Vincent Law and Amos Yee: what the hell is going on?

Hello everyone. I have had a good think about Vincent Law after I have read Amos Yee's super long attack on him - allow me to talk about Vincent for a change this time. Despite the fact that Vincent probably came across as an overbearing and ineffective counselor, most of us are still forgiving of this because we can appreciate the fact that he was trying to help Amos at the end of the day. It was pretty clear that Amos has no respect whatsoever for his parents and they have zero influence over him - so it is not just Amos that Vincent was trying to help, Vincent was also trying to help Mr and Mrs Yee. One can only imagine just how frustrated they may be - yes they may not have been good parents thus far (the evidence is clear), but anyone with some compassion must be able to feel sorry for them. The rest of the world (including Vincent Law) can just keep our distance from Amos now - Mr and Mrs Yee can't just walk away from Amos regardless of how ridiculous his behaviour may be (well, not until Amos turned 18 anyway).

Are you confused by the motivations of Amos and Vincent?

Now Vincent Law is a youth counselor by trade and it is his job to deal with teenage delinquents who need guidance - people like him perform a noble and valuable task especially when parents fail to discipline their own kids. When teenagers and youth people start to fall off the fringes of society, there are two approaches: you can either try to show compassion and give them the help they need to get their lives back on track, or you can ignore them until they become criminals, then you will deal with them through the criminal justice system. Hence people like Vincent represent the compassionate solution and it is certainly not an enviable task, not one that I can perform, ever. Thus regardless of his motivations, I salute Vincent Law for trying to help.

Now this is were I part company with Vincent - he is keen to bring his religion into his work and as a secularist, that makes me feel extremely uneasy and I must voice my disapproval. By all means, offer these young people the kind of guidance they so badly need, but surely religion should be a very personal choice whether or not you subscribe to a certain set of religious doctrine. To target vulnerable, confused, troubled young people like that with your religion seems unethical - after all, let's draw a list of priorities for someone like Amos Yee at the moment. If you wanted to help him, let's deal with his relationship with authority to begin with; trying to imagine that someone Christianity can somehow magically solve his problems is just unrealistic at best (if not downright delusional). Even if Vincent Law is very motivated by his faith, he should not prescribe his religion as part of the solution for it simply does not work.

Vincent bit off more than he could chew with Amos.

So why did Vincent try to take on this case then? Well, it is the same reason why some mountaineers want to climb Mt Everest, They like the challenge - yes they could easily climb less challenging mountains but they are instantly drawn to Mt Everest because it is the highest mountain in the world. It appeals to their sense of bravado to take on the most difficult challenge and they want to be able to say to their peers, "I conquer Everest, you didn't. I'm better than you." Have a look at the video below - it is about the two Americans rock climbers who conquered what is considered the most difficult rock face to climb: El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. They were not satisfied with what their local rock climbing center had to offer and had to outdo all the other rock climbers in the world by tackling what was considered impossible and being the first in the world to be able to say, "Hey everybody, I climbed that sheer rock face!"

So by the same token, Vincent Law wanted to counsel Amos Yee - it would be the equivalent of climbing the El Capitan sheer rock face for a youth counselor. But clearly, Vincent was unaware of the challenge that lay before him and he failed. Amos Yee is not your average troubled teen - oh no, where do I even begin? Amos has no respect for any concept of authority: he has no respect for the government, he doesn't care about the rule of law in Singapore and doesn't mind going to jail to prove his point. He certainly doesn't have any respect whatsoever for his parents and despite his age, he is very keen to be treated like an adult, rather than a child. Certainly, if you want to be able to counsel someone like Amos, you would have to start by winning his respect - but if you simply impose yourself on him by becoming his bailor, then that is simply not going to work.

The problem with Amos Yee is that he clearly thinks that he is smarter than everyone else around him and if I may be perfectly honest, I can totally relate to that growing up in Singapore. But I was also smart enough to realize that there were other wiser people in the world, the fact that I was not surrounded by them as a teenager growing up in Singapore merely meant that I had to go to one of the world's best universities and then get a job where I can work for some of incredibly intelligent people.  And sure enough, I found what I was looking for in university as well as in the working world. But no, Amos is choosing to turn against those around him - against people like Vincent Law (who may not be his intellectual equal) and even in his own parents. Surely that is no justification for the kind of attack he launched on Vincent Law's character or on his own father (Amos has made allegations of physical abuse at home) - anyone who gets close to Amos gets attacked. Someone needs to point this kid in the right direction, but he just won't listen to anyone at this stage and the worst part is that he doesn't even believe that he needs to accept anyone's help.

Amos is going on a path of self-destruction.

