Everytime it’s monsoon season, Thai fishing trawlers take advantage of the near absence of Malaysian maritime authorities to fish in our waters. And once the greedy tekongs know how much they should get, cronyism sets in. And those that do not see eye-to-eye with these tekongs, they get chucked into the sea.
This year, it’s Kaew and two of his friends’ unfortunate turn to be chucked into the sea during a storm. He and friends were beaten up by the senior crewmembers who are closely connected to the tekong and half-conscious, were chucked into the stormy seas. Kaew, did not fully pass out, drifted for three days before he made it to the VII Bay (my name for that dive site) and was spotted by some security guards. They took him to the KUSTEM research center and housed him there for a while. They never knew what had actually happened to Kaew until I arrived and conversed with Kaew, who spoke Pak Khlang with heavy southern accent.
Kaew now can no longer return to his seaside hometown fearing for his life. An orphan, his younger sister has already married and is no longer in touch with him. Our KUSTEM friends will now take him over to Pengkalan Kubor in Kelantan to enable Kaew to cross back into Thailand. We divers made a small collection to enable Kaew to move and find greener pastures away from his hometown.
The last image of Kaew that I saw as the boat left Bidong was of him doing the wai reserved for dignitaries as I waved goodbye to him.
I pray that he finds a better life somewhere.
SeaDemon Says 