What her child feels, a mother feels too.
WHEN a mother’s despondency is openly expressed as a result of her child’s action that caused it to run foul of the law, her own failure to bring up the child right and her other heart-breaking experiences, the world pauses to listen and ponder.
This week, the mother of the teen blogger Amos Yee wrote a letter to her son.
In her Facebook posting which was widely shared on the Net and even attracted coverage by CNN and other international news media, she poured her heart out:
“Sorry son. Sorry for telling you that you are in the safest country. You are feeling so insecure and scared now.
“Sorry for urging you to be a law-abiding citizen.
The laws are doing you more harm than good now.
“Sorry for assuring you that you will be well-protected.
You are being threatened and ill-treated now.
“Sorry for saying our government provides us the best welfare. You are not even allowed to sleep at home now.
“Sorry for telling you home is best. It is where you were arrested from.
“Sorry for encouraging you to be creative and expressive. You are regarded as crazy and rebellious instead.
“Sorry for not teaching you well. You could have been taught otherwise.
“Sorry son. Mummy is wrong.”
Every mother feels sharply the sense of danger and failure befalling her brood. A mother’s heart is knit closely to her children. And as the Bible says:
“To the woman, He said I will greatly multiply your pain in child-bearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.” (Genesis 3:16a)
Yes, as the Good Book explains, mothers are profoundly involved in the life of their children – what their children feel, they feel too. When their children fail, they are heart-broken and tend to shoulder the blame themselves.
In March, Amos was arrested and charged with violating obscenity laws and wounding religious feelings by publishing a YouTube video on the death of Singapore’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, and some other religious sensitive matters. He is now detained at Institute of Mental Health undergoing psychiatric examination.
The United Nations Human Rights Office for Southeast Asia (OHCHR) has called on the Singapore authorities to reconsider the conviction of the 16-year-old and the prosecutors to drop their demand for him to be sentenced to the Reformative Training Centre (RTC).
In particular, the OHCHR pointed out that as Amos is still a juvenile, the authorities in the City State must ensure his “treatment is consistent with the best interests of the child” in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child – an international agreement Singapore has signed, and is therefore committed to.
The OHCHR feels a sentence to RTC which will leave a criminal record, is “disproportionate and inappropriate in terms of the international protections for freedom of expression and opinion.”
While many netizens think the mother is manipulative in her effort to gain international attention with the hope that Amos will be released, some do feel remorse and empathise with her.
At least one shared: “I am also sorry as I caused you, Amos Yee, to go to prison. If only I and everyone else in Singapore were more inclined to think about individual liberty and freedom of expression as a God-given right, none of these bad things would have happened to you.”
There are some who believe Amos’ presentations on Youtube were written for him by the opposition in Singapore. The contention is that the depth and maturity of thoughts in the youngster’s articulation is beyond a sixteen-year-old.
Nevertheless, with social harmony at risk on the one hand and human rights and freedom of expression on the other, and now with the emergence of the heart-breaking note from a distraught mother that has gone viral, striking a balance between these three factors to assuage the fate of Amos has become even more delicate.
The world is watching how Singapore maintains the balance should the psychiatric assessments are favourable to Amos.
Many may now be viewing the enviable financial standing and orderly – albeit verging on draconian – politico-socio milieu of the Little Red Dot in a different light after reading between lines the heart-rending expressions of a mother who has come out to apologise in public for letting her child down.
That will probably make us feel a little less that “the grass is always greener on the other side” – and start counting our blessings.
Indeed, while we consider ourselves – not without good reasons – a highly depressed and unhappy lot, first with the Malaysian currency dropping to its lowest in a decade and secondly, with religious extremism and political manoeuvrings and finaglings continuing to rare their ugly heads, we, probably, could give ourselves a pat on the back for ranking 41st among 145 countries in our well-being, according to the findings released on June 24 – well ahead of Singapore’s 97th.
We have moved up 15 notches in ranking surveyed by the Gallup-Healthways Global Well-Being Index and we are doing better than the global average of 17 per cent with 24.8 per cent of us thriving in at least three of the five “well-being elements” surveyed. The five elements are sense of purpose, social well-being, financial security, community and physical health.
The happiest country in the world is Panama with 53 per cent of its residents thriving in three or more well-being elements.
I like what Dan Witters who compiled the Index, said about the Panamanians: “They will report a lot of daily happiness, a lot of daily smiling and laughter, and a lot of daily enjoyment without a lot of stress and worry.”
It’s certainly something we in Malaysia could strive to emulate for the sake of our physical and, more importantly, our mental well-being as well.