HONG KONG has its notorious 'bus uncle', who scolded a man relentlessly on a bus after being told to pipe down while talking on his handphone.

And now, unfortunately, Singapore has its own version of 'MRT aunty', who was caught in a window-rattling argument with a man on public transport.

The result is the same: The entire episode of the quarrel was filmed and then posted on the Internet for all to see.

The woman, who spoke in a mix of Mandarin, Hokkien and English, was filmed quarrelling with a middle-aged man on board an MRT train.

The grainy five-minute video started with the woman addressing an alleged threat from the man. It is not clear what provoked the quarrel.

The woman, whose face was not shown in the clip, yelled at the man: 'You threaten to beat us up, you threaten to snatch away the handphone.'

She claimed to be a victim and appeared to know the person who was filming the incident. The video was later found on popular video-sharing site YouTube.

However, instead of sympathy, her aggressive reaction - where she scolded and taunted the man incessantly in the video - turned most netizens against her.

One netizen, hermit79, remarked: 'Anyone can see who has been verbally taunting the other party.'

Another, niefeng80, commented: 'The aunty seems so uncivilised and idiotic.'

Yet another, ngknk, commented: 'Really hate people who like to provoke others and then claim to be on the side of the law.

'Is there no law against provokers? Singapore would be a better place if we had less of these kind of people (sic).'

There were initially two clips on YouTube.

Removed from website

One clearly sided with the woman with its title: 'Uncivilised moustache bully who threatens in the MRT train.'

This has since been removed from the site.

But the other, which is still available for viewing, is labelled 'Uncivilised ah soh provoke and act victim.'

The man, on his part, appeared to be increasingly infuriated that he was being filmed.

During the exchange, he tried several times to grab the handphone, or demand that filming stop.

At one point, the clearly irritated man said that they should go to the police station.

Insults were exchanged. The woman called him a 'simple-minded Ah Beng', while he retorted that she was an 'Ah Lian'.

At one point, the woman used a Mandarin expletive.

The incident was filmed on a handphone, presumably belonging to the woman's companion.

The quarrel did not stop even when the two parties got off at a station.

At one point, a uniformed MRT station staff member had to step in between the two when they continued to argue.

While most people who responded to the clip online were on the man's side, those we interviewed and who had seen the video were divided in their reactions.

Mr Daren Tay, a banker in his 20s, remarked that the incident appeared to be a petty conflict that had been blown out of proportion.

However, he sided with the woman, saying: 'I think that it is probably the man who is in the wrong as the woman seems to be the one trying to collect evidence against him.

'She would not have done so had she not been so confident that she was right.'

Another viewer, Miss Ilona Loo, 28, a market researcher, noted that the woman appeared 'very confrontational, always taunting the guy to hit her'.

She pointed out: 'Unlike the woman, the guy didn't curse, and you could tell from what he said that he was really harassed by this woman, her words, actions and the filming.'

Miss Frances Wu, an administrator in her 20s, said: 'I think the woman was over the top in the way she talked, and seemed like she wanted to provoke the guy.'

The incident echoed another infamous video from Hong Kong that made headlines around the world two years ago.

In April 2006, 'bus uncle' Roger Chan, then 50, overreacted when a passenger tapped him on the shoulder and requested for him to speak softly on the handphone.

Mr Chan proceeded to blast the passenger with a stream of expletives in Cantonese.

All that was recorded by a fellow bus passenger who also posted it on YouTube.

This article was first published in The New Paper on November 9, 2008.

Is this article useful to you?