Everyone Deserves a Second Chance

Is there such a thing as “second chances”? There is a saying that goes “everyone makes mistakes”. 

How can one learn from their mistakes if they are unaware they made them in the first place? Everyone makes mistakes, but only the wise learn from them and recognise them, whereas the unwise simply ignore them. As students we also make mistakes, but we are able to learn from them because we are given the opportunity to do so by our parents, teachers and peers. However, young offenders are oftentimes not given the same opportunity. Shouldn't these same forgiveness be extended to young offenders as well? Since there’s no difference between us, students and young offenders. We are all the same.

Young offenders are people who commit crimes when they are between the ages of 14 and 21 years old. Even from a student’s perspective, we have undoubtedly gone through a rebellious stage in our lives; Young offenders have also gone through that phase and have made their fair share of mistakes. Nonetheless, the young offenders are subjected to discrimination and challenges by the public on their path to reintegrate back into society. They have to go through additional struggles of dealing with the public's views in situations like social interactions,  pursuing higher education, employment challenges and mental health concerns. As students pursuing higher education, we can't comprehend the enormous hardships that ex-young offenders face.

Due to societal prejudices and a lack of awareness, young offenders have to bear the despair as if there is no way out, and end up making the same mistakes again. This struggle highlights the importance of second chances will significantly help young individuals or students to acknowledge their wrong doings and make better choices in life through the shifted awareness and more inclusion in the society. Similarly, the quote by the German-Dutch diarist, Anne Frank: “What is done cannot be undone, but at least one can keep it from happening again.” also emphasises how an individual should not be defined by their initial mistake. 

As TAR UC’s tagline “Beyond Education” goes, the Year 2 Students of Bachelor of Public Relations (Honours) have decided to take up the challenge to collaborate with Malaysian CARE who is an active advocator on the young offenders social issue in order to help young offenders overcome their struggles. The power of music is one of the ways that can help young offenders overcome various struggles that they face. According to the findings by National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) in 2008, there's a significant relationship between teenagers and music in helping teenagers to cope with pressure, self-development. 

As a result of the issue mentioned above, "X-perience Campaign 2022” was born. Through this campaign, we aim to create a music room at a juvenile prison that will strive to infuse HOPE into the lives of these young offenders, in keeping with the theme of our campaign on “Escape & Hope”. Through developing young offenders' passion for music, they can gain a sense of belonging by listening to music, which contributes to them being able to express their emotions and cope with their inner struggles through music. With the peace of mind music provides to us, it helps to create a better decision making without inflicting on our actions. We had to look beyond the classroom to instil the awareness of how music can transform one's life by planning a series of music-themed activities such as live music performances and a music room photo booth.

By organising this campaign, we as students, are able to share the perspectives of young offenders and their struggles in the hope of creating a society that is more forgiving and inclusive to them. Empathy instead of sympathy will effectively help the public to resonate better with the importance of giving second chances to the young offenders. Therefore, with empathy as our inspiration, we have come out with the main campaign activity: ‘Path of Decision’, a role-playing session with the goal of allowing the participants to experience the struggles of young offenders by placing their shoes in the perspective of the young offenders.

We as students who are also members of the youth community alongside young offenders, hope that this campaign can leave a lasting impression on the public about giving others a second chance. Organising a campaign like this will educate the public to be more forgiving to others and to themselves as part of the effort to shift the negative stigma of the young offenders stereotype. Making mistakes and growing from each experience is an important part of learning and growing in life. 

Forgiveness does not imply accepting someone's apology; rather, it is fully understanding that a person made a mistake but they deserve a second chance.

‘X-perience Campaign 2022’ will be held at The Rimba, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) at Kuala Lumpur Main Campus from 5th April 2022 (Tuesday) to 7th April 2022 (Thursday), 10am to 5pm. There will be a whole host of exciting activities planned with the theme of giving second chances including station games, music room photo booth, sharing sessions, Art and Innovation Exhibition, and live music performances. Do visit the campaign’s Facebook page at “X-perience Campaign 2022” or follow @xperiencecampaign2022 on Instagram for the latest updates to be a part of the light that helps the ex-young offenders to escape from darkness.