Cruel Insults Hurled At This Malaysian Woman Continued Even After Her Suicide Note
"Fat people are complicated."
By Tang Ruxyn — 05 Jul 2016, 05:26 PM
Local social media channels have been abuzz with a certain Arlina Banana, after a suicide note she left on Twitter went viral
Arlina tweeted that she was unwell and was going to take her own life because she could no longer stand the cyberbullying that she had to face.
Shortly after those tweets went live on Twitter, Arlina's account was deleted.
Who is Arlina Banana?
Arlina Arshad, or more popularly known as Arlina Banana, is a writer and online personality with more than 34,500 followers on Instagram.
As an avid book lover, Arlina started an initiative called 'My Date is a Book' in September 2014. It is one of the more well-known blind book date initiatives in Malaysia that champions the belief in not judging a book by its cover.
Earlier this year, her book titled 'Pujuk', which means coax in Malay, was published by Buku Pojok.
In an exclusive interview with SosCili.my in April, Arlina said that she writes to motivate herself and uses social media as an escapism.
She admitted that she was initially disappointed when people ridicule her because of her physical appearance but later learnt how to ignore these negative comments and focus on the other aspects of a person which are far more important, such as skills, attitude and character.
Although she "vanished" from Twitter after her last post, that didn't stop netizens from talking about her shocking announcement.
For starters, many accused her of being an "attention seeker".
One user even went as far as to say that he would "celebrate her death with a 3-day-feast"
However, as the news spread, support started pouring in for Arlina, condemning the cyberbullies for their harsh comments
Some have pointed out that those who hurled insults at Arlina are extremely ignorant as they have wrongly attributed those who suffer from conditions such as Borderline personality disorder (BPD) as "weak-minded" instead of recognising that these people are in need of intervention and support.
The incident also exposes the underlying issue here in Malaysia, where many people still have serious misconceptions and prejudice towards mental health issues.
According to the American National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), as many as 80% of people with BPD have suicidal behaviours, and about 4 to 9% commit suicide.
It is unclear what really took place after Arlina deleted her account, but a person who claimed to be her friend said that she is fine, and is taking time some off from social media.