I read this article on Singagpore's citizen-powered news site STOMP very recently. It prompted me to recall one of my own encounters that occurred a few months back.
"I was on the train to work today (Jun 20) around 11.45am.
"Minutes after I boarded the train, I noticed this group of teenagers near the door as they were sitting down on the floor.
"The only girl in the group was munching her sandwich and the guy in white was sitting next to her.
"Suddenly, this man in black confronted the girl, who was not supposed to eat on the train.
"He pointed at the 'no eating' sign while telling them that they should not consume food in the train, they should be aware of the rules.
"This guy in white was provoked and stood up to argue with the man, he was obviously unhappy that the man told them off, and even adopted a 'fighting pose' to challenge the man to fight with him.
"His friend came forward to stop him, but the guy was still arrogantly challenging the man and came out with vulgarities.
"The man's wife did not want the situation to get out of hand, therefore she pressed the emergency button.
"When the train reached Yew Tee station, the group of teenagers and the man with his wife was told to alight the train but they were still arguing away on the platform."
There was this beng waiting for the train at the same stop I was. He boarded the train through the same door, and among the other commuters was a middle-aged Indian man. Indian came in first, and he made to take the seat closest to the door. To this, the beng sprang into action. He rushed in, swerved around the guy, and plonked his ass into that seat. The man glared at him; he stared back with that dumb innocent-playing I-dunno-lol look.
I'm so trendy ror.
I can still recall how he looked like. He wore a cap, of the same make, in the same style, as pictured above. Just perching on that tiny skull of his, made compatible with his brain. I'm seeing so many mindless youths strapping that style nowadays. If I didn't have to worry about me not being able to outrun angry pursuers, I wouldn't hesistate plucking the caps right out of people's heads as I pass them by in the streets. Perchy caps were made as a trend trap, to let stupid fad-chasers get laughed at by the general public for looking like dumbass.
Back to my story. That bespectacled beng (who didn't seem over 15 years old) began sipping off a bottle of Yakult. Yeah, Yakult. Cos drinking Yakult makes you look trendy lol. That done, with much graceful and intricate attention, he set the empty bottle down on the train floor, between his feet, and thought nothing of it afterwards. I could tell he wasn't going to dispose of it elsewhere later.
I decided to use this opportunity to mess him up a bit, since he deserves it. Makes him feel a little embarrassed in front of the rest of the commuters in the train. If i couldn't get their active participation in shooting this boy down, I'd get it passively. I approached the train door from my seat when the train rested at my stop, just as the 'door closing' signal rang, so as to prevent his retaliation once I walked out of the doors just before it closed behind me. He obviously was not stopping here, which was good. Walked by him I did, and as I did so, I purposefully and sharply kicked the kid's flip-flop-wearing foot with mine.
"Better throw that away," I growled, pointing to the plastic bottle. As I walked past the closing doors and looked back, I didn't see the kid (I didn't stick around to watch his reaction either), but there were a few satisfactory faces among the people in that train car.
Just thought I'd share how I deal with situations similar to that in the article. As far as I'm concerned I am profoundly aware of the bad habits Singaporeans exhibit in public transport trains. as much as I can I try to do something about it with as little risk of further involvement/ aggravation as possible. I am glad that issues like this have been raised in the local press and online, but just posting pictures of them wouldn't be enough to successfully curb such undesirable and uncouth behaviour. If the rest of the Singaporean community were to be more spontaneous and have less of the none-of-my-business attitude, I'm very sure this problem, along with other similar scenarios, can be resolved favourably. The proactive man reported in the article was clearly fighting all by himself against an adversary difficult to deal with. Had he the support of a few more other like-minded commuters, that beng would have had to submit immediately and unconditionally to the authority of greater numbers.
