Pondering on home

It’s been a while since I updated my blog. In fact, I think it is kinda redundant now and no one actually bothers to read it. (I think..) Anyway, I’m almost half way through the semester and the results are beginning to trickle in, albeit with heightened anticipation. Afterall, I don’t think I’ve recovered from A-Levelgate just as yet. Why? I guess it is the same reason which spurred me on to be so garang during national service – the fear that I’ll be never good enough. For all you geniuses out there, yes, I look to you with envy and for all the muggers out there, I wish I could possess some of that determination. Unfortunately, I stand neither, but possessing me. An individual trying to craft a niche for myself within the strata of society.

And seriously, that isn’t my ideal sort of life.

While everyone in Singapore, including myself, was hogged up by the excesses of Wee Shu Min, another piece of news hit the headlines. Ah Hao, the individual who was found guilty of murdering 5 year old Huang Na, was bound for the gallows after his pleas for Presidential Clemency was rejected. I read the news on Channelnewsasia with a sigh of nonchalance. Afterall, we execute than highest number of people per capita in the world, so another individual to the gallows isn’t such a big thing.

So, I went on reading about what the forums had to say about Wee Shu Min and apparently her father, the Senior Wee, is somehow involved in the whole saga now. (Looks like it’s playing up to be our own little Watergate) However, I felt kinda strange. Somehow, the previous news of Ah Hao just couldn’t get out of my head. It just didn’t follow. In fact, I was troubled with the way I took the Ah Hao piece of news so trivially and instead found amusement in some melodrama.

So, I clicked back to the Channelnewsasia article and read it through. Apparently, Ah Hao had a strong case for an appeal, and in fact, the appeal process took longer than the usual 3 months which made his lawyer hopeful that the appeal was successful. I was getting really curious, so I did a google seach on Ah Hao and more information surfaced. Ah Hao, the verdict of his guilt was upheld by a 2-1 decision by the Court of Appeals. Apparently, one of the Justices recognized that there was a possibility that Ah Hao’s actions did not directly lead to the death of Huang Na. Doubts began to creep into my mind.

While the high minded side of me was telling myself that the judiciary functions as a majority in this instance, the other side of me was regressing this thought. I mean, shouldn’t we be absolutely certain that Ah Hao killed Huang Na before we even entertain the notion of executing him? Furthermore, what justifies that the judiciary in demanding ‘an eye for an eye’? No, what is the function of judiciary? To mete our punishment fitting the crime? Or to reform individuals from their criminal past? I guess at this moment, I do not possess the ability to produce an absolute answer on this. Sure, I can generate an answer for my narcissistic pleasure, but I’ll just make a complete fool of myself at the end of the day. Rather, I just wish that Ah Hao wouldn’t have to die, another mother losing her child and a child losing her father. All in the name of justice.

However, there was something I realized. I think that sometimes we just take things for granted. What I mean is that we take things too much of face value and would rather keep it that way. If ever anyone complains why Singapore is the Singapore we know, I think the answer lies simply in that we have failed to question and act upon answers, even if we did.