S’pore Family Accused of Harassment from ‘Hwa Chong’ Lady Responded About Their Experience

By
Shawn Ambrose
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For reasons I don’t think I have to explain, peanut butter is very rarely involved in cases of harassment.

It’s a harmless and delicious spread that’s not very effective as a weapon.

So, if you’re at a supermarket deciding which peanut butter to buy and someone accuses you of harassment, you might be very confused indeed.

But that’s exactly what happened to one family in Singapore back in 2019.

The “Hwa Chong” Lady

Before I get to the peanut butter story, let me introduce a woman not-so-fondly known as the “Hwa Chong” lady.

She hit the headlines about a week ago after a video emerged of her questioning people on the MRT about their race and education background.

She tells passengers around her that she studied at Hwa Chong Junior College in the past, before turning her attention to the commuters opposite her.

“May I know your race?” she asks.

When the female passenger replies “Malay”, the woman says “Okay, no wonder.”

Ms Hwa Chong later counts the number of Malay people around her and claims she’s being harassed.

Netizens soon found out that the woman had been doing this for years, going up to random people in public – usually minorities – and accusing them of harassment even though they were just going about their day.

And here’s where the peanut butter story comes in.

Family Decides Which Peanut Butter to Buy, Gets Accused of Harassment

In 2019, a family in Singapore bought a jar of peanut butter from a supermarket.

Normally, this wouldn’t make headline news, but unbeknownst to them, a woman was recording them the whole time.

In the video, the family simply discussed which peanut butter to purchase and did not react to the woman in any way, even when they realised she was recording them.

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The woman then uploaded the video on her YouTube channel and titled the video “Malays Harassing Chinese”.

After the video resurfaced recently, the family took to Facebook to respond to the woman’s accusations.

In a post on 26 Apr, one of the family members, Ismail, was surprisingly gracious about the incident, and even wanted to reach out to the woman to apologise  “if we made her feel in any way uncomfortable.”

“So the family sat down over iftar trying to recall that night about how our selection process for peanut butter became a harassment issue for the lady.”

“Maybe we were too engrossed with peanut butter!” he said.

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Ismail said that some non-Malay friends who reached out to the family apologised on the woman’s behalf.

Many other friends and relatives had also reached out to them.

“There’s no need for any apologies because in fact, we were amused by the video and how sleepy we all looked in the video because it was a midnight grocery run!” he said.

Not just that, he urged those “hunting this lady down” not to condemn her just yet.

“So let’s not label her just yet! In fact, we should encourage her to seek some help!” he wrote.

Woman Terminated from Real Estate Agency

After the woman’s MRT video circulated on social media, she was terminated from KF Property Network Pte Ltd, a real estate agency in Singapore.

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“One of Knight Frank’s core values is to be a Responsible business to People and the Community. The company maintains zero tolerance for hate speech and racism that threatens the foundations on which Singapore is built,” it said in a Facebook post.

“Earlier this week, the conduct of an Associate of KF Property Network was brought to our attention.”

“We will like to advise that the individual in question has been terminated from the company,” the company wrote.

The woman’s YouTube account has been terminated as well.

So, don’t be surprised if you see her accusing random strangers of harassment while doing dance challenges on TikTok soon.

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Featured Image: Twitter (pelisahh)

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Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]