Phone calls and speaking through a barrier is all well and good, but yesterday 18 convicts got to spend some precious time with their families in the flesh as part of the Kajang Prison’s Parents’ Day.
The event was organised by Wanita MCA in conjunction with Father’s Day and Mother’s Day, and to allow convicts serving out their prison terms to build clloser relationships with their families.
“We should strive to build a loving community in which we should treat our parents or children with care regardless of whatever mistakes they might have made in the past or their status in society,” Wanita MCA chief Datuk Heng Seai Kie said, in a report by Joash Ee De Silva of The Star Online.
She said the Parents Day celebration would be held annually at the Kajang prison, adding that Wanita MCA was planning similar celebrations for Hari Raya, Chinese New Year, Deepavali and Christmas to promote the spirit of 1Malaysia.
One of the convicts, serving an 11-year sentence for drug trafficking and who wanted to be identified as Jat, said, “After three years and four months, I can finally hold my mother and my siblings in my arms.
“I am also very thankful because I was chosen for this opportunity out of a thousand people,” he said, adding that the 18 inmates were chosen based on good behaviour, the seriousness of their offences and the duration of time already served.
