Trial opens for man accused of abusing bus captain with xenophobic comments

SINGAPORE: A man accused of verbally abusing a bus captain with xenophobic comments went on trial at the State Courts on Monday (Apr 4).

Nimal De Silva, 44, is contesting a single charge of using insulting words against a public service worker under the Protection from Harassment Act.

It was previously reported that the Singaporean pleaded guilty in September last year, but a district judge rejected the plea at the sentencing stage after she found that the defence was disputing the essence of the charge.

De Silva, who is self-employed, was trying to board SBS Transit bus 196 at the bus stop opposite Nicoll Highway MRT station on Aug 19, 2020 when he allegedly got into a row with the driver.

At the time, De Silva was wearing a neck gaiter to cover his mouth, and not a face mask.

The driver, a 44-year-old Chinese national, was uncertain about whether this was in line with his company's policy on masks when onboard buses, and refused entry to De Silva.

The driver then contacted the SBS Transit operation centre to seek clarification about the policy and gestured at De Silva to wear a face mask properly.

"Dissatisfied, the accused used the door cock button outside the bus to open the bus doors himself, and made his way onto the bus," stated court documents.

De Silva began livestreaming the incident on Facebook Live and said to the driver: "This is the problem when you have China people working in Singapore," and "Speak English. You're not in China right now."

The dispute to be resolved at trial is whether these two sentences were insulting words, according to the prosecution.

De Silva also uttered two other sentences that he admitted were insulting words: "You are going to go down," followed by an expletive, and "These bastards are basically ah, playing punk. Let's play punk together."

Throughout the row, the driver, who was not conversant in English, continued to verify with the SBS Transit operation centre whether De Silva's neck gaiter complied with the company's mask policy.

He tried to get the operation centre to speak to De Silva, but was told that the centre would be calling for police assistance.

He communicated this to De Silva and also repeatedly tried to explain that he was following his company's policy.

According to video footage of the incident, at one point, another passenger could be heard offering De Silva a mask to resolve the issue. De Silva refused the offer, saying that he did not want to "give in".

As a result of the situation, the victim was unable to continue the bus service and the other passengers had to alight.

The Facebook Live video had been viewed at least 847,000 times and shared 8,900 times as of Aug 6, 2021, according to the prosecution.

The incident prompted then Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung to call on members of the public to respect bus captains. He added that there is no excuse for anyone to physically or verbally abuse bus drivers. 

Senior Minister of State for Transport Chee Hong Tat also affirmed in Parliament "zero tolerance" for any abuse of public transport workers.

The trial continues. De Silva is represented by defence lawyers Luke Netto and Aylwyn Seto.

Those who harass a public service worker can be jailed for up to one year, fined up to S$5,000 or both.