Dear Madam/Sir,
I REFER to “Pole-axed by passengers’ insensitivity on trains” (June 13).
As a society, we need to be honest with ourselves about two aspects of human behaviour:
- People do not know they are behaving inappropriately until they are told otherwise, and
- People will continue to behave inappropriately until they are told otherwise.
Unfortunately, we have been dependent on everyone except our own selves to do the work of telling people off.
This in itself is inappropriate behaviour, and we direly need to undergo a paradigm shift as a society.
Instead of standing by and waiting for someone else to chastise wrong-doers, we need to exercise more boldness in our approach.
We need to firmly and politely inform these wrong-doers in question about what they are doing wrong, and what they can do to correct their behaviour.
Let’s remember that the fruits of tomorrow are borne from the seeds of today.
If we truly value graciousness and civic awareness in our society, then we ourselves must be a part of the process of inculcating said values in our fellow Singaporeans.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Laremy LEE (Mr)
(Published as “Don’t wait for others to speak up” on 14 Jun 2011 in TODAYonline.)
