Close friend of NTU student Cheryl Tan Qiwei disputes claims by state media that she committed suicide due to “stress” in her school work
January 13, 2010 by admin
Filed under Headlines
Written by Our Correspondent
A close friend of NTU student Cheryl Tan Qiwei who shocked the NTU fraternity by jumping to her death from her flat three days ago had written to us to dispute the claims by the state media that she committed suicide due to “stress” in her school work.
Chinese evening newspaper Lianhe Wanbao speculated yesterday that Cheryl might have ended her life because of “stress”. According to her close friend who wishes to remain anonymous, Cheryl has been “depressed” for quite some time, but she declined to reveal the real reasons behind her low mood.
“She (Cheryl) has a very gloomy outlook on her life and is pessimistic about everything though she tries to put up a facade of being happy and cheerful in front of others. I notice that she suddenly closed up in the last few days. It is so difficult to talk to her and I blame myself for not spending more time with her.”
Her account was corroborated by another friend of Cheryl who recounted what a senior in Cheryl’s cell group told her:
“A senior of her in the sharing group said that she knows, when Cheryl is not smiling, it means that something really happened. I sensed that this girl had things troubling her really badly. A very tormented soul – that what left an impression in me, at that point of time..and that’s how I could recall.”
[Source: 24hr Porky Love]
She also dismissed the Wanbao’s claims as “pure rubbish”:
“Cheryl was an excellent student who never encountered any problems in her school work. I hope the media can put a stop all these meaningless speculations and leave her family and friends alone in peace.”
Apparently, some SPH reporters had been trying to contact Cheryl’s grieving parents and friends for an interview over the past two days.
Another friend of Cheryl left a comment on our site:
“I’m an acquaintance of Cheryl. Feel shocked and sad at her loss, and made me rethink about my life. The last time I’ve chatted with her, we were still discussing about our future and the profession we’re going to enter. This news affected a few of my friends as well. Suicide is still a personal decision, no matter what are the factors. You’ll be missed, Cheryl.”
The Singapore media has the knack of propagating wild speculations about such suicide cases. Last year, the media attributed the suicides of NTU student David Widjaja and SAF Medical Officer Dr Allan Ooi to “over-indulgence in computer games, relationship problems and addiction to gambling”, causing much distress, agony and anger to their families. In 1986, then National Development Minister Teh Chean Wan committed suicide before he could be formally charged in court for corrupted practices. He maintained till the end that he was innocent. Both the English and Chinese papers published only a short article about the case. There were no speculations about the “story” behind his suicide which had been circulating around.