion of a grandfather to his grandchild.
“Sayang cucu habeh meta” means the love of grandparents for their grandchildren has no boundaries.
The song was reflected in a viral picture of a devoted grandfather from Alor Star.
The picture showed an elderly man who went to great lengths to retrieve his grandchild’s book which had fallen into a monsoon drain.
The grandfather had gone home and returned to the school in Jalan Pegawai with a ladder.
He removed the drain cover and scaled down the ladder to retrieve the book.
Netizens were full of praise for the grandfather and his devotion to his grandchild.
As we grow up, we are exposed to bad habits, but the love showered by our grandparents and parents somehow helps to shield us from such temptation.
However, at times, the love for a child can be well misplaced, particularly for youngsters who fall victim to drugs.
In April, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed revealed that of the 29,583 students who screened for drugs between January and March, 825 tested positive.
According to statistics from the National Anti-Drug Agency (Nada), Kedah recorded the highest number with 218 students.
In response, Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid announced that the ministry was collaborating with Nada to expand the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) from the state down to the district level, to tackle drug abuse among students.
The number of student addicts in Kedah rose to 239 based on a screening done on 3,092 students up to July.
Kedah Nada director Mahdzir Elias said out of the 239 cases, 220 of the students were on syabu. That is alarming.
While acknowledging that the trend is worrying, Mahdzir said there was a silver lining to the statistics.
“It showed that teachers are giving their cooperation in the screening process by not hiding these students with a high risk of getting involved in drugs.
“This helps us to work on early intervention to stop them before they slipped deeper into the drug-abuse trap,” he said in an interview at his office.
Mahadzir said to win the war against drugs, early intervention was crucial as it was harder to cure drug addiction among hardcore junkies, who had been taking drugs for years.
He stressed that the real challenge for the agency was when the youth left, or dropped out of school.
“The issue is that not many parents are willing to refer their children for rehabilitation.
“Some refuse to believe their children are addicted to drugs and tend to conceal the problem.
“They only come to us when they can no longer control them, and sometimes, it may be too late.”
This misplaced love was evident when Nada officers had a hard time convincing the parents of three teenage siblings caught for drug abuse in Yan recently.
The parents were adamant in preventing their children from being taken away, but finally caved in after being coaxed by the officers on the importance of sending them for rehabilitation.
The disturbing scenes of parents dying at the hands of their drug-addicted children should serve as a lesson to us.
Do not allow our misplaced love for our children to cloud our judgment.
As Mahdzir aptly put it: “The parents (family) must first help us, so that we can help them.”
ADIE SURI ZULKEFLI is Kedah NST bureau chief