SINGAPORE, Oct 30 — The family of Asari Kartubi was used to his absences from home, until he remained incommunicado for years.
On Wednesday, the High Court declared he was dead as there had been no sign of him since 2001, more than the seven-year time limit under the law for someone to be presumed dead.
His family believes he disappeared with his sampan off the waters of Batam in March 2001. He was then 54, and five months away from his next birthday.
They came to that conclusion after a telephone call that month from someone in Batam who said he was a friend of the man. He said Asari had gone fishing in the open seas off Belakang Padang and had not returned for two days. He asked the family to pick up his belongings at a house in Kampong Arang on the island.
But the caller could not be found when Asari’s ex-wife, Ramlah Ismail, and a few of his family members showed up in the village.
The village headman was also clueless. He suggested they file a police report and directed them to another man’s house where they found Asari’s clothes in a bag but no wallet, valuables or passport.
His eldest son, Ramlan Asari, 37, told The Straits Times yesterday: “We waited but over time, there was no word from the Batam police about the case. Every two to three years, we would ask our relatives whether there was any word from him but there was nothing.”
He said Asari remained close to his three sons after he divorced his wife in 1989. He had 11 siblings and would stay at a sister’s flat in Jurong West whenever he was in Singapore.
His relatives submitted court affidavits to confirm they had not been contacted by him since he disappeared. Their word, along with representations from the family’s lawyer, Samri Barik, convinced High Court Judge Belinda Ang that the man was dead.
Ramlan said the family went to court as they feared Asari’s identity and personal details might be misused by someone else. There was also the matter of his estate, his Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings of more than $60,000 (RM1,440).
Ramlan, a logistics executive, described his father as an avid angler who wandered all over the Indonesian islands to fish. He would stay at the homes of the friends he made there.
His father spent Hari Raya in Singapore in December 2000, before taking off again. In February the next year, he called his family to say he was in Batam and had “to settle something”.
Asari sometimes travelled for more than a year on his own without saying where he was. “But he would return to spend Hari Raya with my aunt or call us on the phone but this time, there was nothing,” said Ramlan.
Ramlah said she was convinced her ex-husband was lost at sea as he would have shown up to claim his CPF savings on or after reaching 55 in August 2001. He had also not changed the names on his CPF nomination form made in 1981.
The family tried to trace him earlier this year again, placing a missing person’s notice in Berita Harian and seeking help from the immigration authorities.
They drew a blank. — The Straits Times
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