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Property Agent Slammed for Looking Down on Delivery Riders & PHV Drivers in a Livestream

Boon Hun

2021-11-12 , 3:32 pm

There are plenty of ways that might get you cancelled in 2021:

Be nasty to your employees
Start a smear campaign
Or do something tasteless in full view of the public

So you’d have thought that people in 2021 would be more careful about what they put out there.

Well, most would, but one particular Malaysian property agent, however, had to learn it the hard way.

Here’s what happened.

Property Agent And Guest Looked Down on Delivery Riders & PHV Drivers in a Livestream

Paul Lim is a forward-looking property agent who thought of using Facebook live-tream to improve his business.

He was so serious about this, in fact, that he decided to get a popular entrepreneurship educator Maggie Fong onto the stream with him.

Unfortunately, for both of them, the live-stream on 7 Nov 2021 will be one they never forget…for the wrong reason.

The duo reportedly belittled and made fun of workers in the gig economy, including private-hire drivers and food delivery workers.

During the live stream, there was a moment in time where Fong asked, “How rich will those who order takeaway food be” with Lim laughing uproariously beside her.

She then questioned, “How can you have a future doing food delivery?”

At one point in the video, Lim also supported Fong’s words by showing off a 110,000 ringgit (~S$36,000) timepiece, which he said was a “reward” to himself.

When netizens tried to defend workers in the gig economy, stating how PHV drivers and food delivery workers are making an honest living, Fong rebutted harshly.

“Only parasites drive Grab; they have no culture.”

Ouch.

Cue Backlash

Well, you’d probably have guessed what happens next.

Netizens weren’t happy, and when we checked his Facebook page, a quick scroll down his page feed shows netizens leaving harsh comments ranging from:

Asking him to eat sh*t

To even nastier words:

Don’t judge people by their money but by their character
A disgrace to the name your parents gave you
Such a disgrace to your family and friends

Apology With Tears

Well, with such backlash, you know you have to respond somehow, and respond Lim did.

Two days later, he livestreamed a six-minute-long video on Facebook, apologising for his actions and asking for a chance to “change my ways”.

Lim also emphasised that they respect people from all walks of life, but might have put it across the wrong way.

He pleaded with netizens not to involve his company, as well as family members, in this matter, revealing that his company has been receiving calls of harassment over the past two days.

Asking for netizens to be magnanimous, he hopes that the photos of his mother and wife will not be spread around, and promise that he will take responsibility for the mess that he’s caused.

Tears were also shed in the middle of the interview.

You can watch it in full below:

Reception

So, was the apology accepted? Well, it seems like Lim might have to grovel longer for forgiveness.

As of the time of writing, Lim’s video has 174k views and over 7.1k comments.

A quick scan through the comments revealed that most netizens felt he “wasn’t sorry enough”, and accused him of trying to use his story of growing up poor as a way to gather sympathy.

Nonetheless, there are a few who thought it was good that he apologised.

But will it be enough to stop Lim from getting boycotted? That is a story for the future.