Amos Yee had been in the spotlight for a while in Singapore recently for his rant on modern Singapore’s founding father Mr. Lee Kuan Yew. I hope he is just the odd one out of the typical teenagers in Singapore as I see arrogance, an overly proud personality and totally insensitive traits in this young guy.

I viewed some of his other videos and see that he not only had attended some talks with a political party and had attended a gay party while proclaiming he is the only non-gay there. At 16 years of age, I feel that he is exposed to too much of the adult world issues and had been badly influenced to harbour unrealistic ideologies. No, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying those people he met influenced him badly, but that he is badly influenced by the activities he came into contact with.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew is respected by most Singaporeans as the key to modern Singapore success, we are all brainwashed to believe that Singapore would not be what it is today if not for his contributions. I did have my doubts and misgivings about Mr Lee Kuan Yew when I was younger, but as I matured and get to see things in a more mature perspectives, I understand why he did what he did and why it is necessary to implement strict laws and unpopular policies.

Many could not understand what it takes to make a country successful and does not understand what it meant to be successful. This is understandable as everybody takes a different role in a society. The government and policy makers have the responsibilities to make decisions and policies for the success of the country while the commoners make the decision to choose a good government. We always have people complaining about every policy that the government makes, as one policy may benefit one particular group, but not another, and another policy will benefit another group and so forth.

Complains and unhappiness is inevitable as there is no policy that will benefit everybody equally, so as to speak, but it’s sad to see Amos Yee, a boy who grew up in modern Singapore, someone who enjoys a comfortable life compared to many others in the rest of the world, harbouring such thoughts about his own country, a place where he enjoyed for the past 16 years without any woes or weals.

His verbal attacks on his father, critising him for being abusive and stuffs just goes to show how much a failure fathers in modern Singapore are. His mother’s confession that her son is out of control further attest to the fact that many parents are either incapable of teaching their own kids well or just did not spend enough time with their children. This is sad, but true, as a country modernized, the standard of living improved but with it came the increase in cost of living. Many parents need to struggle to make ends meets and make sure their offspring gets the best that they can afford in material means, but in that process, they neglected the emotional needs of their children.

I believe Amos Yee’s current state is not the result of a few exposures to different groups of people or different views of opposing parties, but more of the way he was brought up and the lack of attention he got from his parents in his younger days. He is doing what he did as a way to gain attention and probably money from the popularity of his blog. His views and actions so far could not escape from the childishness and insensitivities of a 16 years old. But what can you expect from a 16 years old? Especially when he is brought up to be a proud, self idolizing and insensitive individual.

I really hope Amos Yee will someday grow up to be thankful of what the country has done for him and not be filled with resentment by what he thought the country owned him, because nobody own him anything! Every country will need more citizens who are willing to work for the best interest of the country as a whole, and less of those who kept thinking the country had left them behind or short-changed them while the country progressed.