The man who was filmed mocking a taxi driver has
apologised to the cabby and, as a gesture of goodwill, he has
promised to give 200 packets of chicken rice to other cabbies.
Mr Gary Lim, who is the boss of The Yang's Traditional
Hainanese Chicken Rice, incurred the wrath of netizens recently
when a video went viral of him blocking a taxi driver's way and
telling him that he "cannot do big things" as he is a taxi
driver.
Mr Lim, 37, has since apologised to the taxi driver, a
33-year-old who is identified only by his surname, Sun. To show his
remorse, Mr Lim's outlets at 8 Braddell Road and 562 Serangoon Road
will prepare 200 packets of chicken rice - 100 per outlet - for
taxi drivers on Tuesday (May 2), Shin Min Daily News reported on
Sunday (April 30).
Due to space constraints, and so as to let more people
enjoy the food, each taxi driver will get one packet and only
takeaways will be possible.
Mr Lim apologised to Mr Sun on Saturday (April 29)
evening during a phone conversation, which ended with Mr Sun
wishing Mr Lim well, adding that he hoped they could move on from
the incident.
Speaking in Mandarin, Mr Lim said: "I want to
apologise. I drank too much and said some senseless things. But I
had no intention of harming you. Frankly, I was quite rash, I said
things I shouldn't have said, and hope you can accept my
apology."
To this, Mr Sun replied: "I feel this apology isn't an
issue, in fact I didn't take (the incident) to heart. I'm already
at peace. But before I formally accept your apology, I want to let
you know that no matter what problem a person faces in life, he
should not vent his anger on others."
"You are a grown man, not a child," Mr Sun added. "So I
hope you'll treat this as a lesson, keep moving forward, become
more amicable, and not look down on other people's jobs. Whether
you are a cleaner, or a big boss, I feel this is a question of
basic respect towards others."
Mr Lim had approached Shin Min Daily News himself, as
he hoped to have the chance to apologise to the Mr Sun in person.
However, as the latter was busy with work on Saturday evening, the
newspaper helped to facillitate a phone conversation between the
two men.
In the 2min 4sec viral video filmed on Thursday (April
27), Mr Lim appears drunk and is shown blocking the taxi driver
from closing his door.
"Look I have so much money, I can't control myself," Mr
Lim says in Mandarin, and begins counting money - including $1,000
dollar notes - in front of Mr Sun.
He then lunges at Mr Sun, trying to grab his phone,
before laughing.
This was not the only video of a man flaunting his
wealth to have gone viral online.
At 1am on Thursday (April 27), another man refused to
pay his $15 taxi fare when he arrived at his destination in Jalan
Chermat, saying that he ran a "million-dollar business", and "had
plenty of money", Shin Min Daily News reported on Sunday (April
30).
The man, who looked like he was in his 40s, only agreed
to pay his fare after the police were notified.
ST
