'Foreign rubbish': Bus driver and passenger allegedly yell at woman and nephew after boy removes mask

What was supposed to be a routine bus ride turned into quite a nasty experience for one woman and her nephew — all because the young boy removed his mask to have a sip of water. 

The woman, who goes by Mirax, recounted her ordeal in a series of tweets posted last Sunday (Nov 20).

In her posts, she wrote that she was on board an SBS transit bus from Kovan.

Upon seeing her nephew remove his mask, Mirax said that the bus driver — whom she described as an "excessively angry Chinese man" — allegedly went over to yell at the seven-year-old.

As if that wasn't enough, another passenger on the bus allegedly remarked: "Good, tell that foreign rubbish off!" 

Although Mirax tried to clarify that they were both Singaporeans, her replies were dismissed by the passenger, who allegedly continued to utter: "Foreign, useless rubbish!" 

As the passenger continued to rain verbal insults on the duo, Mirax wrote that the bus driver "pretended not to hear anything". 

Ending her thread, she wrote: "It is simply on that man for being a racist loser. I haven't lost anything (but my temper for a while!) I am teaching [my son] how to stand up for himself." 

The woman's anecdote was met with support from other Twitter users, who urged her to either make a police report or write to the transit company. 

"Don't go silent sis, we have your back," encouraged one user. 

It is not known if Mirax has filed a complaint with the transit company. 

AsiaOne has contacted Mirax and SBS Transit for further comment. 

Under section 298A of the penal code, expressions that promote, or try to promote, on grounds of religion or race, disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious or racial groups are prohibited. 

'Which country are you from'

Back in May last year, a Singaporean woman had a similar encounter while commuting to work. 

The woman, Hidayah, wrote on Twitter that a middle-aged woman stared and yelled at her on the bus, and even threatened to report Hidayah to the police for having "dangerous eyes". 

Although Hidayah informed the bus driver and moved further way to de-escalate the situation, the woman continued to make a scene, thus prompting her to record the incident. 

“Just keep on doing what you want to do, I didn’t do anything,” she started as she pointed her mobile phone towards the passenger who replied: “You didn’t do anything? You shot the dangerous eyes at me. That’s what you did.” 

She then went one step further by asking in an aggressive manner, “Which country are you from?”

When she heard that Hidayah is Singaporean, she said: “Here, is it?” Never mind.” 

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claudiatan@asiaone.com

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