Keeping quiet about radicalised family members can make things worse: Psychology don

In response to the breaking news (on 12 June 2017) on the Ministry of Home Affairs' detention of a Singaporean woman for radicalism and the ministry's urging the public to report those they know who are radicalised, SMU Behavioural Sciences Institute Director Professor David Chan explained that while it is a natural human response to not want to report family members or someone close to us, it is a mistake to think that we are helping the person by not reporting and that we ourselves can just counsel the person out of radicalism. He added that the person can easily continue and hide their radicalisation from us, and it is very easy to be mistaken to think that the person will listen or have listened to us. He explained why keeping quiet, or worse still trying to cover up for the person, will end up harming the person, our family and loved ones, and many innocent lives.