SUICIDE IN MALAYSIA

• Federal Territory Religious Department (Jawi) director Datuk Che Mat Che Ali said, while Jawi was not empowered to take action against those who attempt suicide, the organisation offered counselling to Muslims who felt there was no way out for them but to end their lives.

• This year alone, he said, Jawi had intervened in at least five cases where individuals, bogged down by family and financial problems, had contemplated suicide.

• However, if he is already hanging on a noose but the rope snaps and he is caught alive, it is considered an offence under Section 309. Section 306 of the Penal Code states that abetting a suicide carries a maximum jail term of 10 years and a fine.

• According to the Malaysian Psychiatric Association, suicide rates have increased by 60 per cent in the past 45 years, with an estimated seven people attempting suicide daily.
  

• The National Suicide Registry has recorded 31 suicide attempts by Malaysians and two non-Malaysians so far this year.

• Records also show that in 2000, 53 children under the age of 11 and 1,837 people above the age of 12 attempted suicide.

• The suicide rate among youths in Malaysia is estimated to be three in every 100,000.

• The Health Ministry in its "Guidelines in the Management of Psychiatric Disorders" said between 10 and 15 per cent of individuals who had attempted suicide eventually succeeded in killing themselves. Males were twice as likely to try again as females.

• The risk was particularly high in the first year after a failed attempt.

• It also recorded that suicide rates increased with age. The highest rates were among the elderly.

• Among men aged 65 and above, the suicide rate was 40 per 100,000, two to four times higher than the rate for women. Among women, the findings revealed that most of the attempted suicides were in the 15 to 24 age group (283 per 100,000) and among men most of them were in the 25 to 34 age group (199 per 100,000).

• According to a 2006 estimate, 13 in 100,000 Malaysians killed themselves as opposed to eight in the 1980s. The suicide rate in the Indian community was the highest with 30 to 35 in every 100,000 attempting suicide, compared with 15 Chinese and six Malays.

• However, the rates could be even higher as some cases may not have been reported, due to either the stigma attached to suicide or because the deceased's life insurance would normally contain a clause denying payments on the ground of self-inflicted death.
  
• SOURCE: http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Malaysia/Story/A1Story20081125-103213.html (25 november 2008)