Lives have been lost to an unexpected natural calamity

5 June 2015 was meant to be a day of celebration. The 28th SEA games opening ceremony was scheduled to start at 8 p.m. that evening but 12 hours earlier, at 7.15 a.m, something untoward happened at Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, East Malaysia.

A group of primary school students from Tanjong Katong Primary School were making their way up Mount Kinabalu when an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 struck. At the end of that 30-second moment when the earth shook, six students, one teacher and an adventure guide perished. To-date, one student and a teacher are still unaccounted for.

The pain of losing these young children, who were mostly 12 years in age and their teachers, struck at our heartstrings. Our nation mourned their loss with our state flag flying at half mast on 8 June 2015. Sadly, this was the second national mourning in less than 3 months this year.

I visited Tanjong Katong Primary School on the morning of 8 June 2015 to pay my tribute. The messages pinned onto 3 large notice boards speak volumes of the impact of the loss. Singapore is one of the most costly places in the world to raise a child and Singaporean parents are exceptionally doting on their children. It was simply heart-wrenching to forcefully take these children away forever from their parents without even a word of goodbye. 

Those with children will probably be more sensitive to the acute pain of the grieving parents. My heart sank and rose again umpteen times. This fateful trip has drawn both sympathy and ire. There are those who question the wisdom of such trips for primary school children whilst there are others who see that the benefit of such activities outweigh the risks involved.

Whatever it is, lives have been lost to an unexpected natural calamity but there are certainly lessons to be drawn somehow. For those who never saw the light of day again when the earth shook on 5 June 2015, may they rest in eternal peace.