David Widjaja’s suicide note?

Report: David Widjaja’s suicide note?

Saturday, 20 June 2009, 12:51 am | 444 views

Xue Jianyue/ Reporter

Revealing suicide note tells of a David Widjaja that is vastly different from the impression given by parents and friends.

A SUICIDE note titled ‘last words’, as well as an Internet search history for information on ‘suicide’ and ‘murder’ were found in a laptop belonging to David Widjaja.

In the suicide note, dated January 25, the author wrote that he had “passed most of my life with sorrow and suffering, and I don’t have any will to live.”

The note also revealed that after the writer left high school, he found life ‘much more difficult and complicated’

The note continued: “I have tried to struggle but it seems my mental (strength) is not strong enough to continue.”

The final lines of the note read: “What have I done with my life? Basically nothing but repetition.”

The contents told an account of an unhappy childhood with family quarrels and pressure from the author’s mother.

Meanwhile information extracted from the web browser history in the laptop revealed multiple searches on how to murder and commit suicide within a period of three months before Widjaja’s death.

Senior Staff Sergeant Joe Ng, a technology crime forensic examiner, described in detail the forensic examination of the laptop, and told the inquiry that investigations into Widjaja’s mobile phone and thumbdrive yielded no results relevant to the case.

However Senior Senior Staff Sgt Ng did not rule out the possibility that another user, apart from Widjaja, could have used the laptop if the user had Widjaja’s password.

He also clarified that the suicide note which had been written on January 25 had seen no changes to it ever since.

Meanwhile, amongst the nine witnesses whose names had been submitted by the Widjaja family to the coroner’s court, seven have yet to take the witness stand.

Five witnesses have also declined to testify in court, citing work commitments and the fact that they did not know Widjaja very well.

The inquiry continues on 24 June.

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How China must change

How China must change

Extract from The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang

Given that the Communist Party was the ruling party, how should it govern? My idea was to modernize how it governed, so that it could become more modern, civilized, enlightened, and open.

First, we needed to increase the transparency of Party and state decision making. The major activities and decisions of the Party and the state needed to be made public. This would have changed the long-standing ‘black-box’ operation, where the public is only given the final result of a decision. As soon as the government announced a decision, it moved on to implementation, but people were not privy to the process by which the decision had been made. This is very important. People have the right to know.

Next, we needed to establish multiple channels for dialogue - with various social factions, forces, and interests. Decisions on major issues should be made with ongoing consultation and dialogue with various social groups, not just within the Communist Party, and not only after merely consulting once with key figures of other political parties.

Of course, we had to permit social groups to exist; otherwise, how could dialogue be conducted? Most important, we needed to change the situation in which all social groups - including workers’ unions, youth organizations, women’s organizations, chambers of commerce, and others - were all in monotonous unity with the Communist Party. They should not be treated like the Party’s royal instruments. They have to be able to truly represent the people they are meant to represent.

Only dialogue conducted with groups of this kind would carry any real meaning. In other words, their functions as intermediate organizations should be fully developed. The Communist Party should not take control of everything or interfere so much in their affairs, and should give them room for independent activities. Under such conditions, the Communist Party should hold dialogues and consult with various social groups, enabling these groups to have real political participation.

Moreover, the ruling party must respect the separation of Party and state. The Party’s leadership should be essentially political and not interfere in so many other domains.

We also needed to enrich the level of cooperation with other political parties and let other parties enjoy true political participation with functions of dialogue and mutual checks and balances. Furthermore, we needed to protect citizens’ rights in concrete terms. This was extremely important.

We also needed to allow greater press freedom, though under management and leadership. In 1989, I talked to (chief editor of the People’s Daily) Hu Jiwei about whether we ought to allow independent newspapers. Currently, all news media are monopolized by the Party and the state: this is not right. At that time, I had not considered permitting a completely free press, but wanted to allow a controlled process of opening up. At the very least, material that Party- and state-controlled media were not willing to run could be published by other media. Even if we did not allow full press freedom, we should allow airing of public opinions.

At that time, I was thinking about how to allow more political participation - under the Communist Party’s continued ruling position - from various social groups and interest groups, and especially by intellectuals. Even without a multiparty system, we should have expanded various forces of political participation as much as possible.

These are the ideas that gradually formed in my mind from 1986 to 1989. The Party’s ruling position would not change, but the way it governed had to. That is to say, under the basic framework of the Communist Party’s leadership, we would allow more political participation from various social groups; “rule of law” would gradually replace “rule by men”; and many of the wonderful things defined in the Constitution would be realized, one by one.

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Jitters over religion hard sell

Saturday June 20, 2009
Jitters over religion hard sell
INSIGHT DOWN SOUTH
By SEAH CHIANG NEE

Increasing reports of insensitive evangelism have irked many Singaporeans and raised fears about a possible backlash.

