Elderly men argue over pushing incident at Jurong East MRT station, fellow commuter lauded for stepping in
An altercation broke out between two elderly men at Jurong East MRT station, apparently after a pushing incident, prompting a younger man to step in and mediate the situation.
Videos of the altercation were posted on the Complaint Singapore Unrestricted Facebook group by an anonymous user on Aug 17.
According to the caption, the incident occurred “a few weeks ago” and that both men alighted at Bukit Batok MRT station.
The first video starts with the man in a black polo shirt telling a woman that her husband — dressed in yellow — had pushed him. The husband retaliates by accusing the man in black of pulling his shirt. The pair shout at each other as the younger man stands in between, trying to stop the argument.
The man in black then utters an expletive at the woman while the man in yellow recounts the incident to a person who is out of frame, possibly a station staff member. He calls it “vulgar harassment” and tells the man in black that he has no right to use vulgarities. The man in black, who had threatened to call the police, then says the man in yellow had no right to push him.
As they try to get up close to each other, the mediator, who is dressed in black office wear, puts himself in between them. Meanwhile, a female voice can be heard telling them to stand clear for alighting passengers as the train approaches.
The arguing pair, the woman, and the mediator — who continues to stand between the two men — eventually get on the train.
Argument simmers down in the MRT cabin
In the second video, filmed inside the MRT cabin, the man in yellow suggests they end the dispute there and then, regardless of who was right or wrong. He tells the man in black that the younger man was trying to mediate and that there was no point in threatening him.
However, the man in black insists he was not threatening the mediator, saying he merely told him not to interfere.
The video ends with the mediator talking, though what he says is not audible.
The pair can be heard having a conversation in the third video, although it is hard to make out what they were talking about.
Netizen praise mediator for keeping the peace
Two of the three videos were reposted on the @sgfollowsall Instagram page, racking up more than 178,000 views in total.
Netizens praised the younger man for helping to keep the peace.
“Kudos to the guy who constantly stood in the middle preventing a fight from breaking out,” said one Instagram user. “The guy in black deserves a medal,” another said.
Several Instagram users praised the meditator but expressed their disappointment with MRT staff for seemingly not doing anything to stop the argument.
“MRT staff do nothing? Kudos to the guy who stood in between to mediate them. It could be worse if the guy did not do anything,” said one.
“Good job office attire abang! Why the MRT staff never intervene more?” another demanded.
Not everyone was a fan of the mediator, though.
“Black shirt guy made the video boring,” said one netizen. Another responded to their comment: “He is trying to de-escalate the fight to not cause chaos, if you want to see people fight so much then go watch WWE, lah.”
One netizen suggested ignoring older commuters who got into arguments on trains.
“These kinda old folks, the more you try to calm them down, the louder they get. Better (to) just keep quiet and let them go at it. Give it a few minutes… battery low, stamina gone, automatically ceasefire,” said the Instagram user.
Stomp has reached out to the MRT operator for comment.
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