Hammer Man

It was havoc that 3 kindies kids in Muar had been attacked by 'hammer man'.

I remembered the true story related to 'hammer man' once revealed by no other than my beloved father.

The man was known as 'Mat Mertun' as mertun was a malay word for hammer. My father bumped into him while we were hanging out around shoplots at Alor Setar sometimes back in the early '80s.

"Mat Mertun' was not mentally sound and his head looked very fragile almost wobbling like jelly (not that bad but noticed that it was not normal though).

When we reached home, my father told us the untold story...my father just started his career as a teacher and was sent to 'Pokok Asam' , a very remote area in Kedah.

He rented a room at a shop house with another friend and most of the times they were confined in their two bedded room as not much activities or places to hang around as they were outsiders.

Their presence were not that welcomed by the villagers and even there was an incident during school whereby they had been attacked by 'kampung people' who were not satisfied with their teaching styles.

So, on that fated night, around 11 p.m., they heard gruesome arguments between two men who they believed were drunk.

After a while they heard screams and peeped through the window. It was too dark but they spotted that one of the men was hitting the other men's head with a hammer several times.

They really scared and tucked themselves in their bed until the next morning, when almost every one in the village was talking of the incident.

Since then, the 'mat mertun' had been mentally unsound. The other man fled and never been brought to justice.

Luckily, the kids in Muar are recovering and hopefully whoever behind the attack would be brought to justice...

I was smiling to myself when I saw another suggestion that kindergarten should employ a security guard to ensure safety.

I feel funny on how Malaysian thinks on solving problems...