National hero Joseph Schooling has found himself in the headlines this week for smoking marijuana. For his admission, Schooling has been issued a formal letter of warning by the Ministry of Defence “informing him of the serious consequences of drug abuse meted out to all SAF personnel, who may be sentenced up to nine months detention in the SAF Detention Barracks.”
The swimmer has in turn issued an apology on Tuesday (Aug 30), citing “a moment of weakness after going through a very tough period of my life”. While Singaporeans have mostly been empathetic towards Schooling, some have expressed anger and disappointment towards him.
While Schooling is a public figure of sorts, is it fair that we project all of our moral expectations on him? Does he have to seek our forgiveness in what is essentially a matter between him and the authorities? This incident might be a timely opportunity for us to explore the issues behind this incident.
Schooling is an international sporting success and Singaporeans are understandably proud of him. It is also par for the course that Schooling has worked hard to get to where he is. After all, one does not get to that level of sporting excellence without dedication and commitment.
As a result of his success in the arena of competitive sports, he has been labelled as a role model with certain expectations imposed on him. But these are societal projections and is it on him to live up to our expectations – expectations that he never asked for? He is an athlete, and he wins medals – end of story.
Despite his sporting achievements, he is a human being with problems, emotions, and day-to-day life to deal with. Have we forgotten that?
As a society, are we so unable to discern what is good for us that we need role models to look up to?
Secondly and unavoidably, Schooling’s “indiscretion” has shone yet another spotlight on the drug issue in Singapore. Singapore has long since clung to the belief that harsh drug laws prevent drug intake. Yet in Singapore where people are now able to travel globally, do these laws still work?
Another issue that the Schooling saga has thrown up is also Singapore’s fixation with the notion of crime and punishment, with no nuance in between. An irritated employer who has taken to social media to ask about what punishment her domestic helper deserves illustrates this well, on a micro level.
In an anonymous post on Wednesday (Aug 31), an employer wrote that her helper washed her Louis Vuitton shawl “without asking me how it should be done or if I wanted to get it washed”. She added that the shawl cost her S$1,000 and was something she only used twice.
Has this employer ever considered himself or herself in their own workplace? Have they ever made mistakes that have caused their own employer money? And, how would they like it, if their employers in turn posted on social media to ask how they should be punished as if they were little children in need of discipline?
At the end of the day, we are all human beings. We all make mistakes. Does every mistake require a “punishment”? How about simply looking at mistakes as a learning experience? Both for the helper and the employer.
Why would this employer assume that her helper would know how to launder the said scarf? Surely it is incumbent upon the employer to train the helper instead of simply blaming her? In this, the employer can learn not to assume and lay blame, while the helper will learn how to clean (or not clean) an expensive scarf!
Perhaps it is time for us as a society to reflect upon our understanding of “mistakes”. Instead of the binary model of crime and punishment, why not consider the value of learning? Will this not make us a more compassionate society?
Added to the equation is our seeming inability to look behind the mistake to understand the underlying reasons behind such mistakes. We tend to assume malicious intent and seek immediately to punish. Yet, this will never solve the root of the issue and the “mistakes” will be destined to play out again and again in different forms – a situation that will serve no one.
In July this year, a foreign domestic worker took to social media to ask netizens how she could be transferred to another household quickly. She was struggling with her workload, which involved cleaning a 3-storey bungalow with two dogs and washing a car. This begs the question – are our employees making “mistakes” because they are overworked? And if so, should we not do something to alleviate this instead of reaching straight for the rod of punishment?
There are always 2 sides (and often, multiple sides) to a story and the truth is somewhere in between. The more we can understand nuance, the more we can find solutions that can move us forward from the endless cycle of a repeating pattern of crime and punishment.