Kota Kinabalu: Zara Qairina Mahathir's mother told psychiatrists she felt she was "not doing good enough" and was sorry towards her daughter, the Coroner's Court heard on Friday.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Wong Haw Huo said Noraidah Lamat shared this during a psychiatric assessment conducted jointly with consultant psychiatrist Dr Aili Hanim Hashim, adding that she also regretted Zara attending the same boarding school where she had studied because she had encouraged her daughter to gain independence and make new friends as she had done.
Dr Wong said Noraidah's childhood was marked by her parents' separation, poverty and the loss of her father while she was pregnant with Zara, experiences which shaped her resilience, while she initially insisted she was "fine" throughout the assessment before breaking down during the final 10 minutes when discussing her daughter and repeatedly apologising and asking for permission to cry.
He also told the court that both Noraidah and Zara relied heavily on their religious faith as a coping mechanism, noting that religious and self-motivation books were found at their home, while a teacher had recalled Zara expressing a desire to become an ustazah, consistent with a diary entry in which she wrote that she hoped to become a badar one day to make her mother proud.
Dr Wong said Zara's thinking had been progressing positively but added that, despite this, other confounding factors during her final months at secondary school changed everything, while the inquest before Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan resumes on July 13.
