SINGAPORE - A video exposing a cab passenger's rude behaviour and
uploaded by the taxi driver's daughter has made waves online.
In the video uploaded on Faceboook, the passenger - who had booked
a cab to take him from Chai Chee to Telok Ayer MRT station - could
be heard raising his voice and scolding the taxi driver from the
start of the journey.
Text accompanying the video, written by the driver's daughter,
defended the driver and said: "Taxi uncles are not idiots, deaf or
useless, they are someone's family. They are fathers who work 14
hours a day, seven days a week, even on public holidays, so people
like me and my sis get an education."
In the clip, the passenger first accused the driver of failing to
notice him on the main road even though he "wave wave wave wave
wave". He then threatened to complain if the driver started the
meter before the cab had travelled a certain distance.
He called the driver a "blind bat" and later compained that the cab
was moving too slowly, and accused the driver of trying to cheat
him of his money. He also told the driver not to let anyone cut
into the space in front of the taxi.
The time stamp on the video said the journey started at 6.14pm on
last Friday. The passenger demanded to be at his destination by
6.30pm at any cost.
The passenger also scolded the driver for raising the temperature
in the taxi. Text in the video explained that the driver did that
as the passenger was coughing badly - this was audible in the
video.
Throughout the clip, the cabbie could be heard trying to explain
himself in his limited English, while the passenger rattled on
fluently.
By Sunday, the video had attracted at least 350,000 views and
thousands of comments.
Kind netizens wanted to give the driver a small token for the
verbal abuse he had to suffer.
Outraged netizens even claimed to have found the man and revealed
his details. However, the Facebook page of the man appears to have
been removed and he could not be reached at the number posted.
When contacted, the taxi driver’s 27-year-old daughter, who works
in the media industry and did not want to be named, said: “I hope
netizens will show respect for the rude passenger and not release
his personal information online. What he did was wrong, but people
make mistakes and we can only choose to be a bigger person and
forgive them.”
She added that since releasing the video, her family has been shown
“tremendous support,” and that she hopes people will be kinder and
more compassionate to others.
She is also open to an apology from the passenger. "I hope he will
give this story a happy ending by coming forward to apologise to my
dad. We’ll always be happy to have dinner with him," she
said.
