What happened to common decency in the global age?

The two-year-old toddler in China who was run over by two trucks and left to die until a trash-collector came to her rescue, finally passed away late last week. 

After the horror of the hit-and-run, the child was pulled to the side of the road, possibly to prevent her from being run over by more vehicles passing through the small but busy road that was thriving with economic activity. 

What disturbed many people in China, and around the world, including Thailand, was the fact that more than a dozen people walked, cycled and drove by the dying child before anyone came to her assistance.

The incident has sparked an emotional online debate in the country’s social media and has forced an entire nation into soul-searching mode. People are trying to come up with answers as to how, in the first instance, the drivers could be so negligent and callous, and secondly, why she could be ignored so mercilessly after the incidents. The toddler was in critical condition, lying on the street, but was then heartlessly ignored by so many passers-by.

Thai “netizens” also came out in full force to give moral support to the victim and her family, as well as to condemn the seemingly indifferent passers-by.

But in spite of the many villains of the piece, there was an unlikely hero: a 58-year-old garbage-collector – who reminded us that the only way we can measure the significance of our own lives is by valuing the lives of others.

One reading of the behaviour of the passers-by and witnesses suggests that they were fearful of being duped into something they may not know about, or that they were concerned about being wrongly charged with involvement in a horrible crime.

In many developing societies – and Thailand is no different – where the legal system usually favours the haves instead of the have-nots, such a mindset may not be considered so unusual. There is a feeling of lack of fair play that many people in Thailand, and obviously China, can understand well.

Indeed, the same indifferent people caught in the closed circuit TV footage might have acted differently in the same situation in another place. It can perhaps be said, in this day and age, that there was nothing uniquely Chinese about the reactions of the passers-by.

Anyone who has grown up in an authoritarian state, or under a legal and social system that is unfair, can understand what was going through those people’s minds.

In this fast-changing world of ours, where people often judge one another by economic well being, it took a lady with little to lose to remind us what’s really important in life and what is lacking in many of us and our societies – compassion and mercy. But compassion and mercy are not enough; there must be a reliable sense of fair play and a sense of justice.

Many of the Thai netizens appeared to be suggesting that they would have taken action to help the toddler. That’s easier said than done, of course, with the benefit of hindsight.

In Thailand, unless the event is organised – as seen in the ongoing relief operation for flood victims – there is also a general feeling that it is unwise and unsafe to help strangers in need in public places. Perhaps our attitude is shaped by the same feeling of a lack of fair play and justice, as we can assume was the case with those Chinese passers-by who did nothing as the toddler lay there and bled. Indeed, how many motorists make way for an oncoming ambulance with a siren blasting, or make way for elderly people in public places?

But the fact that people in Thailand, as well as China, are talking about this incident, and about civility and common decency in general, is surely a good sign. There might be a glimmer of hope that our society is changing and maturing. And if we are able to extend compassion and mercy to fellow Thai citizens, we should go one step further and extend it to non-Thais, in particular migrant workers from neighbouring countries who perform arduous and dirty work that many Thais shun.

Civility must grow as society grows. It must become highly mobile and more interactive, be it via the media or through daily personal contact.