Vincent's only crime was to bite off more than he could chew by taking on Amos' case: it was the equivalent on an over ambitious rock climber tackling El Capitan in Yosemite National Park and then having a really bad fall halfway up the rock face. In hindsight, Vincent should have had the humility to call it quits and say, "I am clearly out of my depth. I could get hurt here." Not only did Vincent fail to help Amos, but Amos didn't hesitate to bite the hand that fed. I'm afraid that doesn't paint a very flattering picture of Vincent as a counselor - when you are out of your depth, the sensible thing to do is to reevaluate the situation, change your strategy and either give up or call for help. The same way a rock climber needs to know when to turn back - you do not keep climbing until you fall off. Surely Vincent Law should know by now that his only option is to walk away, cut his losses and admit defeat. In hindsight, it does appear that Vincent Law was foolhardy in refusing to admit defeat, but does he deserve to suffer the brunt of Amos' wickedness? No.

What will Amos be punished for?

I have been asked about Amos' point about Law that Law threatened to use the very same laws that he wanted to protect Amos from in the first place by volunteering to be his bailor. Well I think you're confusing two different issues altogether: like many, I believed that Amos ought not be arrested and punished for his Youtube videos, I believe that anyone should have the right to make a video like that about the legacy of Lee Kuan Yew and if you don't like what Amos Yee said, then you can either respond or ignore him - but don't demand that Amos Yee should be arrested. However, what Amos did to Vincent is slander: now that's quite a different matter compared to expressing one's political opinion. What Amos Yee expressed about LKY was a scathing critic of his legacy, but what he claimed about being molested by Vincent Law was carefully designed to give the public that Vincent Law was a sexual predator: it was a wicked and deliberate attempt to punish Vincent Law and for that, I would very much like to see Amos sent to jail for a very, very long time. He definitely deserves it now.

Here's the thing:  I recognize that Vincent's approach to counseling Amos was unorthodox and ineffective, but at the end of the day, that was ultimately a private matter between the two of them. Private disputes should really be resolved in private - there was really no justification for Amos to broadcast the details to the world and make it a public matter. If there was a criminal offence committed, then that should be a matter for the police to investigate; but Vincent didn't commit any crime - he had a dispute with Amos, but the only criminal element was Amos' act of slander. What Amos doesn't realize is that the vast majority of people are not going to sympathetic to his case after the way he has behaved. Okay, so Amos has successfully convinced me that Vincent Law is probably not a particularly good youth counselor - big deal, but what price is Amos paying to make that point to the world, in light of the fact that he is about to be sentenced on the 2nd June? Has he actually forgotten about that?  He is paying a very high price to hurt Vincent, that is way too high a price to pay in light of his current circumstances (as if he is not in enough trouble already).

Why is Amos drawing attention to himself online like this?

Allow me to present a case study: meet Chris Huhne (a British ex-politician) and his ex-wife Vicky Pryce. Back in Huhne had persuaded Pryce to accept three penalty points which he had allegedly incurred while driving from London Stansted Airport to London on the evening of 12 March 2003. As a politician, he had wanted to appear blameless and thought nothing of getting his then wife Pryce to take the points on his behalf. After their marriage broke down acrimoniously, Pryce went public about the incident because she wanted to destroy Huhne's career and reputation. An investigation and a long trial followed and ultimately, both Huhne and Pryce were sentenced to 8 months jail for the offence as the jury rejected a plea by Pryce that she was coerced into it. Pryce paid a very high price in her bid to harm her ex-husband: she had to spend as much time in jail as he did. Yes she succeeded in hurting him, but she hurt herself as much in the process. In hindsight, had she known that she had as much to lose as he did, she probably would not have gone public about what happened in 2003. She has grossly misjudged the situation and had made a huge mistake, which she had plenty of time in jail to think about. Her plan backfired.

Like Pryce, Amos may think that he is getting his revenge on the person he hates - but is his plan foolproof or is it going to backfire the same way it did for Pryce? I am not convinced that Amos knows what he is doing, this squabble, this dispute and quarrel with Vincent is probably the last thing he needs right now. He is likely to get a harsher sentence as a result of this, he has alienated himself from the very few supporters he has left and more importantly, after this episode, would anyone dare to try to help him? No way. And if this 16 year old kid thinks he can get through life without the help of older and more experienced adults like Vincent Law, then I pity the fool. Amos has inflicted far more harm on himself that he ever will on Vincent - Amos doesn't need enemies at this rate: he is doing a pretty good job at getting himself into trouble. He is his own worst enemy.

As usual, please let me know what you think about the issue, leave a comment below. Many thanks for reading.