The Singapore Road Bully

We've all read reports on road rage. I find some of these situations ludicrous. Can you really get so angry at someone for horning you as to wallop that person?

My wife's colleague, XL (not her dress size) and her hubby (KH) were looking for a parking lot in Jurong Point last Sat. In front of them was a Nissan Xtrial, stopped at the middle of a lane, waiting for a parking lot. Other cars couldn't pass and after 5 min, 10 cars caught behind started to horn. XL got out of her car and politely asked the mid 30's chinese looking driver,ZGR, to shift his car to the side. ZGR started to hurl obscene abuses at XL. When KH intervened, ZGR punched him in the face (KH: Kena Hoot) and hurled even more vulgarities. The couple demanded an apology. He sneered: "I'm going to park my car now and shop. Not going to waste time on you." When XL threatened to call the police ZGR dared them to do so and sauntered away nonchalantly with his wife and mum.

When the police came, they said the case was a civil suit ie. not a criminal offence. XL and KH were stunned! KH had just been assaulted.  The policemen did not want to log the case.  After arguing their case for 8 hours at a nearby NPP, the police are still considering whether to press charges.  When the police called ZGR, he offered to apologise.  This is what the chinese would call "No see coffin, no drop tear" (bu4 jian4 guan1 cai2 bu4 liu2 lei4). As KH was quite badly hurt, XL decided to press for charges anyway to teach ZGR a lesson.

This is silly isn't it? ZGR really lost his marbles. If he is charged by the police, he'll be jailed. There goes his career too.  If he can't control his temper in public, I think he's very likely to vent his anger on his wife and family in private, maybe physically. 

Why are the police reluctant to press charges? Simple lah. Need to do a lot of paper work mah.  This is an example of the inefficiencies of the system and the double standards in our statutes. While some ah beng is thrown to jail for road rage, police are considering letting the (surprisingly decent looking) ZGR get away scot-free.  This is not a criticism of our system. Just to point out the law is only as good as the people enforcing it. This is pretty common in the UK.

Lessons learnt:

1. Jurong Point is a road ragers hub.

2. Mata's pay is low, so don't want to do too much work.

3. You'd better have good friends who are lawyers and can help out in these situations.

4. Whackos with huge egos drive SUVs, esp X-trails.

But seriously folks, if you are angry and want to lash out at someone, take a deep breath and count to ten. The consequences of your outburst may be more far fetching than you think. I also believe we dish out disproportionate anger at those closer to us. For a same incident, we are likely to lash out at our family much harsher than our friends. Need to be aware of this and keep it in check. 

Here's a good one. My Korean colleague told me when 2 Koreans get into a car accident, they get out of the car and engage in a full on fist fight. After they are too tired to slog it out, they start assessing the damage and who's at fault.  Maybe ZGR is a Korean who married a S'pore wife.