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Tuesday, October 31, 2006
No Jumping, Fine $5000 Boo!
I hope I didn't scare you on this Halloween's Night (ok half an hour left of it anyway). If you are at home and wondering why you never don that leather nurse outfit or Tarzan leopard-skin print draps to go clubbing tonight, I can probably tell you why. The reason is simple: You are tired. This is probably the same reason you would give yourself. Or perhaps you are lazy to go around loaning costumes and masks for a night of fun when lectures at 8am await you tomorrow morning. That is why I am writing. And after this, I shall rest, like a true-blue Dracula too caught up in his administrative work, in my coffin of bliss and comfort. That sounds like a good way to spend Halloween.
The point is, this is not the crux of this post. I am here to talk about the recent phenomenon, the lastest craze, to hit this country.
Jumping on MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) tracks.
To jump, or not to jump?This comes after another man, aged 51, was killed by an oncoming train, again, at Clementi MRT station at 7 plus in the evening on the 30th October 2006 (yes, yesterday). Witnesses (including a university undergraduate, no guess from which one) reported that the man flung his arms up like a bird when the train is approaching and hurled himself down to the tracks. What happens next fits exactly into the Halloween theme. He was ran over by the train and died, nonetheless in a less "messy" manner compared to the man who committed suicide in the same manner 2 weeks ago at Chinese Garden MRT Station. Well, in short, the body of the man who died at Clementi yesterday remained more or less intact. For details about the previous case, read the papers.
This also comes after reports regarding the family of the man who was killed 2 weeks ago came pouring into the media limelight, and how this lead to the collective donation of 50 grand from kind-hearted Singaporeans to the poor family.
I don't know if the man who jumped track at Clementi yesterday was thinking of the same kind of "insurance" for his family after his "glorified" death, but I had a gut feeling that they might be linked. This national phenomenon of track jumping had increased in severity over the last few years, with more and more people deciding to cross the yellow line over the platform and step into the line of death. The fact is, they probably hurl themselves onto the path of the trains as they are oncoming, so train drivers have absolutely no chance and reaction to brake. The other fact that a person can jump into a track and wait for a train to hit him straight in the face is scary; that is why they probably don't do it this way. Think of it as closing your eyes before you apply pressure on the trigger of the gun that is pointing at your own head. Yeah, you get the picture.
The reasons behind such jumps differ on a case-to-case basis, but they reflect a important social defect. A defect in which people tend to "take the easy way out" by simply committing suicide with the aid of public transport. The impact of their deaths will then no doubt be amplified by the media and will attract the attention of fellow Singaporeans, who may be cursing and swearing due to the train holdup, to their plights. It is a way of saying, "Come everybody, look at me. I am going to die in front of all of you."
Someone should add a new fine. "No jumping onto track" - Fine $5000. P.S. If you want to die, please die in peace. To some people, this may evoke a sense of empathy towards the "jumpers" and their families; to others, they may be deemed as "selfish" and "inconsiderate" because the burden of their deaths lie in the hands of others then. I belong to the second group of people. For me, a person can always commit suicide in the comfort of his own home using a penknife or some poison pills, and not in the full view of the public. By dying in the full view of the public, they are actually demonstrating something. Something so intrinsic and wrong that I can't even point out what it is. It may be a "retaliative" behaviour on the part of Singaporeans, and it may be a symptom, though not serious now, that something is wrong with our social fabric. I'll leave that to the sociologists to figure out.
In the meantime, SMRT might consider building barriers or glass panels at blacklisted stations to prevent similar incidents from happening. Or they could station more guards or officers at the platforms. All these, however, are only cosmetic in nature, because you will never know when someone standing next to you will hurl himself into the path of another train.
Tell me how you feel then.
N Black Sey @
11:26 PM
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11:26 PM
