‘Righteous’ Guy Online Shamed Foodpanda Guy for Smoking at Void Deck with Video

Singapore is taking a tough stance against smoking: from NEA officers working on overdrive mode to changes in smoking laws, I won’t be surprised that by 2030, all smokers across Singapore would have to take the MRT to a certain 10m X 10m area in Yishun to smoke.

And one of the non-smoking designated areas is the HDB void deck. You can smoke outside the zone but if you’re caught with a lit cigarette with any void deck, you’ll still be fined.

Any smoker would know that it’s quite a hassle. Like this Foodpanda guy.

Foodpanda Guy Taking 5 at a Void Deck

We all love these guys: they’re the unsung heroes who save hangry people all over Singapore, and seeing them arriving could well be better than getting one more follower in our Instagram account.

Which is why while most of us hate e-scooters, but when we see that the e-scooters had a food delivery bag with them, we’ll give way from metres away because they’re saving another hungry soul.

But what if you see one of them smoking at a void deck?

Would you just ignore him, or would you confront him?

Someone decided to confront him and more: he filmed it down because…righteous.

Video That Got More Than 3K Shares

A video was posted on All Singapore Stuff Facebook Page, and it shows the cameraman confronting the Foodpanda guy who’s smoking at a void deck.

Here’s a transcript of the conversation:

Cameraman: I explain it to you again, by law you cannot smoke at the void deck. You want, you smoke outside, or extinguish it now

Foodpanda Guy: Yeah, I’m gonna finish it now.

Cameraman: Extinguish it, not finish it. Extinguish it now. You are sitting here

Foodpanda Guy: I don’t care. No, I don’t care

Cameraman: What?

Foodpanda Guy: I don’t care

Cameraman: What? You don’t care right, you said you don’t care. I already told you right, by law, you cannot smoke in the void deck, ok, mister.

Foodpanda Guy: Yeah, but you not NEA also what

Cameraman: Yeah, but I can send this to NEA, you give me your IC lah, I send to NEA lah, see what they say.

Foodpanda Guy: But you not officer also.

Cameraman: Can, I can get your IC and send to them, it’s no problem one.

Foodpanda Guy: No you not NEA I’m not going to give you my IC

Cameraman: You stay here , I call them now lah, can.

Foodpanda Guy: Call la.

Cameraman: Ok lah

Now, you’d have realized that a conversation has occurred before the cameraman filmed down the incident, given that he said “I explain it to you again…”

Netizens Not Having Any of It

Now, you’d have thought that people sided with the cameraman since the rider is obviously breaking the law, but no: instead, they see him as a social justice warrior instead.

No doubt the man has no power to get the rider’s IC, but when one sees a criminal in action, can a citizen “arrest” the criminal?

Technically, even if is it safe to do so, a private citizen cannot anyhowly arrest an offender unless it’s an arrestable non-bailable offence (i.e. serious offence). I may be an idiot, but I do think that smoking at a void deck isn’t an arrestable non-bailable offence.

Here’s the video in full:

Why the Cameraman So Like That?

You might be wondering: why the cameraman so baddy?

There’s a reason for this: according to Dr Guy Aitchison, an Irish Research Council Fellow at University College Dublin, cases like this let the cameraman feels like he’s “fighting bad behaviour and injustice,” and that it’s “a relatively low cost way to feel like you are doing something noble.”

Since the footage seems to imply that the cameraman’s first “warning” has been ignored, it could be due to another reason: a “psychic pleasure in seeing someone else brought low and humiliated.”

Well, at least we now know that Singaporeans won’t just side with anyone who’s “fighting bad behaviour and injustice.”

The Internet has grown up seh.