Young girl receives support over middle-aged woman in MRT priority seat squabble

Text: Shah Salimat
Photo: YouTube

The online community has been up in arms over a video of a young girl and an old woman caught fighting on the train over a priority seat, typically given to commuters who need it. The video shows the girl and woman engaging in a small squabble before beginning to hurl vulgarities and point fingers at one another.

A witness said to a local Chinese daily that the fight started when the old lady boarded the train at Outram Park station with her foot in a bandage. The girl, who was seated at the priority seat, did not give it up to the woman who began to mumble words of disapproval towards the girl. After noticing, the girl gave up the seat for the old lady, who began complaining aloud of the girl's disrespect towards her.

YouTuber Darren Ong noticed some of the quips from the old lady in the video, especially a comment about the girl probably being a Chinese national. He opined, "Aren't our ancestors are from China? How is that even an insult? Grow up." Janine Christine, another YouTuber, said in her vlog that it is not a crime to occupy the priority seat and calls the old woman a "grumpy grouchbag" for her actions.

Many Singaporeans online have sided the young girl, with Facebook group 9GAG Singapore even giving her the Most Polite Ah Lian award in a macro image that has gotten over 6,000 shares. Facebook users largely commended the girl's restraint in handling the situation, with user Chua VenomCaster finding it "really cute" that the girl used the word "please" before hurling vulgarities at the old woman.

Twitter user @iSingaporeans commented that old women like the one in the video are "too much" and noted that the priority seat is "a privilege (sic) not a right". @longadin called the woman a "massive xenophobic douchebag" over her nationalistic comment but @haagendars likened it to a "clash of generations". @steppedonacat and @carelock_ admitted that both were at fault for their misdemeanours.

However, a blogpost by Luke Ng attempted to place the matter into context. He noted that the video only recorded part of the quarrel and did not establish the cause of the conflict that supposedly happened before the video was shot. He said: "Usually, our minds are automatically programmed to divide the absolutely right party and the absolutely wrong party... should we be more considerate?"

This is the latest in a string of cases of unruly behaviour on public transport. A few weeks ago, Alex Ong was caught on film pushing an elderly lady off a bus in a heated quarrel. The tables were turned in a case that happened on May 18, 2011, when a young lady refused to give up her seat to an elderly commuter. After an onlooker tried to take pictures of the lady, she retaliated by taking pictures of the onlooker and hurling defiant statements at her.

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