BRIAN CANAVE WRITES – Taiwanese people and media are outraged by the murder of a Taiwanese national and kidnapping of the victim’s wife in the Malaysian island of Pom Pom. Throughout late November, Taiwanese and Malaysian media covered the incident from all sides, ranging from international paper press, television news coverage and even social media outlets.
So, what’s the story? What happened in Pom Pom? According to the Malaysia Chronicle, Taiwan national Lim Min Hsu was shot twice while vacationing on Pom Pom island in the state of Sabah, Malaysia. He was killed while his wife, An Wei Chang, was abducted by a group of heavily armed men. Malaysia Chronicle reports that “Taiwan’s national daily, Ping Guo Ri Bao, front paged the report;” meanwhile other national newspapers such as The China Times, Liberty Times, provided coverage of the incident.
The news caused international outrage spreading all across social media in Taiwan and abroad. The Malaysian Digest has been following the incident and the opinions arising from the murder-kidnap. According to The Malaysian Digest, Taiwan television media has been negatively reporting the handling of the incident reflecting “authorities’ lack of discipline to maintain law and order.” Malaysian Defense Minister Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein caused more heckling by saying he did not need to apologize for the kidnapping incident. According to the report, Hussein made a statement that “kidnappings occur everywhere;” this sparked controversy angering Taiwanese media and netizens.
Clearly the statement is true, kidnappings occur everywhere. However this statement is insensitive and fails to acknowledge the nation’s security shortcomings.