‘How selfish do you want to be?’—Singapore woman shocked after man uses plastic bags to chope space in front of MRT platform doors
SINGAPORE: A woman in Singapore took to TikTok to express her shock after a commuter used some plastic bags to reserve a space, a practice known as “chope” in the city-state.
According to Ms Echo (@echoyq), a man placed the bags he had used for shopping in front of MRT platform doors so that he could be first to enter the train.
The TikToker called it an “eye-opening situation.”
She had seen the two bags while waiting for a train and said that a woman was standing nearby, but the bags did not seem to belong to her.
The unattended bags made Ms Echo wonder if she should inform MRT staff, as they could contain suspicious material, but as she was thinking this, the train arrived.
A man who had been seated in a chair nearby got up, picked up his bags, and then stood right in front of the doors, not even getting out of the way of the passengers who wanted to alight.
When the doors opened, “he just went right in,” she said.
Wondering if this is a new trend, Ms Echo stated that she already has low expectations of courtesy in society, but for her, the man’s actions were a new low.
“To use your belongings to chope standing in line to board the train, this is ridiculous, man,” she said, adding that she has learned to no longer expect people to be gracious.
“But jokes aside, it boils down to how selfish you want to be. It’s appalling that we actually need signs to tell you to be considerate to other people,” Ms Echo said, asking if this should not be something that people internalise from being taught when they are still young, considering that people live together in a society.
She added that it feels like people no longer care about others these days, but instead allow their selfish needs to influence how they act.
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The TikToker also expressed worries over what messages are being sent to the next generation, but wondered what can really be done to fight against this type of human behaviour.
Saying that she has been admonished for speaking up, Ms Echo said people who want to call out bad social behaviour simply have to get used to being scolded.
“For those of you who are watching this, I hope you are one of those ‘Team Considerate’ people,” she added. /TISG