Title
DARING ENOUGH TO CHANGE THE WORLD
Years ago, as I joined my family erupting in laughter as
Sandra Bullock benignly said the clichéd “World
Peace” during the Miss Universe Q & A session in
Miss Congeniality, I secretly squirmed uncomfortably. Would
other people also laugh when they know that I, too, have
the same utopia: a world where everyone lives in harmony
with everyone else regardless of their differences and where
conflict and war are the common enemies of mankind?
For a small individual like me, it would be self-defeating
to think that I could single-handedly succeed on the task
powerful individuals and nations have yet to achieve. However,
refusing to rest contented while tragedy after world tragedy
appears on the newspaper headlines, I seek to do what little
I can. The words of Neale Walsch, the author of the book
Conversation With God inspire me: “You will not change
the world by trying first to change the world. You will
change the world by first changing yourself.” Deciding
to heed this advice, I would share in this essay ways that
I see myself to be the agent of change that I wish to see
in the world, and from there, inspire others to find in
their hearts conscience to make this world a better place.
There are three simple yet pertinent ways that I believe
are practical and meaningful to build a better world. The
first is to build a culture of care, because afterall, humanity
is the foundation of civilization. Next, the concretization
of this culture is expressed in the generosity to give and
share with the less fortunate, not only materially, but
also emotionally. However, care and generosity would be
useless if people only help those whom they sympathize with
and neglect those they are prejudiced against. Dispelling
stereotypes and prejudice is therefore important for the
world to advance further, and this will be discussed in
the last section. While these steps still sound somewhat
theoretical, I would use anecdotes to show how they are
in fact very much achievable even within my capacity as
a foreign student in Singapore.
Building the culture of care
Singapore is not lacking in its attempt to build the culture
of care. The nation-wide Singapore Kindness Movement was
launched in the year 2000 under the jurisdiction of Ministry
of Communication and the Arts to build a more gracious Singapore.
However, despite its best interest to imbue Singaporeans
with desirable traits, my reaction to this campaign progresses
from curiosity, amusement, and currently, skepticism. The
Wedding Punctuality Campaign 2004 was the last straw.
Indeed, the “late culture” is un-gracious. Indonesians
joke among themselves as possessing jam karet or rubber
watches because of their tendency to be late, and nothing
could be done about this because Indonesia is simply too
big for any nation-wide campaign to be effective. However,
taking advantage of the size of Singapore to micro-manage
the ways in which its people behave is not advisable either.
Indeed, the fact that the state should encourage such campaign
borders on the ridiculous, and like a rebellious child who
is overly constrained, the intended outcome might swing
to the other extreme end.
Nevertheless, I believe that the culture of care is crucial
in building a better world, for without kindness that comes
from within, what stops people from perpetuating conflict
and taking gains on the expense of others in capitalistic
societies? However, the key to build this culture is not
by making it a full-fledged top-down movement, and definitely
not a punishable legislation such as the Parental Maintenance
Act. Such regulations would fail in building what Weber
calls substantive rationality, or the rational actions based
on deep-seated values and norms, and instead brings about
formal rationality where people calculate their actions
based on its merits and demerits before the efficient state
bureaucracy.
Instead, I propose that these changes should come from bottom-up.
To quote Walsch, “Change is an act of freedom, not
an act of compliance” and to change a people, one should
be voluntarily inspired by one’s own peers through
real actions so that one could change what Walsch calls
their “inner truth.” The chance for individuals
to do meaningful things to inspire one another is better
today than ever in Singapore, as the government increasingly
encourages people to take charge of their own lives. By
doing real actions on positive things, I believe that small
as I am, I would be able to inspire some changes towards
a better world. Indeed I have begun some of these actions,
which I will outline next.
“It is more blessed to give than to receive” Acts
20:35
The first change that I would like to inspire in people
is to widen the concept of ‘giving’ beyond its
monetary sense. Singaporeans are definitely not desensitized,
selfish and money-minded as some bitter critics have it.
One merely needs to look at the outpouring of cash donation
for the tsunami victims last December. Just two days ago,
when I helped out at the merchandise booth for my faculty’s
musical production in aid of Patient Care Centre of Tan
Tock Seng Hospital, a lady generously paid ten times more
for the merchandise she purchased. I have not the slightest
doubt that Singaporeans are a generous lot.
However, the problem with this generosity is that it confines
the philosophy of giving strictly to monetary contributions.
This is understandable because living in a capitalist society,
it is hard for us to understand that money is not the solution
to everything. Unfortunately, this deters those who are
not materially advantageous from giving other intangible
forms of support, such as emotional or physical support.
In fact, in light of the recent tsunami disaster, a more
cynical newspaper article asked whether those who do not
contribute any form of help are just excusing their apathy
on their material scarcity.
Partly because of my shoestring budget that renders it impossible
to give monetary contribution, and partly to prove to myself
that there still are individuals who value non-monetary
forms of compassion, my friend and I decided to go down
to Aceh in the wake of the tsunami on the first available
opportunity offered by The Necessary Stage and University
Scholars Programme of NUS. My aim then, other than to interview
the tsunami survivors as part of the project, was simply
to show my solidarity as an Indonesian to my countrymen,
and to give selflessly.
