Thursday, October 1, 2009

Second chance

I think most of us are willing to give a person who is a former criminal a second chance. That means we will treat him as one of us ordinary citizens and also employers will treat him equally when he applies for work.

However, I guess a bank, for example, will not employ anyone who has committed any financial crime. Or a school will not let someone who has molested young children to teach its kids. The public would also have doubts about letting them in these jobs.

I think they can also stand for parliamentary elections after a certain number of years but whether people support them or not is another thing. Giving people a second chance doesn't mean forgetting what they have done.

I was thinking of what our Miss Beautiful Singapore said. She is beautiful and has a charming smile. We like that. But from what she said, as reported in the papers, it seems she just put her crimes as something she did when she was young and rash. When asked why she didn’t tell the organizers about her crimes and her conviction, she said “it’s not as though it’s that big …”.

Even primary school pupils know that it is wrong to steal things. So if you are a teenager or if you are less than 18, it doesn’t make you less wrong. When Miss Beautiful did not declare her conviction when she first applied to join the contest, she committed another dishonest act, forgetting that she has been given a second chance.

If from the start Miss Ris Low had declared her conviction, her application would be rejected. Then she would not have to go through the ordeal. So I would say she has to bear the greater part of responsiblity.