I refer to the Malaysiakini report Police task force formed for missing girl .

I find that everybody has got it wrong. They blame the children and worst of all, society - all of us - simply because children have gone missing. I do not want to feel guilty for anything. I don't think anybody should.

The problem of missing children is solely due to their parents. There are hundreds of children who are reported lost every years. But they are not celebrated cases. And these children continue to be mere statistics and no one will find out if they will ever return.

Why do I say it is the parents’ fault? It is they who ask - or even force - their children to go to the 'pasar malam' unescorted late at night while they are busy watching television or are just too lazy to go out of the house after they have returned from work.

Do they not worry about their children's safety? The problem of missing children are ‘missing parents’ - parents in whom responsibility, due care and commonsense are missing. Worse, it is also about missing laws and regulations.

For instance, the police are reluctant to charge parents of missing children with negligence as they fear that they are sending the wrong message to other parents who may fear lodging reports when their own children go missing. But on the other hand, the move may prompt parents to be just a bit more careful.

The authorities must state their stand on this matter forcefully so that parents won't feel that they can expect to get sympathy, and in most cases, 'financial benefits' should they lose their children.

Such parents become instant celebrities with wives of ministers knocking at their door. They are on television and behaving like film stars. I do not feel sorry for them. I feel scorn. I do not share their grief.

I lost my brother when he was knocked down and dragged by a bus. My father refused to accept compensation from the bus company because he did not think it was right to accept 'financial benefits' from the death of his son. I was still a baby and was not aware of what he was experiencing then.

My father had bought my brother a bicycle so he could cycle to school and be independent. He was on that bicycle when the accident happened. My father took the crushed piece of metal and kept it until I was old enough to know what it was all about.

It's not that I do not sympathise with the parents of missing children; I do. I just don't care about parents who are careless and negligent. Why should we pity or sympathise with them?

To solve the problem of missing children, the authorities, especially the law-makers, should be realistic. Children do not go missing on their own. They only go missing when their parents are ‘missing’. Worse, when the relevant laws and authorities are also missing.

As long as parents are not blamed when their children go missing, more children will suffer the same fate. And more parents, particularly those from the low-income group, will become instant celebrities whom no one needs.