DPM: Help find the boy

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday made a personal appeal to all Malaysians to help find William Yau Zhen Zhong.

"I share the family's grief and I truly hope that the boy is found safe and sound.

"This is why I am making an appeal to Malaysians to come forward and help find the boy. Any leads they have must be immediately chanelled to the police or the Social Welfare Department.

"Any information, no matter how small, could help find William and return him back safely to his family."

Muhyiddin, who is also Education Minister, made this appeal after handing out the RM100 schooling aid to students of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tun Haji Abdul Malik in Cheng, here.

In Kuala Lumpur, the RHB Banking Group has joined in efforts to locate 6-year-old William.

Under its Missing Children-Reuniting Families programme, RHB has mobilised staff in all 200 branches nationwide in an effort to bring public attention to the missing child.

"When the information was received via the Nur Alert System on Jan 18, all RHB branches nationwide were directed to print and distribute the missing child's posters to the public," said RHB's director of group corporate services Norazzah Sulaiman.

The directive saw RHB staff and volunteers distributing posters at toll plazas, shopping malls, bus stations and even taxi stands nationwide.

William's poster was also uploaded on the bank's Facebook page and its corporate website to ensure the online community was also roped in to help with the search.

"These cases of missing children, though small in number, have a debilitating effect on entire families and communities, regardless of religion, race or age groups," Norazzah said.

She said when RHB began studying reports of missing children, it found that there was limited involvement by the public and there was no real commitment to assist the authorities to look for them.

"As such, we started exploring a working environment with the police to see how we could be of help."

"The RHB Banking Group has made it a priority to safeguard our young and we will continue to invest our resources in the protection of children through our Missing Children-Reuniting Families programme."

The financial banking group launched its programme in 2007 in partnership with the police and was involved in cases of 12 missing children.

Meanwhile, as of yesterday, 11 million copies of the boy's photograph have been distributed nationwide.

This figure was revealed by police as the search operations entered its seventh day.

The prints comprised pamphlets, newspapers and flyers.

The KK group of companies has also joined in by distributing more than 25,000 copies of William's photograph.

Its chief executive officer, Datuk Dr Douglas K.K. Chai, said another 15,000 copies were being printed.

"We have distributed the flyers at 130 KK Mart outlets nationwide. We are also working with our staff, suppliers and contractors to distribute the copies.

"Our staff have also distributed the flyers at their respective housing areas. All we want is to reunite William with his family.