Monday, March 16, 2009

Dr Allan Ooi's suicide note

UPDATE:

Looks like the link to the suicide note is no longer available - the website mentioned has closed down.

The case interested me because here was a young man, intelligent, handsome - doctor some more - the real deal in a Chinese culture.

And then he decided to go to Australia - spend a few months there - and commit suicide by throwing himself off a site - which is an infamous suicide point.

The news report states that:

THE FAMILY of a Singaporean doctor who lived secretly in Melbourne for several months before taking his life is appealing for anyone who knew him to come forward.
Dr Allan Ooi, 27, was absent without official leave from Singapore's armed forces in October last year, after telling superiors he was unhappy with a locked contract as a medical officer.
Despite an international search by his family, Dr Ooi was not found until March 3 - when he was discovered dead in Melbourne.
The tragedy has sparked fierce debate in Singapore over regulations that force doctors who have trained with the armed forces to then serve for at least 12 years.
In a note left online for family, Dr Ooi claimed the Singaporean Armed Forces had bullied him into staying enlisted by extending his locked contract.
"My job was terrible - no joy, no satisfaction," he wrote in the time-delayed email sent after his death.
"Twelve years of bonded service became potentially 15 or 16, became unbreakable.
"How can it be extended by will by an administration, simply by passing a paper?"
SAF-trained doctors are required to serve 12 years after their studies to repay education and training debts.
Dr Ooi's distraught parents, who have returned to Singapore after collecting their son's body, are desperate to know more about his last months.
Cousin Katalin Blond, who lives in Ballarat, yesterday told how the family had frantically followed leads around the globe, but had no idea Dr Ooi was in Melbourne.
A receipt in his hire car, found on the West Gate Bridge, led to the young doctor's Punt Rd apartment.
His brother, Adrian, also a doctor in Singapore, said the behaviour was totally out of character for the intelligent and outgoing young man.
"From what we can tell, he did not even make contact with anyone he knew in Melbourne," he said.
Dr Ooi had never lived in Australia, but had friends in Victoria through two uncles who had lived here.
It is believed Dr Ooi flew into Darwin on a tourist visa.

****

He reminds me a bit of the character Jude Law played in Gattaca. Jerome Morrow had everything going for him. But a setback had him spiraling into depression.

I feel sad for him - esp. his family and the people that loved him. Suicide is never the answer to personal problems like this.

In his suicide note - he wrote that he wanted to see what was on the other side.

I think he would find disappointment. Disappointment that he ended his time on earth too early and missed out on so much more.

I have had to deal with disappointment too. The worse is when the person - my own mother - that you have loved and respected all your life - suddenly turns around and seeks to destroy you and everything the family has built up over two generations.

The hurt, the anger, the growing sense of rage is like an emotional tsunami that hits you - not once - but often in waves.

Sometimes you just have to let it go. Say a prayer and lift it up to our Creator and hand the pain over to Him.

The Bible has a verse: "Cast your anxiety and cares over to God because He cares for you."

No comments: