I am appalled reading the post at Rocky’s Bru wherein the said blogger reports a heart- wrenching story of the late Aina Mardiah Sharial on July 10.

For purposes of clarity, I reproduce the post here, in verbatim:

‘Dear YB Syed Hamid Albar

Home Minister

Re: Aina Mardiah Shahrial, 17

You may not know Aina, she is the eldest daughter of Shahrial Sirin, an ISA detainee. On the afternoon of July 2, about 3 pm, she was admitted into Kajang Hospital.

The girl was fighting for her life. The family immediately informed authorities at Kamunting, where her father had been detained for the last seven years.

Somehow, Shahrial was only told of her daughter's illness at 10.30 am the next day, July 3. Aina's mother made a personal appeal to the authorities at Kamunting to let her daughter be with the dad for the last time. The doctors said Aina had only a few hours of life left, God-willing.

The authorities at Kamunting said they could not release Shahrial. They had to get your signature on the release papers. Yes, YB, your precious signature.

Aina's father was finally released at 5pm. It was the longest four-hour journey to Kuala Lumpur.

Shahrial got to her daughter's side at 9.45 pm. He was too late. Aina had passed away at 6.20pm without seeing her father.

Thank you, YB, and may Allah bless you and your family.’

While it is impossible to time death, it is still our social responsibility to make such event less- burdening on the grieving family.

What we have at Kamunting’s Detention Center is a bandwagon of free-loading authorities who took one whole day to inform Shahrial about his daughter’s deteriorating health.

They thrived on rigid procedure of getting the home minister’s signature instead of considering the gravity of the situation. They seemed to forget that in situation like this, humanity supersedes rule of law.

Both as a mother and a human being, I am confident that the Shahrial’s plight could have been enormously reduced if the authorities immediately inform the Home Ministry of Aina’s condition.

What we have right now is a story of an untimely death made worse by the fact that she didn’t get to bid her father goodbye.

The Internal Security Act is a draconian law which has overstayed its welcome here in my beloved homeland. Our cry for ‘no detention without trial’ has obviously fallen onto deaf ears.

As I weep in the privacy of my office, my heart goes out to Aina’s family.

But did anyone hear the cry of Aina’s mother when she pleaded with the authority to let Shahrial be by Aina’s death bed? No one did.

Have we become a nation so jaded with regulation that we choose procedure over humanity?