afterthoughts
Mr Brown says that he's afraid of SPH, i say i'm more afraid of ourselves.Seriously..the ordinary civilian, the common man, the general public. Whatever. We are scary. Perhaps due to the limitations of the traditional media of television, newspapers and magazines in the past, there was not much opportunity for such an unconceivable outpour of contempt and anger towards public figures to be witnessed.
My Dad used to tell me to see the person in charge directly or send snail-mail if i have any paperwork to be done with any companies - like that time i wanted to register for my SATs, he made me go all the way down to RELC or when he wanted me to sign up for some health insurance with CPF, i told him repeatedly that i could do the whole thing online in 10min but i got the usual 'don't rely on what internet or email lah, they won't listen to you one'. With all due respect Pa, i think you are wrong. Take a look at any local webspace, forum, i have this mental picture of everyone gathering outside the NKF building shouting that they are not going to be satisfied until they rip Durai's body apart, burn him at a stake along with his golden taps and crush his red pumping organ beneath their heel.
But alas, it's Singapore afterall. And we Singaporeans protest in our own, ahem, sophisticated but equally powerful way.
The whole saga had struck a chord with people islandwide because they have contributed either in monthly donations for years, dialed the Yao-Jiu-Ling-Ling at least once or twice in their life, or simply shed tears at the piteous scenes of dialysis patients the all-too familiar NKF charity shows present. And finally after all these years when the cats are let out of their bags, many people feel used and deceived. They feel that the organisation had intentionally tried to get their needs met at our expense and boy, we are going to make you pay for this injustice. And flames are fanned more quickly when money is concerned.
Within these few days, i've seen and heard more about the NKF than anything is concerned. It's like 'oh there's a murder, oh there's a 2nd election of president, that's cool but wait let me get my revenge for donating my $10 first.' I'm guilty of that, buying newspapers for the first time in many months just to read what the media in print says. But there's so much negativity, professions of "i knew it, the rich will just become richer and poor gets nothing", "i'll rather use my 5 dollar bills as toilet paper than to donate to so-called charities" and so on. It is as if some people have been cynical of charity organisations all this while, resentful of every cent and finally triumphant now that their suspicions were confirmed.
It's alarming. And extremely discouraging to people like me because i plan to work full-time in organisations that will depend alot on the public's donations in the future. (不是 NKF lah.)
Sure i despise the top management and Mr Durai himself for selfishly using funds for their silly toilet fittings and the web of lies they have created (lying by omission is afterall still a lie). But more importantly, it is the trust they have broken and how they have tainted the rest of the charity associations in Singapore as well. I remember in secondary school, after the class treasurer misused the class funds and spent them on Billabong wallets and arcade games, i try to evade class fund payment from then onwards even in college. That's human nature for you - once bitten twice shy.
I'm not saying that the 3000 people who had cancelled their donations to NKF are wrong, this are the consequences afterall; but for those who spitefully proclaim that all charities as being wolves in sheep's clothings, sprouting falsehoods while greedily pocketing dollar bills - please be rational. Yes, you may wish to channel your donations to other organisations now, that's wonderful, but to be filled with such bitterness and even more cynicism for real people and associations trying their best to help the poor and needy, i quote this guy on tv, why punish the needy (or dialysis patients) for something that they have not done? I know for a fact there's many associations in Singapore that really need public funding but cannot afford to organize fund-raising and most of the time even rely on volunteers to work for them.
Labels: life lessons
