Singaporeans will help strangers in need

SINGAPOREANS worried that they might be left in the lurch in their hour of need can breathe a little easier.

People here do generally lend a hand to strangers who have been in an accident, said sociologists my paper spoke to.

And, unlike their peers in the United States or China, citizens here are less worried about being sued by the very people they help, said lawyers.

The tragedy that befell two-year-old toddler Wang Yue - or Little Yue Yue - in Foshan, China, cast the spotlight on how the Chinese hesitate to help others for fear of being blamed or sued.

Yue Yue died last Friday of brain failure. This was after she had been knocked down twice on Oct 13 and ignored by 18 passers-by, before a rag collector lifted her to safety.

Netizens around the world were stunned, and expressed outrage at the response of the passers-by. So, would Singaporeans extend a helping hand if they were in a similar situation?

Yes, said National University of Singapore Associate Professor Tan Ern Ser.

He said that there have been cases where people put themselves in danger, by helping strangers chase criminals.

"Singaporeans are generally helpful, unless they are part of a rushing crowd where they can walk past quickly and dismiss their feeling of obligation or responsibility to help."

In 2004, wine and coffee trader Alan Wong was ignored by club members after he slipped and fell at the Singapore Island Country Club.

But an experiment conducted by The New Paper shortly after that episode showed that most Singaporeans stopped to offer assistance to a man who appeared to be fainting (he was actually an actor).

Lawyers said that they have not seen a case here in which a good Samaritan was slapped with a lawsuit, unlike in China.

Singapore, in general, does not have a trigger-happy suing culture, they said.

In China, a 26-year-old technician was sued by a 65-year-old woman in 2006 after he helped her up from a fall. She accused him of causing her fall and the court ruled in her favour.

While criminal lawyer Chia Boon Teck, a co-managing partner at law firm Chia Wong, does not rule out the possibility of this happening here, he said that the chances are slim.

This is because if the victim is suing to get compensation, the victim needs to build up a stack of lies to support the argument, he said. There will also likely be witnesses who can refute the claim, he added.

"You'll need a very heartless victim to do that. (But) I think the average Singaporean is quite decent," he said.

Litigation lawyer Jispal Singh from Unilegal said the onus is on the accuser to prove the helper caused the injury.

"The courts here are sensible. If the victim tries to blame the rescuer, the judge will weigh the facts and evidence. He may even tick the victim off for making such allegations," he said.

Ms Tan Soo Yean, head of sociology programmes at SIM University, said Singaporeans do possess a desire to help.

However, she said that Singapore is a metropolitan city where people are accustomed to "preserving distance, so that a veneer of privacy is maintained".

Hesitation to help might stem from a fear of embarrassment or a reluctance to draw attention to oneself, she added.

When my paper did a straw poll with 40 Singaporeans yesterday, 33 respondents, or 82.5 per cent, said they would help if they saw a stranger meet with a road accident, while 30 respondents, or 75 per cent, said they would help if someone slipped and fell.

They cited compassion and civic consciousness as reasons for helping. The others said that they would be more cautious and render help based on factors, like the severity of the situation.

A dentist, who wanted to be known only as Dr Yang, said that whether he would offer help depends on how far he is from the accident site and whether anybody else is around.

"If I happen to drive by, I will not stop," said the 41-year-old, explaining that if he stopped abruptly, he might cause an accident in turn.

A 32-year-old financial analyst, who wanted to be known only as Melissa, said: "I don't care if people stare at me or look at me funnily for helping someone."

In fact, she once saw a hit-and- run accident on a highway, where a car hit a motorbike. She stopped her car in the middle of the highway to check on the two motorbike riders and help them to safety.

Tutor Peter Ng, 57, who was helped by passers-by after falling along a road last month, said: "If you are a victim, you would want to be helped."

For more my paper stories click here.