Kota Kinabalu: The Coroner’s Court here on Friday heard that Zara Qairina Mahathir was conscious but visibly distressed during her final interaction with a fellow student on the night before she was found beneath her hostel building, and had expressed a desire to leave the school.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Wong Haw Huo told Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan that Zara was fully conscious at the time, as she was able to recognise the student, one of the child deponents, who testified that “wajahnya kelihatan merah seperti baru menangis” (“her face looked red as if she had just finished crying”).
Advertisement
Dr Wong said the observation indicated that Zara was experiencing significant emotional distress.
“She was clearly under deep stress after isolating herself in the toilet. It is possible that she had just come out of the toilet when she was seen by the student,” he said.
Responding to questions from conducting officer and Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Fairuz Johari, Dr Wong, the 75th deponent, said the first words Zara uttered to the student were, “Saya mahu pindah sekolah” (“I want to transfer schools”).
He explained that Zara may have struggled to explain the reasons behind her distress because the traumatic sequence of events had allegedly occurred only hours earlier.
“Imagine having to piece together the entire picture by connecting all the dots in order to understand what had happened,” he said.
According to Dr Wong, the available accounts suggested that Zara had allegedly been subjected to repeated confrontations and humiliation by a group of students.
“She cried, she shouted, but no one comforted her. She went into the toilet, perhaps hoping someone would come after her because she was emotionally vulnerable and dysregulated at that time,” he said.
He added that Zara appeared to be seeking psychological safety and support, but none was forthcoming until she encountered the student, whom he believed was likely the last person to speak to her.
“The first thing she said was, ‘I want to transfer schools,’ followed by, ‘I want to jump,’” he said.
However, Dr Wong cautioned against interpreting the latter statement as clear evidence of suicidal intent.
“Do I agree that she clearly understood the consequences? I do not agree because I was not assessing Zara at that time,” he said.
“What did she mean by ‘I want to jump’? Jump from where? The third floor? The second floor? The first floor? We simply do not know.
“To establish suicidal intent, further clarification would have been needed. If someone says they want to jump, we need to know from where and what outcome they expected,” he added.
Dr Wong said the statement could instead have reflected Zara’s overwhelming emotional distress and desire to escape her circumstances.
“She may have been thinking, ‘I’m so distressed, I just want to find a way to escape.’ But remember who Zara was at that moment. She was confined within the hostel environment, and according to the evidence, no one, including her dorm mates, came forward to check on her,” he said.
Dr Wong noted that multiple independent witnesses had testified it was the first time they had seen Zara experience such an emotional breakdown.
“That tells us the extent of her psychological distress and the overwhelming negative emotions she was experiencing.
“She wanted support, but none came. That is why I do not agree that it can simply be assumed she fully understood the consequences of what she said. Without establishing her understanding and comprehension at that moment, it would be unfair to speculate that she intended the outcome,” he said.
