A passenger recently took issue with a sign in a recent Grab ride urging Chinese passengers to “speak Mandarin”.
The driver will not speak English with Chinese passengers, according to the sign seen in a TikTok video posted on 7 April.
Source: @aliciatadah on TikTok
In the clip, the user known as Ally described her Grab ride as “weird” due to the sign, which was prominently displayed behind the driver’s seat.
She turned to her husband, who was sitting next to her, and asked him whether he could read the sign, but he said he could not.
However, he replied in the affirmative when asked whether he was Chinese.
Ally thus said that her husband, who can’t read Chinese and speaks only basic Mandarin, “got discriminated” by a sign.
Source: @aliciatadah on TikTok
She explained that he took the simplified Chinese Level (B) till the age of 13, then stopped learning Mandarin when he went overseas to study.
While he’s now better at conversational Mandarin, he still can’t read much and was “sad” when he learnt what the sign said, she added.
In a subsequent TikTok video, Ally said the couple had taken the Grab ride the previous Sunday afternoon from Kallang.
When she got into the vehicle, she greeted the driver and confirmed the location, but the uncle did not respond and just grunted at her, she noted.
Ironically, while she could read the sign, her name when she booked the ride was not in Chinese, as she is not fully Chinese, but her husband’s name is “the most Chinese thing you can think of”.
Thus, she questioned how her husband would have been treated if he had booked the ride and spoken to the driver in English — the only language he can speak.
Ally further maintained that the “discriminatory signage” was unnecessary, especially in a place like Singapore, “where all of us have to speak English”.
She noted that the driver had an English name in his ID and his Grab licence was probably in English.
To netizens who still did not understand why the sign was offensive, she also pointed out that the fact they could understand her and communicate in Singapore on a daily basis meant that English is our “national language”.
In the comments, she said she had reported the matter to Grab.
In a third video uploaded a day later in response to further comments, Ally conceded that Singapore’s national language is Malay, but our lingua franca, i.e. “national language of communication” is English.
She concluded by saying to those who still don’t get it:
Singapore is changing in its racial harmony to a worse place than I think it has been before, and if you don’t see it, you are part of the problem.
In response to queries from The Straits Times (ST), Grab said the driver involved had been suspended.
He must remove the sign and attend coaching to “ensure alignment” with Grab’s Code of Conduct before he can be considered for reinstatement.
Grab maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards discrimination of any kind, it added, noting that every journey on the platform “must be rooted in safety and mutual respect”.
MS News has reached out to Grab for more information.
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Featured image adapted from @aliciatadah on TikTok.