Shame on you, NTU -- how much in advance an appointment needs to be made?!

I love the improved version of this ST article about David Widjaja's parents. The use of 'allegedly stabbing his professor' seems more fair than other articles about the case. Well done, Straits Times!

But boo boo to NTU! The president Dr. Su Guaning was unable to meet the parents with a lame excuse of "his schedule was already filled with pre-arranged appointments. The university said it was unable to accommodate the request at short notice."

Sure. It's always the simple case of first-come-first-served, huh? No matter how critical the request be made, if it's done late, it won't be entertained?!

Please, shouldn't you be able to empathize more to the parents' plight, NTU? Why can't other appointment be postponed or rescheduled? Surely there are other lesser important ones...

And what is it with the alleged victim Associate Professor Chan Kap Luk? He couldn't be contacted at his home? Well, that's fine. He's been discharged from the hospital anyway & he's entitled to go out of his house.

But his lack of trying to contact the parents is in my opinion, just showing how little he thinks about his late student's family's grief. And that is sad. Yes, David Widjaja is the alleged stabber & allegedly injured the lecturer, however shouldn't he be more considerate & try to imagine how devastated his parents are???

The family of the Indonesian undergraduate believed to have fallen to his death after allegedly stabbing his professor returned here last week, hoping to find out more about the final hours of his life.

But after four days here, the parents and brother of former Nanyang Technological University (NTU) student David Hartanto Widjaja appeared to have accomplished little of what they had hoped to do.

They talked to some of Mr Widjaja's friends but failed to meet NTU president Su Guaning and Associate Professor Chan Kap Luk, who has since been discharged from hospital.

It has been a month since Mr Widjaja, a 21-year-old final-year electrical and electronic engineering student allegedly stabbed Prof Chan, 45, during a discussion over his final-year project and then fell four storeys to his death on campus.

His family is still grieving, and its members say they have been unable to come to terms with their loss because the young man gave them no inkling that anything was wrong when they spoke to him days before his death.

The family came back here the first chance they could, taking advantage of the long weekend tied to the legislative elections in Indonesia.

The day after their Wednesday arrival, they parked themselves at the Indonesian Embassy, where they waited six hours to meet more than 30 of Mr Widjaja's friends who had turned up to vote.

The Widjajas were, however, less successful in getting a meeting with Dr Su. They tried to arrange for one through the embassy, which sent in their request for the meeting late on Wednesday afternoon. By then, Dr Su's schedule was already filled with pre-arranged appointments.

The university said it was unable to accommodate the request at short notice and offered to let them meet the senior associate provost in charge of undergraduate education, but the family declined.

They wanted to speak to Dr Su, who was the first to take them through the sequence of events leading to Mr Widjaja's death.

His family members were also unable to meet Prof Chan to hear his side of the story, despite making a trip to his condominium home in Jurong East on Friday.

From Straits Times, "Family returns for more info".

Previously on this case:
- The Curious Case of David Widjaja | The parents 'clarify'; NTU makes a false claim?; Indonesian bloggers to 'verify'.