the pianist + singaporean's sadism
Monday, December 05, 2005 (3:54 PM)
if you still have no clue about the melvyn tan saga, you really ought to start reading the papers now. not kelvin tan. project superstar is passe. we are now on the pianist issue, get over the singer controversy.
these few weeks, we have seen how an issue of performing in singapore sparked such enormous speculation about defaulters of national service. no doubt $33k - including the $30k security bond - is probably less than peanuts for a renown pianist of melvyn tan's capacity (hmm... the 'peanuts' thing sounds familiar), we are showing the sadistic side of ourselves without us realising it. of course there are those who are fine with the fine that melvyn tan was slapped with, but there are those who unreservedly critisized such a 'small' punishment. we probably didn't regard the years he spent apart from his parents.
so for those who are all for throwing melvyn tan in jail, let's analyse what we have to gain from his jail term? no doubt the fine could lead people to the assumption that they can get away with escaping ns easily. think about it again. if you can go overseas and bear to stay there till you are past 40 apart from your parents for a few decades and still think that it's 'easy', i'd say go ahead. if you realised, despite not gaining anything from melvyn tan's jail term, we seem to be all ready to rejoice if he should be sentenced to jail. sadism. not at its worst but in its best camouflage.
now that all the uproar caused him to cancel his esplanade recital, not only have we gained nothing, we have lost something. i read the article in the straits times today, and thought that the writer offered pretty constructive ideas. i'm not going type it here, go read it yourself. then let's put all those ideas back on the scale and weigh. i'll give you an idea on how your life changes based on 3 groups of people.
scenario #1: melvyn tan jailed.
group #1: life goes on as usual.
group #2: a short-term sadistic pleasure.
group #3: lost a chance to catch piano recital by a great pianist.
scenario #2: melvyn tan not jailed
group #1: life goes on as usual.
group #2: a short-term sadistic displeasure.
group #3: gained a chance to catch piano recitals that could change the arts scene.
which group do you think you belong to? i'm not here to judge but you know how much you have to gain from the capital punishment. and i'm sure we know how to choose between short-term effects and long-term good. when people say 's&m', it doesn't always mean that the recipient is a masochist.