Everything Also Complain

From ‘Tay Ping Hui in online spat with Twitter user’, 4 Jan 2012, article by Leow Si Wan in sg.yahoo News.

Actor Tay Ping Hui is embroiled in a petty online tiff with a Twitter user. On 23 December, the star who is also a young PAP member, posted a tweet on his account, calling for SMRT to implement a “Free Transport Day” to make up for the massive train breakdowns.

A user, who goes by the Twitter username of smrtsg responded to his tweet, with a snide “@taypinghui is a cheapskate”. He also described Tay’s attempt to make his ‘Free Transport Day’ idea viral as “pathetic” and said to the actor, “What we do know is you don’t take the train.”

Tay then replied in a series of harsh-sounding tweets. He questioned “the authenticity” of the the twitter user, and described the user’s “attempt at humour” pathetic.

…He continued with “I should just let you embarrass yourself, but I feel obliged to open your tiny mind. One does not need to be in war to know its atrocities.”

“And since I’m in a giving mood, this is my feedback to you: you need to get a life and stop pretending to be something you are obviously not.”

Tin Ping Hui: Rolling Deep

Labelled a ‘troll’ in other news sites, ‘smrtsg’ proceeded to mock Tay Ping Hui for his rendition of Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’, a painful cover which is a sign that Tay should stick to his day job. Political aspirations aside, the actor’s humourless, retaliative response is pretty much in character with what he portrays on television most of the time. It’s ironic however, that he tells smrtsg to ‘stop pretending to be something you are obviously not’, when ‘pretending’ is very much the actor’s bread and butter. Here’s what the man had to say about the REAL SMRT compensating affected customers on 17 Dec 2011, according to his twitter account.

I propose tt SMRT be made to set a FREE TRAVEL DAY for ALL commuters instead of paying a fine. Lets take this viral. LTA, show us u care.

Obviously this was an attempt to use his popularity to garner some kind of online petition. I’m not sure how well thought out Tay’s plan to grant an island-wide open house was, since one of the possible outcomes of an unpredictable free-for-all is an instant replay of the breakdowns previously, confirming the inadequacy of the system rather than making up for its flaws. A random Twitter search of ‘Free Travel Day MRT’ to see how well this meme has spread since Christmas yielded zero results. And LTA hasn’t ‘shown that they care’. Earlier in the year, a Mediacorp colleague, again through Twitter, almost single-handedly brought down a famous grilled chicken chain with a call to arms against bad service and very expensive hot water.  Maybe the difference lies in the fact that the Nando’s boycotter is Joanne Peh, while this is merely Tay Ping Hui, an actor who’s as accustomed to wolf-whistles as SMRT is to an actual compliment.

Anyway, lacking the response he desired, his call for freebies was rephrased and re-tweeted on 23 Dec 2011.

Committees set up, apologies issued, & investigations launched. Great. Now 4 a Free Transport Day to show SMRT’s sincerity to its customers

It’s hard to tell from this tweet how serious his subsequent appeal was, though the drop in enthusiasm was apparent. That’s when the name-calling began, though one could argue that smrtsg was being satirical in calling Tay a ‘cheapskate’, a jibe which the latter  took a bit too personally instead of playing along, which would have been the smarter way to manage a SMRT imposter. But let’s go back further before determining if smrtsg’s accusation is valid.

In Sep 20, 2011, it was reported that Tay posted the following on Twitter following a Circle Line breakdown.

“Circle Line is down this morning. This time, punishment should be to provide free rides for commuters and not paying a fine to the authorities as usual.”

Which makes Tay some kind of Free Rides champion. Nevermind that he majors in Political Science and Economics, or drives a Mercedes E-coupe rather than taking the train.  Speaking up for the common people is part of the fundamentals of politicking. So technically, if Tay doesn’t need to take the train but is calling for free rides for the supposed benefit of others (even if that benefit is not clear), he’s not ‘cheapstake’ so much as offering a rather ‘simplistic’ payback and getting noticed. But leaving the impression of a smart-aleck, stuck-up , bullying wannabe-politician-activist aside, this is a man who, 10 years ago, actually INTERVIEWED himself in a guest column in Today, where he came across as an actor who doesn’t really care about what people think, his fans included, and  is inspired by the ‘Stanislavski’ method for his work, which probably gives you results as boring as it sounds.

Tay, of course, isn’t the only Twitter user asking for free rides in compensation. He just happened be a celebrity turned rabbit caught in the headlights, since smrtsg calling any ordinary Twitter user a cheapstake wouldn’t have the same impact and snappy boldness as putting a Mediacorp actor in a difficult situation. In fact, a day of free rides was actually given by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, according to a Today letter writer on Dec 30, 2011 (When trains stop, have a backup). But that’s Massachusetts, and Singapore is not a place where you can get away with the ideal compensation without ‘cheapskate’ people falling off overloaded platforms in their haste for a free ride. I  mean, this is a country where people will queue for hours at a closing down book sale when they haven’t flipped a page in their life, not to mention a free trip, even if it’s from Orchard to Somerset. I personally wouldn’t take any offence to being called ‘cheapskate’, a term often used in jest rather than a straight insult. Perhaps what Tay needs is not a mastery of Stanislavski, but something far commonplace and even helpful for his acting: A sense of humour (even though he would like to think one exists).

Filed under: 2000s, 2011, 2012, Bloggers, Local actors, Money, MRT Tagged: | bloggers, Local actors, MRT, SMRT