Opinions

An SMRT bus passenger feels that there are self-entitled parents who take advantage of their predicament to deprive others of space on the bus.

For the passenger, the fault lies with the bus company.

He feels that they are not educating their drivers sufficiently on the proper etiquette for parents with children in prams.

According to the passenger, drivers have been gracious enough to assist parents with prams to get on the bus. However, there are some parents who do no close the prams. Instead, they use it to store their shopping bags while they seat. 

This deprives others of standing room.

Do you agree with the passenlger? Are the companies at fault for not educating their drivers, or should parents be more civic-minded?

A netizen complained of the alleged unprofessional treatment he received from the staff at Ng Teng Fong Hospital (NTFH) during his treatment at the hospital from 11 June to 2 July 2019. 

He was conveyed to NTFH by ambulance for slip disc, numbness in his right leg, and high fever.

According to the netizen, he had been "mishandled" by both local and foreign nurses.

As for the doctors, they could not ascertain what caused the infection. He also claimed that they had given him wrong information, eventually informing him that he had "light kidney infection". 

The netizen doesn't know how he got the infection when he does not have any records of diabetes or high blood pressure.

Angry at the treatment, the netizen cautioned others from seeking medical treatment at NTFH.

Radio personality, Joshua Simon, revealed in a Facebook post the actual reason why he did not speak as scheduled at a TED talk event this past Saturday.

According to Simon, Singapore Polytechnic (SP) tried to get him to censor his TED Talk, and remove the parts that touched on the LGBTQ+ issues.

He protested because he felt that it would not do justice for his story as an LGBTQ+ person, as well as the community in general. When he realised that there was no room for compromise, he opted out of giving the talk.

I owe you an answer to why I did not give my TED Talk on saturday morning: the night before the event, I received a phone call informing me that Singapore Polytechnic, upon discovering that my talk included LGBTQ+ themes, removed me from the speakers list. They urged me to edit my script and leave out any content in relation to it. I said no.

Many of you know how instrumental TED Talks have been for my growth. I treasured this opportunity and worked very hard for months writing and rehearsing for it. It would be against my principles to flip the gender of my ex when mentioning my breakup and to totally leave out my coming out story to my father - both of which are, and will always be, defining moments of my story. 

To hide my struggles and sacrifices is to be ashamed of them. To honour my story is to be completely vulnerable on that stage.

I told the school that I will not do the talk. I chose not to censor my script. Doing so would also set a hurtful precedence to the next gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer person offered a chance to speak. I will not allow anyone to say “if Joshua cut that out of his speech, so can you.”

Maslinda Zainal, a 44 year old former Head of Department (HOD) at Woodgrove Secondar School (WSS), faces two criminal breach of trust charges as a public servant. She was alleged to have misappropriated, between Jan 2016 and April 2017, some $40,000 meant for learning materials.

During her recent testimony for an ancillary hearing into the taking of a police statement, Maslinda charged that she was harassed, humiliated, and mentally abused by her superiors at the school, as well as investigators from the Ministry of Education (MOE) and SPF.

Maslinda claimed that the MOE investigators refused to believe that the extra money she collected was, as she claimed, for the purchase of assessment books and stationery, meant for her students. She claimed that while she did not have any receipts for the purchases, the items were kept in her cubicle. MOE investigators however allegedly did not allow her access to her cubicle and ransacked them.

She was also repeatedly accused of splurging the money on herself. Maslinda felt that she was treated as guilty even before any proper investigations when they kept 'harassing' her to admit her guilt.

The humiliation was compounded when police officers arrived, handcuffed her, and escorted to a waiting police car, in front of her colleagues and students.

According to Maslinda, she was taken to Jurong Police Station where she was "handcuffed to a railing at the basement carpark for about an hour, before she was taken for photo-taking, finger-printing, and blood sampling." She also alleged that they took away her belongings, and told her to remove her hijab and speactacles.

In addition, Maslinda claimed that a police officer threatened her with a life sentence because she of the CBT charges she is facing as a civil servant.

If indeed she is found guilty of CBT, Maslinda can be fined for each charge, and jailed for up to 10 years.

Maslinda has to be treated as innocent until proven guilty.

There are surely established procedures for both investigators from the MOE and SPF to adhere to. The claims by Maslinda may be a ruse for her to divert attention away from the case against her.

Nevertheless, these reports of abuses need to be investigated and accounted for. Procedures also need to be reviewed so that the principle of an accused being treated as innocent until proven guilty, is not undermined.

A local mother shared of her unpleasant experiences with SMRT this past Monday.

She and her husband were travelling on the MRT, with a stroller for their young baby.

The first incident occured at Dhoby Ghaut MRT when the stroller wheels were stuck in the gap between the platform and the train. There were saved from being in an even more frightful situation because a commuter helped them to dislodged the stroller wheels.

The second incident occured at Bedok MRT station. They did not realise that the lift's safety sensors were spoiled or missing. As they were pushing the stroller in, the lift doors closed in on the stroller and did not open back. It continued to close forcefully. 

They had no choice to push the stroller in and let go. 

The mother urged SMRT to recalibrate the time for the lift doors to open and close as they primarily serve people who are less able. She also asked SMRT to look at the state of the safety sensors on their lifts.

Her requests are not unreasonable. The safety of all commuters must not be taken lightly, be it on the trains, or any other parts of the stations, including the lifts and escalators.

When safety is a given, commuter satisfaction will greatly improve.

In a recent interview with Dear Straight People, former local actor, Steven David Lim, became the first local actor to come out openly as gay.  

The younger ones among us might not recognise the name but those of you who are old enough to have watched 'Growing Up' on local tv, you will find him very familiar. 

Lim was very candid in his interview.

He was actually surprised that he is the first openly gay actor - he knows of a few who are gy but may not be openly out.

Like many others, Lim did not have an epiphany to realise that he was gay. It was a gradual realisation of who he was, through his experiences with both male and female company. 

The closest he had to such a moment was when he still felt an emptiness despite dating a lady with looks and brains to boot. 

Then on, he didn't look back. He also had the conviction to not live a life defined by society but to live a life being true to himself.

Gradually, the LGBTQ community in Singapore is gaining mainstream acceptance.

There are still pocpkets of resistance, and Section 377A still exists. Apart from Lim, no other local actor has openly came out as gay. That tells you a lot about the pressures faced by the community.

As has been the case for the past few years, the local LGBTQ community will come together to celebrate their love at Pink Dot Sg. This, in itself, is a symbol of how marginalised the community is.

As we progress, the marginalisation needs to stop. We need to embrace them as normal part of our society, not a group that is apart from us.