Since internet witch hunts failed to deliver justice for the bullied old man in that Toa Payoh hawker centre incident, the next best thing is… signing petitions. Classic Singapore move, really.
Trish Suan has taken to change.org to start a petition for the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) to take action regarding the incident where the young couple was caught acting pugnaciously towards said old man. Here’s the video once again — now with captions!
The aim of the petition goes beyond mere justice for the old man — Suan wants funds to be raised for the victim to take the couple to court for “intimidation, verbal abuse, etc”, while at the same time, garner awareness for the treatment of elderly folks. She also wants MSF to “take constructive action” to protect the elderly population of Singapore. Pretty lofty goals for a case of boorish behaviour in public.
The petition is just missing one thing — the opinion of the actual aggrieved party. So far, nobody’s been able to get a statement from the old man himself about what he plans to do, and really, somebody should, before acting on his behalf.
In any case, the petition has reached about two-thirds of its goal of 2,500 signatures as of writing. Suan intends to send her petition to MSF, the pro bono services office of The Law Society of Singapore and other appropriate associations.
Sign the petition to show your support for the victim if you must, but perhaps consider what the old man actually wants to do in the first place.
