Shin Min Daily News, shared in their Facebook page that the woman who berated the deaf-mute cleaner at JEM has apologised for her actions, explaining that she was unwell on that day.
Shin Min identified the woman as a 37-year-old executive. This is the first time the woman, believed to Alice Fong, spoke about the incident. Fong said that she had gone to eat at a restaurant in JEM shopping centre with her husband on June 4 at about 12pm, and that she was down with a flu at that time.
Fong had taken half-day off from work on that day as she was feeling unwell. She had also noticed “something dirty” in the food she had finished eating, and wanted to take a picture of it to complain. That was the moment when the 64-year-old cleaner came to clear her plate. Fong said that she tried to tell him “no”, but the cleaner “would not listen”.
Alice Fong earned the ire of netizens after Facebook user, Euphemia Lee, shared a disheartening video on Jun 3 showing a woman in a crowded eatery at JEM berating an elderly cleaner for misunderstanding her and trying to clear her table while she hadn’t finished her food.
Euphemia recounted: “The cleaner misunderstood her grunting when he asked if he could clear her tray for affirmation. She abruptly exploded into cursing and violent upper body actions. She then told him that he should go and die and should not be given a coffin. She then continued eating until her husband returned, after which she insisted her husband drag the old man back to their table to APOLOGISE to her.”
It was then that the woman and her husband were notified that the cleaner is deaf and dumb. The woman then continued to make a scene and demanded the cleaner to apologise to her despite the food court manager’s best attempts to placate her. In short, the woman eventually implied that “old and disabled people should not be given employment nor forgiven for their mistakes. And that they should just be beggars and wait for the government to feed them.”
See the video in full here:
