Voon Shiak Ni
KUCHING (July 1): Social activist Voon Shiak Ni is urging people to respond to the White Flag campaign by raising a white flag when they are desperately in need of food and are feeling helpless during this Covid-19 pandemic.
“Put up a white flag or a piece of white cloth in the compound of your house. Let us identify and reach you,” she said in a press statement yesterday.
Members of the public are also urged to help identify the same and offer help in ways they can.
Community leaders and activists could also lend support, she said.
“The White Flag campaign is a peoples’ initiative by the people, for the people. It is a very thoughtful initiative with the objective to identify families needing help be it in the forms of food or a friend to anyone going through emotional stress.
“We all understand that the pandemic, lockdown, isolation and the uncertainty of livelihood are taking a toll on families not only in terms of financial strains but also emotional stress.
“We are also alarmed by the rising number of suicides since last year. Already in the first quarter of this year, there are 336 suicide cases reported in Malaysia,” she said.
Quoting sources from helpline of the Befrienders KL, Voon said the calls from people who are distressed and needed emotional support from March to May this year hadshot up to 10,412 cases, a 50 per cent increase over the same period last year.
I personally, as a lawyer, also note the trending increase in the number of people calling us for consultation on family disputes, marriage problems and divorce matters.”
Through the campaign Voon said she hoped to tell the society that Malaysians care.
“All of us cares. Let us know if you need help and this is the objective of the White Flag campaign.
“This initiative by the people is an action beyond politics and we encourage all to participate regardless of parties’ affiliation. Be it a deed sincere and true to help those who need us.
“Let us all be aware of this campaign and do whatever in our capacity to help those families in need of help. Let us weather through this difficult times and the pandemic together,” said Voon.
Malaysians on social media have come up with the #benderaputih (White Flag) movement for those in dire need of food and essentials to indicate this to neighbours without needing to beg for help.
The movement suggested that those who desperately needed assistance fly a white flag or cloth outside their homes, to let those able to help know which households were facing extreme difficulties.
The initiative arose amid growing reports of Malaysians being pushed to their breaking points by the near-total and indefinite closure of the economy due to the pandemic.
Even Minister of Housing and Local Government Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin has also announced and tweeted her undivided support for the campaign.