Do no harm

Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong was conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by the National University of Singapore last week. We carry today an excerpt from his acceptance speech.

Excerpt:

'The unexamined life is not worth living.' So said Socrates, who paid with his life for insisting on living in accordance with his own maxim. The question 'Why am I here?' requires each of us to examine our purpose in life and to set our life goals.

The question should be asked when one starts one's career and not at the end of it, because it may be too late then to change anything for the better. The past is gone, and can only be recalled but cannot be re-lived. When the poet W.H. Auden was considering this question, he said: 'We are here to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know.'