STEREOTYPED as a society that only worships money, Singa-pore is surprisingly seeing a surge of religiosity – or simply put, too much religion.

This exuberance is, however, confined to a small segment of fundamentalist Christians, and appears out of line with most materialistic Singaporeans.

The Christian community makes up 17% of the people, while Buddhists and Taoists form a majority 51%, and Muslims, 16%.

But in recent years there has been a surge of born-again Christianity. These include bible-quoting evangelists who gather in city squares and MRT stations, persistently striving to convert the public, including followers of other faiths.

Others work in schools, polytechnics and hospitals, even among patients.

A major concern, however, is their targeting of schools, a melting pot of different cultures, races and religions, trying to convert impressionable teenagers.

Young men in their 30s, usually working in pairs, would approach students outside the school compound to talk about God.

The kids would be asked for their cell-phone numbers, and those who comply may find themselves harassed by persistent SMS invitations to attend services.

Another worry is the belittling of other religions, which could spark off friction.

A university lecturer who accompanied her mother, a dementia victim, received more than a blood test at a hospital, when the evangelising nurse asked about her mother’s religion.

When she replied “Buddhist” she was told to go to church because “it’ll be good for you”.

In a recent high profile trial, a Christian couple were jailed eight weeks under the Sedition Act for distributing and possessing anti-Muslim and anti-Catholic tracts.

The two – SingTel technical officer Ong Kian Cheong, 50, and a Swiss bank associate director, Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 46 – have appealed against conviction.

The intent was to convince Muslims to convert to Christianity by using inflammatory and misleading information, the court heard.

Bizarrely, they hit Catholics even harder, describing the Pope as Satan.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has named religious divide as potentially one of the biggest threats to social order.

“Don’t mix religion with politics”, warned Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng. He said that the Government would intervene if any activism threatens Singapore’s social fabric.

Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean has advised people to manage their differences, saying: “If you push your argument too hard, there’ll be others who push back.”

These comments came as emotions ran high over the failed takeover of AWARE, a social body, by members of a small fundamentalist church apparently in pursuit of their religious beliefs.

The vast majority of Christians work within the framework of this multi-religious society, conscious and tolerant of other ancient religions.

They attend church once a week and return home to their families without trying to convert followers of other faiths.

The increasing reports of insensitive evangelism have irked many Singaporeans and have worried the majority of non-activist Christians about a possible backlash.

Evangelism notwithstanding, Singapore remains a stable, tolerant society where any hint of extremism is deeply resented.

Some 85% of Singaporeans profess having a religion, probably including many nominal believers, while atheists make up the other 15%.

There is, however, an anomaly among the younger set.

Singapore is a tightly competitive society and a rat race for its citizens, from a very young age. The result is the emergence of youths who know very little about religion.

From comments in a survey, prominent educator Phyllis Chew said she was surprised to hear such comments about Islam – “their marriages take place in the void deck” – and Buddhism – “it’s about filial piety”.

It was conducted among 2,800 students, aged 12-18. Chew said it showed that while 76% were tolerant of other religions, their idea of tolerance was “not talking about it”.

“A lack of knowledge of different faiths is a potentially unstable situation,” she said, calling for a revival of religious teaching in schools.

The recession, one of the worst in Singapore’s history, appears to be making Singaporeans a little bit more religious, too.

“I pray harder in these times, although my job is not affected this time,” said a 25-year-old Singaporean as unemployment rose to the highest in three years.

“I’m praying for my fiance, that his job is safe,” she said. They were planning to wed and feared retrenchment.

Attendance in churches, temples and mosques has generally risen as Singaporeans turn more to religion for comfort.

“People might experience depression and socio-psychological problems worrying about work, Alexius Pereira, sociologist at the National University of Singapore,” told Reu-ters.

“It is through such worries that they turn to religion.”

How effective is modern evangelism? When it comes to numbers, it is the born again Christians who are proportionately the biggest gainers.

The reason is less their aggressive evangelism than the lure of educated youths by their glitz and modern church operations. The gain has, however, been slow and gradual.

Occasionally followers do switch, and it has nothing to do with educational levels. Neither are changes one-sided.

Chinese have switched to become Muslims, and Hindus to Buddhists. Only the Malays stay largely with their faith.

There is another reason why many adult Singaporeans – especially those who are ageing – turn to religion.

After accumulating sufficient money for retirement, Singaporeans – however materialistic – often begin to turn their thoughts to the after-life.

A bit is kiasuism may be at work, too.

I once asked a housewife who likes to play the jackpot machine, why she had not embraced a religion. Her reply: “I’m waiting till I am older and closer to death.”

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