Elderly man forces MRT passenger suffering from “neck & shoulder pain” to vacate the priority seat and then starts playing a game on his phone

SINGAPORE: A Singaporean man took to social media on Friday (Aug 23) to share that an elderly passenger completely disregarded his “invisible pain” and demanded the MRT priority seat he was occupying.

In a post on r/SingaporeRaw, he explained that he had taken the priority seat because he was dealing with bad “shoulder and neck pain” and needed to sit down to get through the ride.

However, things took a turn when an elderly passenger boarded at the next stop. The elderly man, whom he described as looking quite robust with a “full head of black hair,” approached him directly and demanded that he vacate the seat without any pleasantries.

He tried to explain that he had an invisible pain and desperately needed the seat, but the elderly passenger ignored his concerns and “showed him no empathy.” Not wanting to create a scene or draw unwanted attention, the man reluctantly gave up the seat. 

To his disbelief, as soon as the elderly passenger took the priority seat, he pulled out his phone and started playing a game. “[The game] was something akin to a Farmville,” he recalled.

The man couldn’t help but feel frustrated and disheartened by the incident. He wondered if his urgent need for the seat was dismissed partly because “he didn’t look like a local Singaporean.”

Reflecting on past experiences, he noted that he had encountered similar rudeness before and had even been told to “go back to [his] own country” by others.

In response to his post, one Singaporean said, “Strangely, I’ve not come across such Singaporeans. Perhaps you haven’t met any who’s nice, polite and/or helpful. I do agree that there are ugly Singaporeans, so ugly that they end up on videos in social media.”

Another commented, “You sound like low-T chap. Man up, FFS! This is pathetic.”

In similar news, a man recovering from knee surgery shared on social media earlier this year that MRT passengers were surprisingly reluctant to let him sit in the reserved seat. His post on r/askSingapore mentioned he could not stand for too long. 

“[I’m] wearing a knee brace now so I guess people can tell I’m injured. Have been working from home for a while but decided to go back to work today so my boss knows I’m still around,” he said.

Read more: Elderly man calls MRT passenger who was recovering from knee surgery “useless” for sitting on reserved seat

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