Upon reaching Aceh with the Mercy Relief team, I immediately
proved myself wrong as I saw how teams after teams of SAF
doctors under Mercy Relief worked tirelessly to provide
medical and psychological aids to the locals. My in-depth
interviews with the locals further proves to me how much
they appreciate human compassion after the massive losses
that they experienced, much more than simply monetary contributions.
However, the ultimate reward upon my return to Singapore
was when my friends expressed their interest that they would
like to go to Aceh, and later Nias, to be involved in the
reconstruction period of these disaster-stricken areas.
In some inexplicable way, I have unintentionally become
the flesh-and-blood inspiration of many other ordinary students
in Singapore who are convinced that one needs not possess
some kind of superiority to do their bit of charity.
These are very real ways in which as an undergraduate student,
I could make changes to the lives of the people around me.
As university students, there are even greater opportunities
because we are given freedom to initiate projects. I contemplate
to propose some school adoption scheme or to initiate partnership
between NUS and Aceh university students to chart a long-term
plan to rebuild Aceh, while some friends of mine are initiating
Youth Expedition Project to tsunami-stricken areas. There
are definitely plenty opportunities to show that we care,
monetarily or otherwise.
Difference≠Unequal
In a heterogeneous society like Singapore, generous Singaporeans
could very easily fall into the trap of clannish solidarity.
It is pointless to deny the existence of prejudices and
stereotypes. Attempting to eliminate them would only bring
frustration to the idealists because it is part of human’s
social psychology. Yet, history has shown us the horrors
of Nazi concentration camps and the ethnic cleansing in
Kosovo to be the result of racial prejudice. For myself,
if I could not eliminate these deeply-rooted sentiments,
I would at least show a clear stance that I am against them
and hoping that my actions would inspire others around me
to behave similarly.
As an Indonesian, I am deeply concerned with the misfortune
born by my fellow Indonesian foreign domestic workers (FDWs)
who sell their labour in Singapore. My own research in this
field has allowed me a chance to spend time with them, be
it talking personally, spending time with them during their
language classes, or going out in groups during their day
off at Lucky Plaza. I have received weird stares from shopkeepers
who silently asked me through their looks why I mix around
with the underclass in Singapore. My answer is simple: if
not their fellow countrymen who are also sojourners in this
foreign land, who else would and could care for these FDWs?
At first my mother (like many other people would, I imagine),
cringes at the thought of her daughter (who studies overseas)
going about holding hands and giving farewell hugs to ‘lowly’
maids. However, she eventually gets use to the idea and
I could see that she ceases to view them in the stereotype
she used to hold before. The same change happens to my friends
who are more cautious in expressing their class-based stereotypes.
While they have not yet fully overcome their stereotyping
viewpoints, I am thrilled that they slowly appreciate my
involvement with the FDWs, and in turn, appreciate these
ladies for what they are worth: Indonesian foreign exchange
heroes.
However, I would fall prey to the clannish solidarity that
I warned against earlier in this section if I use nationality
as an excuse to only help my fellow nationals. While my
nationality bonds me with fellow Indonesians in distress,
my humanity bonds me with anyone in distress, regardless
of race, religion or nationality. I am heartened to see
the numerous civic society groups which seek to help marginalized
groups of people in Singapore, such as the Student Mentorship
Programme (SMP) to help youths in school, and various religious-based
support groups that provide classes and activities for the
FDWs. While as individuals we could begin to inspire changes
on others through our actions, civic groups consisting of
a group of people concerned over a common cause who come
together to bring about the desired changes would definitely
be more powerful and more efficient in advocating desired
changes. Through these channels, I am more confident of
the changes that I could contribute in my own small ways.
SMP is an interesting project that I have contemplated doing
for a long while. The idea of being able to impart my personal
turn-of-age experience to another person and be a role model
to him/her appeals very much to me. Its philosophy is similar
to the Peer Support Programme I was involved in in my first
year of coming to Singapore, where I as a secondary three
student helped my secondary one Singaporean juniors to adjust
to their secondary school lives. Although I myself was no
more ‘settled’ than them in secondary school,
being in Singapore for only a year then, being able to share
with them personal anecdotes and experience in surviving
my teenage years sparked interesting conversation among
us. We were no longer Singaporeans and an Indonesian, but
a group of girls in their early teens who went through similar
turbulences in our lives.
Indeed, while there are limits as to what foreigners like
myself can do in inspiring changes in this foreign land,
our foreign-ness should not be employed as a reason to shun
away from our social responsibility as a human being. Undeniably,
Singaporeans and I have many differences, but we have far
more commonalities as daughters, students, teenagers, women,
etc. from which we could learn from each other.
Conclusion
As an individual and a foreigner, there are definitely limits
to the ways that I could touch others’ lives and change
the world to the better. However, such hindrances should
not deter foreigners from also having a vision and making
small valuable actions that could advance towards this goal.
Making use of civic opportunities to care for others are
just some of the many ways to build the culture of care
and giving, as well as to help those who are different from
us. The utopia might be elusive, but at least, they are
not that far.
