The cause of NTU's suicide habit.

Every effect has a cause - and NTU's recent suicides are no exception. The question is: what could motivate two young men: David Hartanto Widjaja, 21 and, now Zhou Zheng, 24, to throw their lives away? It seems clear that both men thought their lives not worth living, anymore. What could have driven them to such a conclusion? Well, recent news reporting has inadvertently provided me with a clue.

In the Channel News Asia report of the hanging of Zhou Zheng, a recently appointed Project Officer, in THE SAME LABORATORY AS THE OTHER SUICIDE, they mentioned something in passing, which I think to be of great importance. They said that reporters from the radio station 938 Live had interviewed other residents in Block 101 C Nanyang Heights (a residence on campus for staff and graduate students). They weren't very successful in their interviews. They learnt that residents kept largely to themselves and interacted little with each other. Without realizing it, those reporters had, I feel, stumbled on a big clue as to what is happening at NTU. If people do not interact with each other, they feel alone, isolated, set apart. Without sufficient human interaction, they may begin to question their own worth, or value, they may begin to think little of themselves. A person who is isolated, though living in a block surrounded by many others, who basically ignore them, can very easily succumb to depression, or be led to dark thoughts.

That passing remark by 938 Live reporters makes me wonder what sort of culture now prevails at NTU. Is it one of relatively little interaction, at all levels? Or is it just among the graduate students and staff? If it is at all levels, that would provide some insight into David Hartanto Widjaja's and Zhou Zheng's death. We must not ignore that both were from the same lab. That means that both were exposed to the same social forces, the same environment, and many of the same issues, stresses and problems. What amazes me is that Zhou Zheng had only been at work for, I think, five days, before he decided to kill himself. Is working at NTU really such an unpleasant experience that he would end his life, so soon? Or is the problem restricted solely to the EEE lab (Electrical and Electronic Engineering) where he worked - and where David Hartanto Widjaja had studied?

This situation should not be dismissed as just a dark, unfortunate coincidence. That two young men should die, allegedly by their own hands, from the same laboratory at the same University, in the same week, is far too unlikely to be just coincidence. There is something afoot in the EEE lab of NTU, though what, it is difficult to say. It could be as simple as "the residents kept largely to themselves and interacted little with each other." A little social isolation can go a long way to undermining many people's belief in their own worth and that of life itself.

I would say that Universities, here, in Singapore, should pay less heed to academic demands and more heed to creating a convivial, warm, human and HUMANE atmosphere that makes staff and students alike feel welcomed and valued. I cannot believe that either Zhou Zheng, or David Hartanto Widjaja felt welcomed and valued. Had they done so, I cannot believe that either would have taken their own life, at the very beginning of what could have been. They both seem to have thrown everything away, just when it was beginning. No-one does that, without a very good reason. The question is: what was the reason? Why did David Hartanto Widjaja and Zhou Zheng, both of the EEE lab, both decide to kill themselves (allegedly) in the same week?

The answer may be as simple as social deprivation - or it could be a whole lot more involved. However, the social issue is one that should be looked at, after all, David Hartanto Widjaja, was described as someone who spent a lot of time to himself, in several reports. Maybe he wasn't too happy with that, in his own way.

I am watching this situation with interest, for I feel it deserves a full investigation and not one that proceeds by assumption or the need to preserve the good image of the institution concerned. What is needed is a good dose of truth seeking, no matter what truth might be found. People just don't kill themselves without a strong proximate cause. Now is the time to look for that cause - before others join Zhou Zheng and David Hartanto Widjaja, in death. To cover this up, might be to kill others, too. Let us not allow that to happen.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

David Hartanto Widjaja: celebrity.

David Hartanto Widjaja has become a posthumous celebrity of some kind. I say this upon observation of the traffic to my blog. You see, since the day news of his death by attempted murder-suicide broke and I wrote of it, about one fifth of the traffic to my blog has arrived with searches for either "David Hartanto Widjaja" or simply "David Widjaja". A few arrive by searching "NTU boy commits suicide over scholarship". I find this really very surprising, for I have been tracking news stories for two years, now - and this is the first that I have written of, that has attracted so much traffic.

