Johor Bahru—A Malaysian mother who works as an administrative clerk in Singapore was reunited with her four-year-old for the first time since March, when the movement control order (MCO) was implemented by the Malaysian government.
The Star called the reunion a ‘tearful’ one, and quotes the happy mother as saying, “The last time I saw my son was in March, before the MCO. The past few months had been difficult to bear as we could only communicate via video calls.
There were times when he told his babysitter that we had gone missing as he was too young to understand the circumstances we are facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was heartbreaking that we could not be there with him physically.”
The mother and son reunited on September 11 at the Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex in Johor Bahru. Forty-two-year-old Liow Chin Chin was brought to the CIQ complex in a Singapore Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) van to meet her son Ten Kai Bin for the first time in about half a year.
Kai Bin, Ms Liow’s only child with husband Ten Boon Keen, 53, cried out “mummy!” and ran into her arms when he saw her emerge from the van.
The grateful mother added, “When Kai Bin first saw me at the CIQ, he did not say much and only hugged me tightly. It was only when we reached our Singapore home that he started telling us how much he missed us.
We even missed his fourth birthday celebration on Aug 15, so we will celebrate it with him now that he is back with us.
Ms Liow and Mr Ten have worked in Singapore for the past eight years, going back to Johor on Friday nights to pick up Kai Bin from his babysitter so the family could have weekends together.
Johor Jaya assemblywoman Liow Cai Tung, from whom Ms Liow asked for assistance in reuniting the family last month, helped arrange for Ms Liow to pick up Kai Bin at the CIQ complex.
When they heard the announcement that the MCO would last through the end of 2020, Ms Liow and Mr Ten made up their minds to ask for help in bringing Kai Bin to Singapore, as a longer separation from their child was no longer bearable.
The assemblywoman accompanied the four-year-old boy to the the Sultan Iskandar CIQ for the family reunion, and thanked the Immigration Department and Singapore’s ICA for helping the family come together once more. —/TSG
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