I have been shamed

I would like to share an incident that has happened recently which put me to shame.

Before we go on, let's take a look at another incident, about a NUS student from China, insulting Singaporeans through social media.

There has been quite a bit of talk about this kid lately. I would name him "InSUNity" after the mighty "Linsanity" just based on the amount of attention he is getting. Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all criticizing him for what he has done. First, let us go through some of the comments and actions from our dear Singaporeans.

Said the 24-year-old, "Why is our government paying him [Sun] to study here? How did he pass the selection process?"

NUS student Chng Kahhwee echoed Choy's sentiments. Said the 24-year-old, "His comment is an insult to the Singapore nation, especially the group which he had specifically mentioned."

"Given that he is a scholar background with educational funding from Singapore, the least he can do is to respect Singaporeans," she added.

There have even been calls from members of the public for MOE to revoke Sun's scholarship. In an online survey which asked respondents whether Sun's scholarship should be revoked, 96 per cent of those polled responded in the affirmative.

Ok, that's enough for now. There's one question in my mind. Why so much hate? There are people who doubted his character, said he was an insult to us, claimed he disrespected us, hoped to get him expelled and even branded him "worse than a dog".

So... What that Chinese guy did was to rage on his blog after getting stared for his mistake. Looks to me like he either had a bad day, or felt like he was mistreated. Of course, I do agree that in no way did the uncles who stared at him do the wrong thing. It's pure human instinct, and I bet that Chinese dude would stare at whoever that has bumped into him, until he apologized.

He is obviously in the wrong, but does it give the netizens the rights to "rape" him verbally?

Come on man. I believed 99% of the University peeps would have referred the Chinese as "Ah Tiong" at least once. Is this not an insult to them? When we complained about how those Bangladeshis stink on the MRT, are we sensitive? Typical Singaporeans would argue "I never publicly tell people ma. I tell my friends cannot ar?" Sadly, I have seen so many people posted comments like this on their facebook accounts. I can guarantee you that some of them have their profiles set as public. Hell yeah I have posted nasty comments about someone different from me at least once!

By calling others name, criticizing them for the plight they are in (I am quite sure those Bangladeshis didn't want to smell bad too), are you respecting them? Those Bangladeshis worked hard for us. Drawing less than $300/mth, they did all kind of work that no educated Singaporean would ever do. And I still have people drawing $3k/mth complaining about how bad life is!

Let's not glorify ourselves by putting the wrongdoers down. Unless you are 101% sure that you will not do what he/she did in that same situation, if not I would highly suggest you keep your comments to yourselves. It doesn't mean that I have no comment on every wrongdoing out there. It's just that I say things that I truly feel and choose not to join in the "fun" and be influenced by the consensus.

Most of the time I would make fun of them just like how I would make fun of myself to achieve the same entertaining effect. But when I get serious, I will make sure that I am truly responsible for what I have said and mean it.

Now, for the juicy part! The incident took place on the MRT. I was seated and there was a kid sitting opposite me. I soon realized that he was munching something in his mouth. To my horror, the next thing I saw was him tearing a huge piece of sponge cake, slowly biting bits and pieces off it.

"Wow, he got guts.", that's what I thought. I didn't do something insensitive or irresponsible, but the irony was that, the irresponsibility came from me not doing anything. I should have stopped him right there and then, but I didn't. Instead, I chose to look around, finding who is seeing what I am seeing.

Just when I was about to go over and stop him... Ok, I admit, I lied. Going over was never on my mind. I just depended on my eye power (stares) to convince him to stop. Not long after, an uncle went over and got seated beside him. He turned to that kid and started telling him, "Do you know that you shouldn't eat on the train? There's only a few stops left and you should wait until you are out of the MRT station." He didn't need to be Muhammad (Prophet) to tell when the kid was alighting, because there's only 4 stops left on the NEL :D

The kid replied softly about him being hungry and then looked away.

There were at least 20 of us on that MRT who saw that kid nibbling away at his sponge cake, but none of us did what we should have done for a prolonged period of time. Ultimately, it was the guy who was standing so far away that did the right thing.

And if this were to go on the News, highlighting how that kid was acting irresponsibly by dropping crumbs all over the train, the netizens will be raging so ever badly again. You and me might very well be sharing the same piece of article on our Facebook walls, shaming him for what he had done. But... given the same situation, would you have done what that unsung hero has done? We should be ashamed of ourselves, at least the majority of us.

I am not holy and I know it. I will never be that guy who can do all the right things and lead the world to behave more socially-responsible than just socially-acceptable. But still, I am at least trying to make myself a better person, learning from all the ugly mistakes that I have made. Life isn't about deciding who's right and who's wrong. Life is about identifying what is truly right and what is truly wrong, do the right things without succumbing to repeating the wrong ones. Don't be a follower, be a leader of your own. I'm definitely not a leader, but neither am I contented being a follower.