SINGAPORE: A parent who complained online after seeing domestic helpers who were with migrant workers at Gardens by the Bay was criticized by netizens, who told him to mind his own business.
In a July 17 (Wednesday) post on the Complaint Singapore page, a Facebook user wrote that he had visited the Botanic Gardens with his daughter last week. Since his daughter had gotten tired, they looked for places to rest.
However, the dad wrote that at the first shelter they reached, a helper was lying down with her head on a foreign worker’s lap.
“Luckily my daughter didn’t see it,” he wrote.
He decided to look for another venue to rest, and when they reached another shelter, he asked his daughter to wait by the side first.
At the second shelter, he wrote that he saw a foreign worker “cuddling” with another helper.
He wrote that while he appreciated their hard work, because of what he saw, he didn’t think “these public spaces were appropriate for families.”
The father added, “So I had to walk further and further for a seat. It was very exhausting.”
Many Facebook users commented on his post, and most of them called him out.
Some criticized him for jumping to conclusions about the couples, with one writing, “Every girl in the park is not a maid and every man is not a foreign talent please.”
Others pointed out that the couples’ actions were not offences.
A number of commenters noted that many Singaporean pairs also engage in public displays of affection in parks, busses, or on the train, and asked the post author if he also calls them out if and when he sees this.
“Just ignore what is normal in Singapore,” one advised him.
Another asked him how it would be if the tables were turned, writing, “Public benches are for the public. First come, first serve. What is your complaint about? So, a maid can post about you and your daughter sitting on the bench on her social media?”
A commenter chimed in to ask if he had seen a family lying down to rest at a sheltered area, would he have complained?
Yet another asked him that if he was so bothered by the couples’ actions, why didn’t he approach them and talk to them?
One had this piece of advice: “Ask your daughter to stand a few steps away, go into the tent, and just say ‘excuse me’. Can I share the seat? They will behave properly and maybe leave.” /TISG