Switching between tenses

Independent Clause  past tense/past continuous/ past perfect tense/
present tense/present prefect/future tense

Dependent Clause ing-phrase/ en-phrase


He has NO BRAINS, she's just a SMALL GIRL


She was taken from his home without his knowledge.   Then she was taken to hospital with serious head injuries.  Four days later, his little girl was dead, the victim of constant abuse by the boyfriend of his ex-wife.

Sir Alyaniz Nazri's brief life had lasted just two years and four months.  No wonder Mr Nazri Rahman, 29, was consumed with rage yesterday.

His fury was written all over his face when he saw Mohd Azhar in court.  He stared hard at the accused's family members, some of whom left the court crying after hearing the sentence.

Mr Nazri told The New Paper outside the court: "I'm very angry.  At the end of 12 years, he will be out and everything will be back to normal for him.  But after 12 years, will my daughter come back?  I want what he did to my daughter to be done back to him."

Mr Nazri was not alone in his disgust at what Mohd had done.  District Judge Lee Poh Choo did not mince her words when sentencing Mohd Azhar Ghapar, calling him "a coward and a bully" who put his victim through 18 days of hell.

Mr Narzri, a logistics supervisor, recalled the last time he saw his little girl, who was fondly known as Abut.  He was about to leave for work when she asked him:  "Papa, can I go to work with you?"  It was the first time she had made such a request.  He told her no and asked her to wait for him to come back.

Unknown to him, his ex-wife went to the flat later that day and took Abut and her elder sister with her. 

Weeks later, Abut was dead.  Abused by her mother's then-boyfriend, she suffered brain injuries after he had head-butted her twice over three days.  He also punched and stepped on her.  She died in hospital on Oct 14, 2009, without regaining consciousness.

Divorced
Mr Nazri told The New Paper: "I still don't know why my ex-wife came that day to take the kids.  We had agreed that she could have the kids for the Hari Raya period, but we also agreed that she would take them only when I was around."

They divorced a few years ago and their two daughters lived with him even though his ex-wife, Ms Siti Junaina, 30, had custody of them.  He and the girls were living with his aunt in Jurong.  When he learnt his ex-wife had taken them away, he did not pursue the issue with her.

A few weeks later, she called to tell him that Abut was in hospital and had undergone an operation.  Mr Nazri rushed to the National University Hospital where he met Mohd Azhar.

"I asked him what happened and he said that Abut fell off a bicycle.  I told him I was not stupid," said Mr Nazri. "How could a fall from the bicycle have landed her in hospital like that? I'm still very angry he lied to me."

At the hospital, he also scolded Ms Siti, a sales assistant, and demanded an explanation but she could not tell him what had happened. 

The court had heard that Mohd Azhar had planned to marry Ms Siti last year.

Yesterday, Ms Siti turned up in court holding hands with another man.  They were accompanied by two female friends.

When approached, she declined to be interviewed.  Mr Nazri said he knew the truth only when he read newspaper reports after Mohd Azhar pleaded guilty in court.  He was arrested on Oct 12, 2009.  He said: "When I read the newspapers and found out what he did, I felt mad.  I couldn't take it,  I was very angry.  No brains.  She's just a small girl!"

Although Abut died one and a half years ago, his last memories of her remain vividly clear.  He remembers how she looked as she lay in her hospital bed.  "When I saw her lying there, I knew she was gone.  She was like a shell, nothing inside," he said.  He kept vigil by her bedside the whole time, leaving only to take quick showers, changing into clothes his sister brought for him.  He recalled: "I just sat beside her, praying and crying.  I talked to her.  I told her that she could go if she was suffering too much.  She looked like she was in so much pain."  Abut died four days after she was admitted to hospital.

The doting father in Mr Nazri shone through when he spoke about his little girl.  He still remembers her cheeky personality and how she loved to "disturb people".  "She liked to dance around the flat and she always liked to watch cartoons," he recalled.

"I think about her very often.  Uptil now, I cannot forget about (what happened).  I still miss her."  The pain is so difficult to bear that he has left her things at home untouched.  Her clothes are still in her cupboard and her things are still where she had left them,  He does not intend to put them away or throw anything away.

Mr Nazri seldom speaks with his ex-wife, who visits their elder daughter, five, occasionally.

He has since broken the news of Abut's death to the girl.  At the time of the incident, the family hid the truth by telling her that her sister was asleep.  But the girl kept saying she missed her sister and wanted her to come back.  Mr Nazri said he finally told the elder girl that her sister had gone away alone and would not be coming back any more.  The two visit little Abut's grave once or twice every month.

There, by her grave, father and daughter pray.  Abut's elder sister usually says: "Kakak (older sister in Malay) was here.  Kakak will come back to see you."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For voluntarily causing grievous hurt, Mohd Azhar was sentenced to 12 years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane.