NTU death fall-Student ignored friends' message

This article was posted on the home page of the Straits Times on 5 March 2009.

It is about a Nanyang Technological University (NTU) student called David Hartanto Widijaja, who slashed his professor and then commited suicide by jumping from a building. He was actually an ASEAN scholar whose scholarship has been terminated by the university because he has not been maintaning his grades. At the day or the incident, he was having a discussion with his final year project (FYP) supervisor, Prof Chan, when he carried out the attack.

I am deeply shocked that such an incident could happened in a Singapore university. It reminded me of the short story Adaline Ng Ai Choo in Ltiile Ironies. In this story a student also fell to her death when she was refused one mark by her teacher. Instead of opening up himself to his friends or teacher, he immersed himself in computer games to run away from his study problems. This has led to further deterioration in his studies and the breaking point when his FYP is due.

I suppose David was not in the proper state of mind where he is able to seek help. In this aspect, I feel that his friends or teachers should take a more proactive step by activating professional counsellors who are readily available in the university. His family members could be informed as family support is most important in such a situation.

An important lesson to all of us is to be very open about our problems and to seek help. Keeping problems to ourselves is mentally torturing. We must also be very proactive to lend a helping hand to friends in times of need.