The Indonesian word gemes has no direct translation in English — it’s used to describe the feeling one gets when seeing something so cute or adorable that they feel the urge to bite or pinch them (similar to the English phrase, “You’re so cute I could eat you up!”). But gemes also has a grim connotation, in that it can be used to describe one’s desire to inflict physical abuse due to annoyance.
There’s an element of both connotations to the word gemes in the recent tragic death of a child in South Sulawesi, Indonesia.
A 28-year-old father from Gowa Regency, identified by his initials HB, has been arrested as the sole suspect in the death of his 4-year-old child, AM, who allegedly died due to physical abuse from HB.
According to the local police, HB said he was taking AM to Losari Beach in Makassar on Saturday afternoon. In the evening, his wife received news that their child was brought to hospital, where he died soon after from then-unexplained injuries.
When the police questioned HB, he told them that AM had been hurt in a motorcycle accident. However, the police suspected that HB lied when they carried out an autopsy on AM.
“We inspected the body and it turned out there were many wounds on him — and they were not traffic accident wounds,” said AKP Robert, head of the Bontomarannu District Police in Gowa, as quoted by Tribun.
When pressed further by the police, HB eventually confessed that AM died after he bit him several times.
“I bit him because I was really gemes seeing my child,” HB told the police. Furthermore, in a news report by Liputan 6, HB said he bit AM because he was annoyed that the child often refused physical affection.
The police did not say how many times and how hard HB bit his child. The father now faces at least 15 years in prison for the murder of his own child.
