There is a cure for Anton Casey, as well as others who have made names for themselves making thoughtless remarks - Amy Cheong, Sun Xu, Shinmun Lai, etc. But we need to first understand why people say such offensive things.
A few years ago, I had the privilege of attending a talk given by Robert Putnam. Mr Putnam is a political scientist, and author of the famous (and controversial) book "Bowling Alone - America's Declining Social Capital" (see hyperlink: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone). He spoke about his latest book “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us”, and gave an interesting anecdote.
As part of his research for the book, Mr Putnam carried out a survey to determine the levels of trust Americans had of various religious groups. The results were startling. The group Americans least trusted were Muslims. This was not surprising following 911 and the events thereafter. But just above Muslims, and very low down the trust scale, were Buddhists. The researchers were puzzled – why would Americans be suspicious of Buddhists? They thought there was something wrong with the data, and re-did survey. Same result. What happened?
The answer turned out to be simple, yet revealing. Americans did not trust Buddhists because very few of them actually know a Buddhist.
The simple fact is that we tend not to trust people who are different from us AND who we do not know. Putnam spoke about the “Aunt Susan Effect”. If you had a relative or close friend (“Aunt Susan”) who was of a different ethnicity and someone said something nasty about that race, your reaction would be "But Aunt Susan is not like that!", and those remarks would have little influence over you. It is hard to demonize people of a certain group when you are close to someone in that group.
I believe Anton Casey would not have made those remarks if he had Singaporean friends, or more precisely, Singaporean friends who are less well off than he is. Those who have published rude remarks about the colour, smell or habits of people of a different race are likely not to have friends of that race. Likewise those who demean others for their ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status or even sexual orientation, are unlikely to have friends in those groups. Why? Because no one, not a single person, would ever mock or demonize his real friends.
So what is the cure for Anton Casey? In one my favourite scenes in Attenborough’s movie “Gandhi”, Gandhi lies weak from fasting as a protest against the Hindu-Muslim riots. He is confronted by an angry Hindu who demands that he eats. The man said that he killed Muslims in the riots because they killed his child. He was going to hell, but he did not want Gandhi’s death on his soul. Gandhi offered the man a way out of hell. He told him to find a Muslim boy orphaned by the killings, take care of him but to raise him as a Muslim. It was a powerful statement about salvation (See hyperlink http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PYsyl4xBDA).
The real cure for Anton Casey and others like him is simple. It is not to issue apologies or perform demonstrations of contrition managed by public relations firms. Neither is it to issue death threats or make life miserable for his family, especially his young son. The cure for Anton Casey is for him to get to know and make friends with Singaporeans, especially those who are not as wealthy as he is. Only then will he truly understand the wrong he has done, and start on the road to salvation.
Hri Kumar
*Article first appeared on his FB page here.