Malaysia has recently been gripped by an alarming social issue: suicide. Many Malaysians are becoming concerned as it is being committed by youths. English daily The Star reported people in the 20-39 year old age group make up the highest number of suicides, and although an average of two suicides a day is reported, experts believe that the statistic could be higher.

In the span of a few weeks, two Malaysian youths committed suicide after revealing their intentions on Facebook.

Joshua Ong wrote about a 22 year-old Malaysian, Alviss Kong, who committed suicide after a failed relationship. In it, he also writes

I’m gonna repeat again that this is a really saddening matter and doing so is really a very bad example to a lot of people out there where there might be people of same experiences/thoughts who want to follow after the victim’s footsteps.

In a separate incident in February, a 17 year-old high school student jumped from the second floor of her school a few days after she posted on Facebook that she wanted to take her own life.

Blogger BusybeingBossy wrote that there is a need to address this growing problem.

The experts say that before someone wants to commit suicide they would give cries of help.In Sally's case, she did cry for help.Unfortunately her cry for help went to the wrong authority. Unfortunately we failed in Sally's case.Are we going to fail again in the future? Look like we are gong to keep repeating the mistakes as we as Malaysians do have the habit of sweeping under the carpet as it is not in our culture to talk about committing suicide. We need to realise it is high time for us to talk about this matter.If you are depressed, please seek help from the right authority. Seek help from parents, relatives, doctors, friends, teachers and counselors. Be responsible. Value life.

This opinion was also shared by Sharifah Nong-Jasima:

Frankly, I used to think that people who claim they want to commit suicide are people who crave for attention but now, after reading the papers, some of these people who commit suicide have friends who actually ‘encourage’ them to do it. Comments like, “Go die, lah” or “Let me buy you a coffin.” is indirectly encouraging a person to commit suicide. People who are troubled need to be heard and helped.