Singapore – On July 17 (Wednesday), a member of the public shared “a very saddening moment” of a Chinese aunty refusing to take an empty MRT seat beside a foreign worker and only sat down after he gave up her seat.
Regina Yqh went to Facebook to share the incident she witnessed at the MRT a few days ago.
“Initially the Indian man was seated opposite me, with one empty seat beside [him],” wrote Ms Regina.
A few moments passed, and an elderly Chinese aunty boarded the train, she wrote. “She appeared reluctant to sit down and exchanged eye contact with him (I think he’s a construction worker) as if he needs to stand up before she agrees to sit down.”
Ms Regina’s suspicions proved to be accurate because the man stood up from his seat.
What’s more, is that “the aunty gave him a look as if he did something wrong,” wrote Ms Regina.
She went on to say how disheartening it was to witness discrimination.
“Mind you, I’m a true-blue Chinese, and feel sad when people of different races appear to discriminate one another,” she wrote.
Ms Regina noted that the man seemed fine giving up his seat, but things were awkward.
“He is nice enough to give up the seats (sic) and let the aunty sit on that two empty seats.”
Fortunately, Ms Regina was not someone who would let something like this pass her by.
“Seeing that, I immediately stood up and offered to change my seat with him,” wrote the kind woman.
“Because come on, why doesn’t he deserve a seat?”
“We are all paying transport fare, isn’t it,” wondered Ms Regina, standing up for justice.
She went on to urge everyone to practice some empathy and to be considerate of other people.
“Treat others as how you wish to be treated,” she wrote. “Hope this message will reach out to as many possible.
“Let’s do a small favour to make this stressful world a better place, be it a construction worker or whatsoever, they don’t rob,” wrote Ms Regina wisely.
https://www.facebook.com/Its.Him.J/posts/10156681831313517
The online community promptly applauded her actions and thanked Ms Regina for doing something about the discrimination she experienced.
Netizen Pter YP Lim shared a similar experience he witnessed via a comment:
“Last year, I was aboard an MRT train, I observed and witnessed one peculiar old lady, who was carrying a bag of groceries. One foreign Bangladeshi worker was sitting next to an empty foreign seat. After this old lady got into the train, she immediately demanded that he give up his seat for her. She could just sit down and put her bag on her lap, but she did not. Her remarks were ‘Saya kaki sakit’ meaning her leg is painful. What a selfish and demanding old lady. After that, the foreign worker gave up the seat for her. She then placed her bag onto the seat and put up one leg onto the other empty seat. Thus, she occupied two seats and the poor worker, who after a tiring day’s work, had to stand all the way.”
How sad. -/TISG