Have a Little Faith 有一点信仰吧
The first article on the same topic was written on 16th March 2016 posted on my LinkedIn page:
Now that I have just returned from Cambodia (Kampuchea) I have time to reflect again on this topic after my visits to the two genocide sites:
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTRjJAo2jjU
and
The Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cDsjA25bLo
As I toured the two places, I remembered the story of my departed father and grandfather who were taken by the Japanese soldiers to be killed somewhere in Singapore during the Japanese Occupation of the island. This was in February 1942 during the Second World War, when I was fifteen months old. History records this event in Singapore as the “Sook Ching Massacre”.
I have no memory of my father and grandfather as their stories were related to me by my mother and grandmother. The only record I have of my Dad is his photograph as seen from my album, reproduced above. I do not know how my father and grandfather died but seeing the exhibits at the two genocide places in Cambodia made me imagine that they might have been tortured too before their deaths.
But this article is not the retelling of the stories of the Cambodia genocide nor the retelling of Sook Ching. These stories can be found on the internet. The article here concerns the lesson we can learn from this past events. How can we prepare ourselves should a calamity come to us, all of the sudden? True, it may not be a massacre, but it can be a natural disaster such as an earthquake or a wrongful detention due to someone placing an illegal drug into our luggage bags.
In other words, how would we have behaved if we found ourselves in Phnom Penh in the 199o’s under the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime? Or, how would we have behaved if we were placed in the Japanese detention camp in Singapore in 1942?
How should we react in such similar circumstances?
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How blessed are we that we are not living in the days of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (1995 to 1999) nor in the days of the Second World War in Singapore (1942 to 1945).
But we have to remind ourselves that we are still living in days of total darkness and uncertainties as far as sudden calamities are concerned. We need to prepare ourselves now for such a sudden change of circumstances.
Praise the Lord that we are safe and blessed lives.
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Let us start with a story of a Buddhist monk living during the four years of the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime. This is just a story based on the facts now known from the internet.
“My name is Sueng and I am a Monk in Cambodia. I was among the ten monks meditating at the main chambers of Wat Ounalom Monastery one afternoon in June 1977 when a group of seven Khmer Rouge soldiers, all in their teens, came dashing in.
“The soldiers were not carrying any firearm. They were carrying crude farming gears like spades, axes, digging forks, drag hoes and the like. The leader of the group yelled at us to move out into a truck parked outside the Chamber. None of us moved as we continue to stay in quiet motivation.
“The leader marched to one of us, the tallest amongst us and pushed him down. Two others then proceeded to hand-carry him and pushed him into the truck. There was no struggle as the Monk continued to chant the Kusala Dhamma.”
NOTES: The Khmer Rouge government of the time was ruthlessly setting up a new order known as Year Zero - a radically “pure” society. All institutions including the monasteries with their Sangha Buddhist order of monks, the educated communities like Universities and Schools, and the ruling or upper classes like the civil servants, needed to be totally destroyed.
Buddhist monks had the tradition of living in wats and temple monasteries in every community throughout the country. The monks were forced to disrobe and to work as peasants and farmers under the regime. An estimated number (70%) of the monks were even executed during the regime.
Our story continues:
“I was the youngest of the ten. All of us were manhandled on to the truck. At least four, perhaps six of us received blows from the strikes of those implements they carry. We were all calm and we, as monks, had learned to bear sufferings even when our bodies and flesh hurt. We knew that we were born to suffer. Our truck moved at a slow pace along rough roads and eventually came to a halt. We were shoved and driven, cattle-like style, into a dingy empty room. We were whipped by other soldiers and made to squat down on the cemented floor. Then the soldiers took us, one by one, out of this room. I was the last to go.
“I was carried into another smaller room where there was a metal box-like rectangular tub filled waist-high with water. I was made to strip myself and to enter the water. My hands were then bolted up on both sides of the tub. My two feet were anchored by iron bars at one end of the tub. The iron bars were located so high that my torso fell into the water head down. I felt the filthy water down my throat and just when I thought that I had passed out, someone had lifted my head above water and shouted questions at me. My head was spinning and I could not concentrate. I passed out.
“Just before passing out, I did recall a siren being sounded. That was it. The next thing I knew was that I was under the care of a nurse.
“I just wanted to say for the benefit of non-Buddhists in our midst that Buddhist monks like us did not fear death. Face to face with adversaries, we continued to recite the Four Noble Truths. We understood that suffering was a natural part of life. The Four Noble Truths were (and still are) Dukkha - Suffering; Samudaya - the origin of Suffering; Nirodha - the truth of the end of Suffering; and Magga - the truth of the path to the end of Suffering. Although to the human eyes my other fellow monks suffered and died of wounds and possible tortures, the truth to them was that they know the causes of suffering - greed, ignorance, and hatred. They were happy that they had not succumbed to any such cause.”
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The Christians view human sufferings in a totally different light. The Book of Job and God’s story of Job starts with this preface “God allows upright Job to be afflicted by Satan.”
Witness the manner in which Job’s life was increasingly made difficult by Satan. Job was robbed of all of his possessions. Job’s children all died. Job was afflicted with Job’s friends deserted him. But all along Job continued to have faith in God.
My Father and Grandfather were not Christians as far as I know but in the face of certain death, I just hope and pray that they had given their lives to Christ before they went down. Their deaths were painful to me and in April this year, I was again reminded of this event when I visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
How I wish the story of Poon Him Lai (my father) and Kum Tong Lee (my grandfather) would end like this:
“At the lorry, they met up with two Cantonese speaking Christian brothers. All through the journey, their last journey, these two Christians were smiling and quietly grateful. They prayed to the Lord. They introduced the Lord’s prayer to my father and grandfather. They told them the story of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. They told them that Jesus had done no wrong, had never sinned and yet He died just to save all humans of their sins. They told them that the crucifixion was not as simple as it appeared. ‘How can two cross boards support the weight of a human body? The gravity would tear Jesus’ hands,’ they added and then they answered their own question thus, ‘In order for the body to be upright, the backbone of Jesus had to be nailed down to the vertical plank, and imagine how painful this was.’
Then they were taught to sing “Amazing Grace” before they departed to Heaven.
Praise the Lord.
“A…ma…zing… … Grace, How sweet the sound,
To save a wretch like me;
I once was lost but now I’m found,
Was blind and now I see.
“Was Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace, my fears re…lieved… …
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I … … first believed.
“Through many dangers, toils, and snares
We have already come.
Was Grace that brought us safe thus far
And Grace will lead me home.”
References:
New Trailer: “Mitch Albom’s Have a Little Faith” Premieres Nov 27, 2011
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTRjJAo2jjU
The Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cDsjA25bLo
Cambodia Genocide. https://youtu.be/Qi2TcA8P0QE
Sook Ching Massacre: https://youtu.be/pyCRbUTFWLM