Missing Malaysian Student from Curtin University (UPDATE @ 10:32)

Wednesday September 24, 2008 MYT 8:26:47 PM

Uni student missing in Australia (updated)
By LESTER KONG


KUALA LUMPUR: A 21-year-old Malay student from Kajang has been missing for about two months in Perth, Western Australia, after abandoning her final semester in Curtin University of Technology.

A team including lawyers is being put together by the Putera Umno community protection secretariat to go there and locate her after repeated pleas for help by her parents - a businessman and a clerk. The parents did not want to reveal her full name, only wanting her to be known as Ipah.

“It’s not an easy job to track her down and bring her back, but we’ll do our best,” said the secretariat’s chief Datuk Abdul Azeez Abd Rahman to reporters on Wednesday, adding that the parents had also filed a police report with the Kajang police station.

According to the report by her mother, the girl had decided to stop pursuing her geology degree after losing interest in her studies early this year. Instead, she had been hired by a Mr Reg as a manager of a cleaning company, said her mother in the report.

Despite pleas by her mother to reconsider her decision, Ipah was adamant not to continue her studies.

“She told her parents that she was unhappy with her field of study and wanted to return home,” Azeez said.

However, in their last conversation last week, the mother learnt that Ipah had recently been discharged from a hospital there after swallowing 50 paracetamol pills because she could not handle the work pressure.

Since then, Ipah had swithed off her handphone and has not contacted her parents.

It was learnt that the girl had been a bright student who scored nine A’s in her Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia.

She has been in Perth for three and a half years pursuing a geology degree under a scholarship by a major government-linked company.

She was supposed to have finished her course in another six months but had wanted to stop studying and return home on July 15.

The parents were there to greet Ipah but they learnt she did not board the flight.

To preserve their identities, the parents had declined to appear during the press conference and instead requested the secretariat to speak to the press on their behalf.

Azeez urged all parents with children studying overseas to remain in constant contact with their children.

“Check on them often and look at how they are doing, their progress - whether they are your sons or daughters,” he said.

From the Star

September 24, 2008 20:53 PM
Malaysian Student Missing In Australia
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 24 (Bernama) -- A 21-year-old student from Serdang, Selangor has been missing in Australia and her parents are now worried over her safety.

According to Putera Umno chief Datuk Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, the student last contacted her parents last week and told them that she would be back in Malaysia on Oct 16.

"Her parents tried to contact her again on several occasions but her mobile phone was no longer in service," Abdul Azeez told a news conference at the Putera Umno secretariat here.

Putera Umno is now assisting the parents to locate the student (name withheld by request).

He said four officials from the movement, including two legal officers, would accompany the parents to Perth next month to find the student and bring her home.

Abdul Azeez said the geology student at the Curtin University of Technology had stop attending lectures since January and was working as a manager of a building cleaning company since three months ago.

"However the company told the parents that their daughter had not turned up for work since two or three days ago and that she had followed her friends to Rockhampton (in Queensland)," he said.

-- BERNAMA