Cabby caught ranting on Youtube

The local press had reported the altercation as “Cabby caught ranting on Youtube”. But MediaCorp Executive (ME) Andrew Teo, who posted his personal video on STOMP, decided to delete it after attracting an avalanche of unsympathetic comments. It serves as an interesting commentary on stressful Singapore living that sociologists will be studying years from now, down to the reference on ex-PM Goh Chok Tong's recommendations. A rough transcript goes like this:

ME: What, you tell me to f–k off, is it?

Cabby: I’m tellin you to f–k off.

ME: He tell me to f–k off, you know, he’s against road directions and he ask me to f–k off! He say, he just asked me to f–k off, I have it on recording, ah. Get the hell out of here, you understand me?!

Cabby: Get out the hell!

ME: This is Medicorp okay, we’re staff here…
You get the hell out of my face now, get out now! Okay!?

CISCO: Sir, I need you to move, sir…

ME: Move, move your ass! Understand or not!

Cabby: You shutup, lah, shutup!

ME: What, shutup? I’m going to stick… no, none of my business… this is a civil, this is a civil… traffic police case, and civil case, against directions, I’m asking you nicely to get out… don’t get out, right?

Cabby: I don’t need you to tell me, okay?

ME: What? What? You get out now!

Cabby: I don’t need you to tell me, okay?

ME: What? I don’t need you to tell me? I’m a civil servant… civil minded ser….
You get out now, hey, get out lah, come on, get out now, get out!!
Two CISCO officers here, you don’t obey orders. Call police, Sally, say harassment now, just call triple nine, call triple nine, say there’s a police officer coming, send … just call triple nine, say…
Ah come on, lah, don’t try to be funny, lah... What do you mean here first, here second? I’m telling you to… arrest… I tell you you are against direction, you tell me to f–k off, right?

CISCO: Sir, I need you to move aside…

ME: No, no, I won’t move, I won’t move, he has to move… see!

Cabby: Okay, you win lah!

ME: No, what win? This is a police case, okay?

Cabby:You win lah!

ME: Not me, the government win.

Cabby: I don’t care if this is a police case..

ME: The government win, okay? The government… so? so? so? so?
You are against direction, you out! Get the hell out of here!

Cabby: (On) what authority, man…

ME: What no authority? I’m a citizen of Singapore, what no authority? What no authority? You are under citizen arrest now. Excuse me, officer, take down his office… his, his particulars now… Ah, go, go, better go, go… You want a citizen arrest or not? You want citizen arrest? Then don’t go, if you got the guts, don’t go! SHC XXXX… What, you are against direction now..

Cabby: F–k off, now, get out of my sight!

ME: No, I won’t f–k off, why should I f–k off?

Cabby: What you, bloody blur lah, on the street, you want to make nonsense…

ME: What? What? You don’t go, if you got the guts, stay one more, stay…
Yeah, stay, good, don’t go ah? Don’t go! Don’t go! Come on.. hey don’t go then don’t go, take down his particulars, officers…

Cabby: Tell him to shut up, tell him to shut up…

ME: No, you don’t go…

Bystander: Tell him to shut his mouth!

ME: If you got guts, don’t go… So! don’t go lah, don’t go… Hey, come on, chicken shit, don’t go! (Cab drives off)
Don’t go, you got the guts, don’t go…
Officer, I need you to be witness… to this, er, this is a crime scene, you know, person harass me, this is penal code 323… yeah. This is, er, this is, er, er, er, criminal, you know, criminal offence, you know… I was just telling him please don’t… park against direction. What’s wrong with..? I’m a citizen, I have the right to, you know…. SM Goh Chok Tong say blow whistle, what’s wrong
with that? I have the right, you know?

Silence Of The Lambs

Using his “People support CPF cuts because there are no protest outside parliament” brand of logic, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mistook Opposition Member Low Thia Khiang’s silence as concurrence that his Deputy and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng should not resign over the Mas Selamat Kastari SNAFU (Situation Normal All F**ked Up). Lee had pointedly asked Mr Low in parliament: “Let me ask the member whether he thinks (Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng) ought to resign because of this.” When Low declined to respond, he followed up with: “No answer. So I think that settles the point.”
Or does it?
A Dharmendra Yadav, purportedly postgraduate student at the National University of Singapore, speculated that:
1) Mr Low did not want to incur the Government’s wrath and end up having to face a defamation suit;
2) Mr Low did not understand that Mr Lee was asking him a question, since he does not have as good a grasp of English as the Prime Minister;
3) Mr Low might have thought that Mr Lee was asking a rhetorical question — and thus merited no reply.
Singaporeans have been muted on more than one occasion, no thanks to the GRC system, amongst other gerrymandering election tactics. The only instance when their threshhold of pain was breached was when graffiti was scrawled over at the entrance of the National Kidney Foundation building. Even Ho Ching, wife of the Prime Minister, recognised the writing on the wall, and wrote a front page article in the morning paper to appeal for calm.
SM Goh Chok Tong is now trying to deflect from the conumdrum of ministers demanding private sector salaries, but not commensurate acountability, by suggesting that the government should move on and focus on rising prices instead. The latter may be a more difficult task than locating Kastari. Who insisted on implementing the full 2 per cent increase in GST despite widespread objection from the populace?