SINGAPORE: Heated discussions have arisen on local online forums after a local food delivery rider posted a video of him confronting a foreigner, who was caught illegally delivering food, working as a food delivery rider.
Local food delivery platforms can only hire locals or permanent residents to deliver food. The Ministry of Manpower website also states that it is illegal for foreigners to deliver food on platforms like Grab Food, Foodpanda or Deliveroo.
Despite this, some foreigners are allegedly moonlighting as food deliverymen. A local food delivery rider caught one such foreigner in the Orchard Road area on 8 Mar but his treatment of the foreigner has irked some Singaporeans.
The SG Road Vigilante – SGRV Facebook page released the video taken by the local food delivery rider on Friday (10 Mar). The video shows the local loudly reprimanding a man who appears to be a foreigner in public, while the latter is in tears and begs the local to let him go.
The local ignored his pleading and continued to film, taking pictures of the other person’s bicycle license plate and asking him to show him the food delivery receipt. He said: “I want to see the receipt, otherwise I will call the police, it is very simple.”
The foreigner had no choice but to show it to the man, who took photos of the details of the receipt. The local man said loudly to the other party: “Where are you from? You shouldn’t come to Singapore to do this kind of work. Let me tell you, our jobs will become less and less because of people like you.”
The foreigner was distraught, squatting in a corner, crying and begging the local man with his hands clasped together, but the Singapore food deliveryman accused him: “You don’t need to do this, because you know it’s wrong for you to do so.”
The Singapore man went on to say that he could call the police but he didn’t want to do so. He just wanted to see the account of the foreigner’s food delivery platform app, and took a picture of the foreigner’s name. He scolded: “You shouldn’t do this…I’ve been here for four years.”
While some netizens agreed that the local acted fairly, many others have said that he should not have humiliated the foreigner. Some have also taken pity on the foreigner who was in deep distress and opined that he would not be doing this if he was not desperate.
One netizen said: “What was the whole point of the video? There was no need to humiliate him. Everyone’s trynna survive in these hard times. If you have an issue, bring it up with the relevant authorities. It doesn’t cost a single penny to be empathetic to others.”
Another Facebook user asked, “Geez, have some compassion man. Is this the best way to resolve this? I don’t think so.”
Criticising the local food delivery rider, another netizen added: “This person is so rude! There’s no need to go to that extent of humiliating another person. He should be embarrassed, but of course he probably thinks he’s the “big” guy. Blaming others for his lack of income. He needs a lesson in empathy!”
One of the top comments showed how many Singaporeans are compassionate to those in need. The person commenting said: “Give others a road to walk mah. Karma will come back to you. Take a few less orders maybe will benefit someone’s whole family. Simple logic you also don’t understand.
“You don’t have this job still can find others, but if you shamed him online and he really being sent back to his country, his family and him might be in serious trouble.
“Yes, he’s not suppose to snatch our rice bowl. But there’s no need to force people to a dead end. Give others a road to walk also giving yourself a road to walk.”