I wrote of the death of Heath Ledger - and got a couple of hits a day for a few days after his death. Since mentioning David Hartanto Widjaja's shocking demise, my blog has been inundated with arrivals looking for more information about him.

His story of a despair that a young man could not take and thought fit to throw his life away, over, has become a persistent story - one with a momentum that few stories have. The consequence of this is that David Hartanto Widjaja is actually becoming famous in death. How sad, then, that what he is famous for is the manner of his death. Most who are famous after death, are famous for their lives, not their death. I think, given the significant traffic I am receiving in search of him, that, in some way, David Hartanto Widjaja will never be forgotten. The tale of the NTU boy who tried to kill his lecturer, then killed himself will long be remembered. With it, of course, there is a lesson beneath the tale: a lesson of the extremes to which the Singaporean education system pushes students, extremes which some students just cannot cope with.

I hope that David Hartanto Widjaja's memory is never forgotten. For, as long as we remember his short, tragic life, we may guard against putting our young under too much pressure in the name of academia. There are more important things in life than scholarships, academic achievements and educational status. There is love, there is happiness, there is peace of mind. I don't think that David Hartanto Widjaja felt that he had enough of these - particularly the latter. It seems more than certain that the demands of his course ensured that he had no peace of mind in his final months.

Let our children, then, know peace of mind, happiness and love. Let those be the core of their lives - and not scholarships, awards and grades. The latter accolades are hollow when measured against the things of life that have true worth. Singapore, of all societies, needs to learn this. Otherwise, it is at too much risk of being a hollow society. Oh dear, perhaps it already is...

Rest in Peace, David Hartanto Widjaja.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

A scholarship should be unconditional.

A scholarship should be unconditional. By this, I mean, that no requirements should be attached to it, after the award is made. There are very good reasons for this.

Today, we learnt that NTU withdrew the ASEAN Undergraduate Scholarship of David Hartanto Widjaja, the attempted murder-successful suicide of a student at NTU, Singapore. It seems clear that this would have been a primary contributory factor into his fatal decision. He was under so much pressure - and once the scholarship that enabled him to be here at all was withdrawn, he snapped. One life was lost, another harmed. It need not have been. The awarding of a scholarship should not be dependent on performance thereafter. The student was considered good enough at the moment of award, let them be free thereafter to breathe a little and do their work in peace. Then, such tragedies would not happen.

Has no-one given thought to want a scholarship with conditions of performance attached means? It means constant, unrelenting pressure for the students. Such a scholarship is a kind of prison from which there is no escape. The student must always perform, never slacken, never fail, never make a mistake. Such pressure is harmful to any student, too much for some.

I understand that such scholarships have an informal condition that no grade can ever be less than a B (Straits Times source). That seems unnecessary. Students will have good subjects and bad subjects, subjects they like and subjects they don't. In particular, foreign students, as David Widjaja was, may have trouble with English, which would lower their grades unnaturally. They would then be penalized not for lack of subject competence, but for their standard of English. It seems rather harsh.

A scholar is a scholar. Once good enough to secure a scholarship, they should be free to work in their own way. Genuine scholars will pursue their subjects with passion...there is no need to further harrass them over grades. Let them be. Let them live. Otherwise, they might just do what David Hartanto Widjaja did...and throw his life away because NTU thought that he didn't deserve the scholarship they had awarded him.

Think of the situation he was in. He was late in his degree. If withdrawal of his scholarship meant that he could not complete it, all his effort would have been in vain. (I speak of all and anyone in his situation, not knowing his particular circumstances.) He would have had to leave the University without a degree. All would have been lost. Clearly, he thought that all had been and that life was not worth living. In a very, very real way, those who withdrew his scholarship put him in that situation and in that frame of mind. It could be said that they killed him and nearly killed Professor Chan Kap Luk.

Let all future scholarships be unconditional. Let scholars be scholars and have the academic freedom to pursue their interests in their own way without the ever-present demand for grades.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)