WHEN ECSTASY USE GIVES OTHERS AGONY

TAIPING: For market trader Cheah Mooi Jiang from Simpang, the Ecstasy
scourge has left him with a personal loss.

Four months ago, his wife, Ong Kwi Bee, 45, was killed after the motorcycle
she was riding on was knocked by a car whose driver was apparently high on
the drug.

Cheah was close to tears while recounting the April 22 incident.

"We hold no grudge against the motorist because he was also killed in the
accident.

"I hope other youngsters will not take Ecstasy pills because they are not
only hurting themselves but also other innocent people,'' said Cheah, 53.

Recalling the incident, Cheah, a vegetable wholesaler at the Simpang
market, said he was already at his stall in Jalan Chung Thye Ping about
4.30am on that fateful day.

"Around 7.30am, I was informed by a tow truck driver about the accident and
I could not believe it until I saw her body at the mortuary,'' he said in
an interview.

Cheah was informed by passers-by that another motorcyclist was nearly
knocked down by the same car in Simpang minutes before Ong was hit while
she was passing the bridge at Batu Tegoh river in Jalan Simpang.

In the 5.40am incident, passers-by were unaware of Ong's predicament as it
was still dark.

"Her body was flung about 30m to the other side of the river.

"Only after dawn did they discovered her body,'' he said.

One of Cheah's nephews, Tan Tiam Hat, 17, who passed by the scene saw Ong's
motorcycle and stopped only to discover that the body covered by some
newspapers in the bush, was Ong's.

Cheah's eldest child, Geak Ngo, 21 said many well-wishers, including her
friends, also said that the motorist--a 28-year-old salesman from Kampung
Boyan here--was a known Ecstasy user who frequented a discotheque here.

"But I also pity him because he left behind a pregnant wife and a few young
children,'' she said.

Geak Ngo, a factory worker in Singapore has since resigned to take over her
late mother's chores and to look after her brother, Ping Lam, who is
studying in Form Four at SK Hua Lian here.

She hoped that something could be learned from her family's tragedy,
especially by young people who might be tempted to try out the drug.