Audio recording reveals that ‘MBS badge woman’ was legally trained, which is why she questioned safe distancing ambassador

Singapore — The 53-year-old woman captured on video not wearing a mask in the middle of The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands (MBS), is apparently legally trained and a former naval officer.

According to an audio recording circulating on social media and WhatsApp, the woman asked if there is any statutory law on not wearing a mask.

It was explained in the clip that because wearing a mask is not statutory law, the police cannot arrest her and the safe distancing ambassadors cannot do anything about it.

“The only ones who can do something about it is our enforcement officer, so if the enforcement officer is not there, they cannot exercise the statutory law. So she’s very smart, she’s a lawyer”, it was recounted in the audio recording.

When the woman was approached by a safe distancing ambassador (SDA) who asked her to put on a mask, she replied: “Do you have a badge? Can you put on a badge? If you have no badge, why are you asking me to do something? Who are you representing?”

When the SDA replied that she was a representative of MBS, the woman replied: “That’s what you say, I can say that I am a (sic) police”.

“I say to you, if you have no badge, don’t speak to me. You have no right to ask me to do anything,” said the woman.

After the video went viral, the woman was investigated by the police for public nuisance and breaching safe distancing measures.

The same woman also appears to have engaged mall staff at Clarke Quay Central in a similar conversation over her refusal to wear a mask, in another video supposedly dated Dec. 2, 2020.

According to a Lianhe Wanbao report on May 16, the woman was formerly an officer with the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN).

She was among the first batch of female officers in RSN and her performance was said to be “outstanding”. She was also said to have risen to the rank of major and commanded a mine-sweeping vessel in the RSN.

The Chinese paper Shin Min Daily News (Shin Min) spoke to the woman’s elderly father, surnamed Phoon, who said the woman used to be a naval officer.

She later joined a private company and went to work in China.

However, her father noticed a drastic change in her temperament after she returned to Singapore more than 10 years ago.

He told Shin Min that he thinks Phoon could have suffered some emotional trauma and was cheated by someone in China. /TISG