THE TEMASEK REVIEW

the media don't tell u this:

I heard that there were fresh scars on david’s neck and lips (why would he slit his neck and lips if in the end he committed suicide by slitting his wrists and jumped off the building?) WERE THEY BOTH ATTACKING EACH OTHER??

art:

I can not accept the statement by some media that he did this because his scholarship is going to be terminated.

First:
He’s a final year student in final semester.
He should be graduating in the following semester and will it make sense to terminate scholarship for somebody WHO WILL NOT EVEN BE IN SCHOOL BY THEN?

Oh Tham Eng:

IN SUCH TERRIBLE TIMES LIKE THESE!….

I understand this unsuccessful homicide and tragic suicide as another case arising from computer addiction. Such terrible addiction is afflicting modern youths like a plague. Once a young person is addicted to it, other areas of his life also get affected. So I am not surprised this maths genius grades for his NTU course started to slip.

But being accustomed to the adulation of lower mortals, and not learning how to cope with adversity when being humbled by the harsh realities of life, I am not surprised David’s sense of reality got terribly warped. It doesn’t matter that he’s a Buddhist youth with a ‘Christian’ name. Such addiction is continuing to claim vast numbers of victims from all strata of human society. So our Government must devote more resources and attention to this terrible scourge of modern life.

I am very sad that as a result of this tragic incident, David’s mum, his country Indonesia, NTU and Singapore (as he is an ASEAN scholar) has lost such a promising young man. Good that his lecturer Professor Chan survived the unexpected stabbing to his back. People say Prof Chan is a good lecturer, and he is as clueless as many of us are that things should end up in such a bloody way! How very sad!

So we better watch out for each other in terribly times like this. We must take seriously this adage: that Singaporeans MUST HELP Singaporeans and others. Otherwise, who is going to help us if Singapore is in big trouble? If we can’t help in any way, let’s learn how to give some hard-pressed souls our shoulders to shed their tears and unburden their griefs.

Oh Tham Eng:

{”smallvoice585″ wrote on March 5th, 2009 3.50 pm #46: Dear #45 Oh Tham Eng, Your diagnosis is absolutely correct – ….underlying cause….very likely to be computer game addiction. The neglect of his studies, de-socialization, de-personalization, the sudden, violent and unpredictable behavior – all the classic symptoms are there…..not about school stress, heartlessness or mercenary attitude of NTU, the lack of counselling support or the dynamics of elitism and its pretensions…}
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TIME TO STOP THE CRUEL AND WILD SPECULATIONS!

And if I may add, “smallvoice585″, it has something negative to do with our Asian culture, namely the Confucian value of saving or keeping face. Because of this, we, especially Chinese or those living under strong Confucianist value system, are not as expressive and open/frank as the people in the West generally are. Those angmos can slam each other like hell, and after the next few days, you can see them drinking/pubbing together and being so buddy-buddy to each other.

Classic examples are what we recently saw in the three US Presidential candidates—Senator McCain, Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Obama (who isn’t exactly an angmo-gau). When Obama won the US PE, Senator McCain was most gracious, unsolicited, unprompted and effusive with his words of congratulations and pledges of support for President-elect Obama—after all the bad slamming and mud-slinging. Same goes for Senator Hillary Clinton, who ended up in President Obama’s Cabinet as his Secretary of State.

But poor David had always been a high flyer, obviously living life in the laps of privilege and the adulations from the lesser mortals—as the top student of his school in Indonesia; being his country’s representative for the Maths Olympiad. etc. In Singapore, he represented NTU in something like the Cyberspace Olympiad, and was an ASEAN scholar basking in the accolades of a math genius. He had not tasted the humble lives of the lesser mortals living lowly. I’m sure he was also his mother’s pampered pet, being her most brilliant and gifted kid. And now, everything has gone kaput—just like that!

Once David was caught in the unbreakable grip of computer addiction, his luminary life started to unravel and spin out of control. Being brought up deeply entrenched in the Confucian concept of keeping or saving face, he lacked the spiritual strength to tell his mum candidly that he was sinking into an inexplicable inner turmoil, in what is called “spiritual bondage” in Christian terminology.

Because of the gripping fear of losing face, he could not be frank with his mum who often called to find out how he was getting on, and how was his scholarship? He lied that his life was okay and his scholarship was okay too, when we know too late that they were not—all because of that paralysing fear of losing face and being a great disappointment to his dear mum and dad, who obviously cherished high and great hopes in him.

I am sad to say that David’s tragic end will not be the last in our Confucianist society too. Therefore, we must all try to look out for each other during such terrible times like these, and not laugh or gloat at others who are suffering inner turmoils, or loss of face because of retrenchments or business failures, etc, etc. Let us all try to learn how to give some words of encouragement to the afflicted souls. “For he who waters will himself be watered.” Proverbs 11:25

Let us direct such afflicted youngsters to look at Microsoft Bill Gates. He too could not cope with his academic workload in Harvard, as his passion and time spent were in computers. He wisely dropped himself out of Harvard, as he knew that his talents and passion were elsewhere, not in the pursuit of academic excellence. After all, David had been passing all his exams in NTU.

So what if he had lost his ASEAN scholarship and his chance to be a Mandarin in PAP’s government? But he still could find a good job in PAP government or in the private sector, given his high intelligence, his energy and great ability and his academic attainments. If many could live life happily without being a scholar, surely he could do the same too without having to take his own life and that of another innocent person like that (mercifully without much success for the latter).

If only David had remembered Microsoft Bill Gates and his failure to achieve academic excellence; or if only someone could reach out to him and encouraged him in time with memories of Bill Gates failures and subsequent successes, things would not have turned out so tragic. If Bill Gates had committed suicide like David, because of the perceived shame attending his failure to cope with his Harvard academic workload, then I am sure the present world would have been very different altogether—deprived of his immense accomplishments in the world of computer processing.

So it is very cruel and unhelpful for people like “Yan” to talk crap like that in his/her post #47. Prof Chan is already suffering like hell, and barely escaping with his life. It would be most unkind for someone like “Yan” to cast aspersions on him as being gay and speculating that he was attempting to molest David, who then had to fight back. If that was so, why did David brought a sharp kitchen knife with him to Prof Chan’s office?

“Yan”, if you fear to be the only one thinking like that, I am afraid you are being just the idiot you fear people will think you are. Sorry to say that!!
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{”Yan” wrote on March 5th, 2009 11.13 pm #47: Termination, termination, and termination again… David’s father said the university….purposely using this issue to make it as if it is David’s fault…… IT IS NOT THE ISSUE….The university probably tried to distract us from the real thing because ….they have an image to protect….. who knows what happened? … maybe because the professor molested him at the time (…..the prof is gay)…. ..and David was defending himself. There were lots of blood on his behind, right? And he was face-down when he fell. Please don’t tell me you are all in shock and I am the only one thinking of this possibility. Since so many things sound ‘not right” don’t be surprised if imagination runs wild.)

selpmip:

There are rumors saying that the Prof could be a gay. For watever reason, NTU may have done a coverup on this tragedy. The university has an upper hand. Wats more the deceased is a foreigner. To the Prof in this incident, i certainly hope you are not gay. As this is could really be an insult to all gays in their community. I would rather hope you are evil and unprofessional.As jojolina said..karma..karma will find you. Enjoy your days while it last. Wonder if you could still sleep at peace.