Losing With Dignity

No, this post is not about Arsenal losing the FA cup semifinal against MU last Saturday. That was just a sporting event and after a couple of days one would get over it and look forward to the next game.

This post is about a semi-retired taxi driver, who is also a father and who lost a daughter about a year ago in a naval accident.

Seah Sim Beng's daughter, Ai Leng, was among the four servicewomen on board the RSS Courageous who died when she collided with a merchant vessel off Singapore waters in January last year. In the event, the two officers commanding the Courageous, a Lt. Chua Chue Teng and her supervisor Lt. Ng Keng Yong, were charged with negligence. They were subsequently found guilty and last Friday they were fined S$10,000 each though they could have been jailed for 2 years.

Mr. Seah was reported in an article in the Sunday Times Singapore to have said that for a year after the tragedy he and his wife had to consult psychiatrists. The article also quoted him saying, "I'd be walking home from the MRT station and I'd would be crying all the way. All day long, I kept thinking about her and missing her."

One can empathised with Mr. Seah and his family on the pain they felt. And if they were bitter and non-forgiving about what had happened to Ai Leng, we would have understood too.

But Mr. Seah was not that kind of man.

He sought closure." It was a moment of negligence that led to the tragedy. It's not what they wanted", he said of the officers. Also he voiced his worry that they would sink into depression if they were given a custodial sentence. And as if to match his words with action he sent this touching letter, hand-written in Chinese, to the Judge before last Friday sentencing -

Your Honor,

I am Seah Sim Beng, father of Seah Ai Lang, one of the victims in the tragedy.

I hereby sincerely plead with Your Honour for the benefit of the two Naval Officers, Lieutenant Ng Keng Yong and Lieutenant Chua Chue Teng, and hope Your Honour would accept my plea and impose on them a sentence of a fine instead of imprisonment.

During the past one year plus, I know from my contact with them that they have already gone through and suffered a great deal of emotional and spiritual distress in their lives.

They had been my daughter's good friends and good working partners. They are also the children of their parents. I, as a parent, do not hope to see them imprisoned because of an inadvertence committed by them in the course of discharging their duties in safeguarding our country.

On Nov 17 last year, during my first meeting with them outside the court, I could feel their sincere sadness, remorse, upset and anguish over the fact that the collision had happened.

I could empathize with their sadness, remorse, upset and anguish that have been obsessing them persistently. I hereby appeal to Your Honour to impose on them a lighter sentence of a fine, instead of imprisonment.

Sincerely,
Seah Sim Beng

Mr. Seah lost his daughter in the game known as life. But he accepted it with dignity; and more, by being magnanimous to the young officers.

In these days of so much hatred in the world, this kind of behaviour and action gives hope to mankind, of which Mr. Seah is a truly fine specimen.