Posted by temasektimes on May 15, 2012
The tragic accident at Bugis last Saturday morning has
shocked not only Singaporeans, but PRC nationals living in
Singapore as well, most of whom roundly condemned the Ferrari
driver Ma Chi (pic left) for causing the accident.
A dashboard
camera on another cab not involved in the accident showed clearly
Ma Chi beating the red light and ramming into a Hyundai Sonata taxi
which has the right of way.
Ma Chi was
pronounced dead on the spot. The Japanese female passenger of the
cab Shigemi Ito passed away hours later and the Singaporean cabby
Cheng Teck Hock died of his injuries on Sunday evening.
In a thread
started on the popular Lion City Forum, most PRC netizens were outraged by
what happened.
One PRC netizen
put the blame squarely on Ma Chi for causing the accident:
“The
dead local cabby was the sole breadwinner of his family, (Ma Chi)
caused harm to an entire family.”
(害人啊。。。。死掉
的本地德士司机，是 家里的 唯一经济支柱，。祸害了 整整一个家庭。。)
Another PRC
netizen even cursed Ma Chi:
“Probably had a habit of drink-driving in China…..this type
of person should early.”
(酒驾在国内习惯了，可能他爸是某刚~ 尼玛还跑来新加坡酒驾~ 的确是害人~ 这种人早死早干净)
PRC netizen
‘HouTanZhang’ was visibly upset at his fellow countrymen bringing
their ‘driving habits’ to Singapore:
“No
need to say more, watch yourself. If he wants to die, there is no
need to implicate so many people…..Frankly speaking, many PRC
Chinese brought their nasty driving habits to Singapore from public
bus to racing car….I remember when I first came to Singapore, where
got so many problems?”
(不多说了，自己看！！自己要死不要紧，不要拖累这么多人。他的妻子，孩子。。。乘客，司机，摩托车。。。。哎！！老实说，真的好多中国人把中国的驾驶习惯带到了新加坡。从公交车司机，到现在的跑车。。。我记得刚来新加坡的时候，哪有这么多事情啊！！！)
However,
Straits Times journalist Tessa Wong apparently did not think
nationality is an issue and criticized Singaporeans on her Twitter
for singling out Ma Chi because he was from China:
After running
out of excuses to defend Ma Chi, the state media now claimed that
the accident could have been ‘worse’ and killed 8 people to imply
that Singaporeans should be ‘thankful’ instead.
DJs havealso
jumped onto the ‘protect Ma Chi’ bandwagon with 93.3FM DJs
insinuating that drivers of high-performance cars like Ferraris are
not ‘adequately’ trained to drive them on Singapore roads to
downplay Ma Chi’s role in causing the accident.
When even PRC
nationals themselves are condemning Ma Chi for reckless and
dangerous driving, the Singapore media is trying ways and means to
cover up his mistake for him. Don’t you feel ashamed to be a
Singaporean?
http://temasektimes.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/prc-nationals-in-singapore-condemn-ferrari-driver-ma-chi-even-as-singapore-media-continues-to-defend-him/
In many developed countries, new residents are required to
pass a driving test (both theory and practical) before their
home-country driving license can be converted. This
is due to the fact that driving licenses can be
"bought" easily in many less developed countries in the
world. Is their such a rule in Singapore? If not, it
may be time to look into one.
