Deaths at NTU

The 2 recent deaths at NTU (Nanyang Technological University) have come as a surprise to many including myself. Let me elaborate on my viewpoint.

In the first case scenario, a final year student, David Hartanto Widjaja, 21, from the electrical and electronic engineering school of NTU is believed to have stabbed Associate Professor Chan Kap Luk, 45. This happened on 2 March.

(Read the whole story at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=NTU&id=412478)

It has been stated that the reason why the student tried to stab the professor is beause the professor did not give him the grade he wanted. As a result of the bad grade he received, his ASEAN scholarship was revoked. Obviously, feeling guilty and knowing the consequences of his actions, he plunged to his death.

This incident reveals a few things. Firstly, everyone knows that bad grades are not the end of the world. Why did the Indonesian undergraduate have to take the life of the professor (although he did not in the end) and himself? However, in our morden world, to students, grades are the most important thing in the world. It is not their fault. People judge you according to the grades you get. Your future is more or less determined by the grades you achieve. Unless a person possess superb talent, the world rarely looks beyond your academic grades even if you have other un-nurtured talents in other areas.

I feel that people should start looking at other qualities or talent a person has other than academic grades. It is not possible to change the mindset of the entire world overnight but it can be done. One such example of the above would be the DSA (Direct School Admission) exercise introduced by the Ministry of Education allowing secondary schools to accept students on other criteria other than PSLE results. Unfortunately, schools also use it to attract smart (in an academic sense) students to their schools which I feel defeats the purpose. Still, this is a good start.

Back to the issue on the student stabbing the professor, I would like to pose another question. Are students these days educated enough on the importance of life? These many children enjoy playing computer games, many of which involves life and death. In these games, children kill their friends' virtual character as well as their enemies. Although majority of the children do not practise this violence in their real life, a small minority become violent and treat life and death as no big deal. Although this may not be directly related to this young man's death, I feel that it is an issue that needs to be brought up.

The second death was that of a 24 year old, Zhou Zheng, an infocomm project officer of NTU, who hanged himself on the balcony of his apartment at NTU.

(Read the whole story at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/413708/1/.html)

This once again brings up the issue on the importance of life and death. The man, who was a China National, had been jobless for a few months before being employed by NTU 5 days before his death.

In both scenarios, the 'victims' were both in their early 20s. Although they are both not Singaporeans, it does show some signs about the youth these days and what happens when they enter the real world.

Hopefully, other youths will not follow in their footsteps and we will never have these incidents happening again.