Gurmit Singh - I hope to do better.

 

131km. That’s fast. And on a road (Woodlands Avenue 12) whose speed limit is 70km/h, that’s nearly twice that limit.

For that, Gurmit Singh Virk Chainchal Singh (aka Mr Phua Chu Kang) was fined $800. He was also banned for three months after pleading guilty to speeding. 

At that time, in April, his 19-yr-old son was with him. He was driving a luxury sedan Audi A8. FYI, Gurmit is known to own fast cars like Lamborghini and Honda Phantom TA-200 motorcycle.

The father of three said that he heard a “flapping sound” coming from the car and wanted his son to hear it. It was a new car he had bought and he wanted his son to check out the sound. At that time, he was fetching his son home. 

He said: “After I got him, I wanted him to hear the sound, and I realised it comes out at 100km/h. I’m not saying I should drive at that speed...but it was just a short spurt.” Gurmit said it was “one-off” and he didn’t realise he had clocked 130km/h. 

After he left the court, Gurmit posted a video and “promised to be a better driver...I just want to say I’m sorry, and I hope to do better.”

Lesson? I guess we all hope to do better. Gurmit has apologised. He had received many messages of support. Redemption is indeed a beautiful journey. It is also a lifelong journey. 

We must know that this can happen to anyone. That almost effortless pressure on the accelerator in a car made for speed is enough to tempt even the most sober-minded amongst us.

There should not be any pretenses when it comes to human imperfections. For given the right opportunity, the right settings, we can’t be all that sure we will not fall. 

I know I shouldn’t wax so philosophical about our human nature, in particular, over one traffic trangression, but I fear our society often stands on the side of those who readily follow the mob to cast stones at those standing alone and apart on the other side. 

And this may have nothing or little to do with Gurmit’s case, but sadly, I noticed that we love to hate, especially when such hatred is reserved for someone who is prominent, highly educated, rich and/or famous. 

And with such easy media access, all that you have done in the past counts for little when you fall foul of the law, whether legal or moral. Your weakest link is therefore that break in character, even if it’s just a moment of folly. 

That is the summation of a cancel culture waiting by the shadows to pounce on anyone who is supposed to be without blame in the eyes of society.

Our craving for the ideal has turned society into one of extremes, where good men are never expected to be bad. When you breach that expectation, the world then pass you by to look for their next perfect hero to adulate. The mirror of humanity is therefore never turned on ourselves, but on others, especially those who are perceived to be outstanding or seemingly infallible.

So, let me end with a reflection here. You may be aware that the opposite of love is not hate, but apathy. Well, in Hebrew, the opposite of holy is not “profane” (or “chol”), but “empty”. Yes, “empty” here means you are not yet filled. 

How about that? That word “yet” is a journey of time, as our life is measured against it. It means that we ought not to be condemned by one act in a single space and time. That’s not conclusive yet of us. But, should we learn from it (and make amends with time), we thus ought to receive the grace and embrace of society. 

I have also learned that holy in Hebrew is “Kedusha”, and it means “life intensity”. And as one Rabbi puts it, “To be holy is to be intensely dynamic, ever changing, and ever-realising.” (Rabbi Irwin Kula).

“The Biblical command “You Shall Be Holy” is an invitation to celebrate what philosopher Mark Taylor calls “a maze of grace that is the world.”” 

So, the good rabbi implores us to “live as richly and passionately as possible; that’s as close to meaning as (we) will get.”

And let me just add that to live richly and passionately, to live in a maze of grace, is to know that you are just as broken and fallible as the person beside you who may have fallen. 

This maze is the messiness of life we all struggle together, and are trying to figure out. And this grace is a timeless reminder that we are in the same boat, regardless of the great estimation we may quietly reserve for ourselves.