A college student in Bali’s Tabanan regency failed an attempt to pull a suicide “prank” yesterday morning, which led to her being reported to the police for the disturbing gag.
As reported by Kompas, a man identified as I Dewa Gede Ngurah Agung was passing on a bridge in Tabanan at 3am yesterday when he saw the student, who is identified by her initials PAM, holding an electric wire that crossed the structure.
Ngurah then took her aside and questioned her, to which PAM confessed that she had no intention to commit suicide.
According to Tabanan Police spokesman I Made Budiarta, PAM was merely trying to prank her friend.
“She wanted to prank her friend, who she said was going to cross the location,” Budiarta said, adding that her prank failed as someone else showed up first before her friend did.
PAM was then taken to the local police station, where she was asked to give a statement before being escorted back to her parents’ house. The police did not charge PAM for the incident.
Suicide is generally not treated with the sensitivity it requires in Indonesia, with this incident serving as an example of a relaxed attitude towards the serious subject. Indonesia also currently does not have a dedicated government-run suicide prevention hotline, so if you or anyone you know is suffering from depression and/or contemplating suicide, you can get help from several local NGOs dealing with mental health and suicide prevention, including Into the Light Indonesia.
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