Siti Ai’sha Jaffar, a 40-year-old Singaporean woman, was sentenced to four weeks in jail after she made a vile, racially-charged rant against a 33-year-old bus passenger on the lower deck of bus service 182 at 9:37am on Sep 3, 2020, said Channel News Asia.
The racist rant lasted for seven whole minutes and happened between the victim and Jaffar when they were the only two passengers on the bus.
The judge condemned what Jaffar did and considered what she did a “serious” offense, hence the sentence.
What happened in the bus racist rant?
The victim and Jaffar were the only people on the bus that morning. The victim had her head phones on, and at first didn’t hear the tirade (so it could be said that the rant could have gone on for longer).
Then the victim noticed that Jaffar was pointing and speaking to her with an angry expression on her face. “The victim then switched off her music and heard the accused shouting remarks towards her, calling her an Indian with dark skin,” according to court documents.
Jaffar continued on her rant, and the victim filmed the whole ordeal, in three separate videos discreetly. Upon finishing the recording of the video, the victim went to confront Jaffar and asked if there was anything wrong. Jaffar then continued with the racist rant.
Afterwards, the victim called the police and informed the bus driver to stop the bus. She alighted near Singapore Discovery Centre on Upper Jurong Road.
Some of the content of the racist slurs included, “Your heart is also black … everything is black.”
Jaffar also told the victim, who is Singaporean, that “your native country is India, not Singapore” and added that she should go back there.
Jaffar also said “f***ing black Indians” and said to the victim “you and your black magic face”.
Other reports online mentioned that Jaffar also said, “Stupid black magic all come from you, from your race Indians, black magic are from Indians, not from the Chinese, not from the Malays, but from the Indians, famous for magic, famous for that Indians.”
In a separate Yahoo report, Jaffar was also said to have uttered, “(We) will find you and you will be charged in court and pay the court fees, if you find me anywhere, I will charge you in court, you f****** Indians, charged in court, no money to pay.”
Jaffar pleaded guilty to one charge of uttering racial slurs at the victim with the deliberate intention to wound the victim’s racial feelings. She was not represented in her trial and did not say anything aside from her plea.
Racism on the rise
This case was only one in a series of escalating incidents of overt racism that went viral during the past few months.
The most famous case so far would be the far-reaching and longstanding racism perpetrated by ex-lecturer Tan Boon Lee from Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
Lee was caught in a racially-charged video where he and Dave Parkash were arguing. The video showed Lee telling Parkash that he and his girlfriend were a “disgrace” and that he was “preying” on a Chinese girl. Parkash and his girlfriend have been together for seven years when the viral video was taken.
Once the incident with Parkash went viral, other former students came forward to say that the ex-lecturer made several anti-Islam rants during class, and even asked another student to remove her hijab.
Lee has since been suspended from Ngee Ann Polytechnic and was last reported to be assisting with investigations into the viral video.
