Priorities must be right in times of emergency

I am saddened by the behaviour of the adult bystanders who were taking photographs instead of offering help after witnessing the accident in Yishun that happened on May 31.

The report “SCDF award for 12-year-old who helped accident victims” (June 2, online) stated: “Ashvin (Gunasegaran) looked around to see if anyone was going to help, but all he saw were people whipping out their phones to take photos.”

Experts in the field have mentioned that the bystanders’ behaviour might reflect a desire to update their friends on social media about accidents and that it has become their instinct to record almost anything, especially the unusual, for their feeds.

Those people did not get their priorities right. A basic humanitarian behaviour is to provide immediate help for those in need. The injuries of victims would possibly be exacerbated if help is delayed. However, the bystanders chose to not intervene.

They should have called emergency services or checked on the victims, but their friends’ amusement seemed to have been more important than providing help. Do we not want Singapore to be a nation full of warmth?

If we do, everyone must play a part in displaying care in our society. The bystanders lacked spontaneous civic-mindedness, which should be a focus of our educational system in order to nurture more people who would behave like Ashvin.

An important lesson from this is that people should exercise priority in an emergency. The incident is a wake-up call for all of us to restore moral values and basic humanity and to make Singapore a kinder place.