A man has taken to Facebook to express his shock and dismay over an alleged encounter between a racist woman and a food stall makcik at Tampines Mall on Wednesday night.
Shawn Koh recounted that he was having a meal at a small coffee shop at the mall, patronizing a food stall run by a Malay auntie. As local aunties of all races are wont to do, they casually refer to folks younger than them as “boy” or “girl”.
According to Koh, a female customer in the queue behind him really didn’t like the friendly label.
“Next she get the attention of the next customer and says “yes girl?” with a smile. This Chinese lady said with anger ‘I am not a girl, I am a woman! You are being very childish!’”
Koh stood up for the makcik and confronted the woman, calling her rude, because the auntie was just trying to be nice.
The rude customer’s response was appalling, to say the least. According to Koh, she replied: “None of your business, SHE IS A MALAY”. An indication that the woman believes that Malay folks are of a lower class of citizens that can be spoken to with disrespect.
Ironically, the childish outburst came from a lady who demanded to be called a woman.
“I was SHOCKED, like legit SHOCKED TO MY CORE,” wrote Koh. After getting into a row with the woman, the makcik made a smile in a gesture to tell him to let the matter rest. Being the Ramadan month and all, perhaps she’s practicing extra self-restraint.
“The lady left and I was truly about to throw-up from this horrible encounter. I felt ashamed to be ethnically Chinese right there and then,” he wrote, urging people to share the story.
“I know Singapore has its good and bad sides but I’d never thought I get to confront one and hopefully save some of the values we hold as a multi-racial country.”
The post has since gone viral and reached as far as Malaysia. Netizens praised Koh’s character and brought up other incidences of racial insensitivity.
Editor’s Note: There was a typo that we fixed in the headline — what is a coffee chop anyway?
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