A little article about Singaporeans

Straits Times Oct 31, 2004
Huang Na: Let it show

THE ordeal of Huang Na, the missing little girl from China, is uncovering for Singaporeans a side of their psyche which a people hardened by materialism and competition for space have kept repressed. This is the side which is demonstrative, spontaneous, kindly, ready to reach out to help and to comfort. Retirees, young men and women, teenagers and resident foreigners have been mobilising themselves unbidden to help in the search for the girl, who went missing some weeks ago. Mass-reach 'search-engine' devices like an Internet website and a monetary reward have been employed, alongside more conventional methods such as hand-distributed mailers and foot-pounding by searchers. The Malaysian police and media have also been drawn into this massive display of the popular will to do good. Seldom has a mass-movement motivated by compassion for a helpless person been encountered here. This is a triumph of citizen activism. If the police have subliminally felt the groundswell of concern for the child, and committed more resources to the search as a result, so much the better.

All this has happened without prompting - not by the media, not by politicians and civic leaders, not because of an appeal by the girl's despairing mother. This is the noteworthy aspect of the Huang Na phenomenon. We must wish the people will go on to exhibit their kindliness and spontaneity more. Singaporeans tend to be too hard on themselves. They could have been subconsciously conditioned, as basically economic animals, to project stoicism as a strength. Who says successful, hard-charging people have to be macho and self-absorbed and to always show self-control? It is all right to cry sometimes in joy or sadness, to show they will take the time to help people in distress. If Huang Na is returned safely to her parents, it is their fulfilment too.

Sometimes, we are so lost in our own minute problems and headeaches which are merely day to day affairs that we tend to not let ourselves be affected by such incidents, which truely speaking, are non-of-our-business. But, could you bear to do so? If you had been following this case, there is simply no way you could have shelved it aside. After reading this article, I do realise that I am not the only one who feels this way, and somehow I do feel good. There is humanity in a society that portray more resemblences to a community of zombies after all~!