Sathiyaselan Sivalingam was surprised when he saw the Singapore flag sticking out of a trash bin, and he was quick to react.
Not only did he remove the flag from the bin, he also took the opportunity to educate the cleaner on how to properly handle the flag.
In Mr Siva’s own words, respect for the crescent and stars must always exist regardless of one’s support for the government of the day.
His post was shared widely on social media yesterday. His post received 300 shares and more than 2,000 likes within a span of just 24 hours.
In his post, he also shared that he too used to work as a cleaner in HDB estates but he always handled the state flag with due respect.
He also admitted that he was agitated when he first saw the state the flag was in and wanted to confront the cleaner.
Fortunately, an elderly Chinese couple who were nearby helped to diffuse the situation by helping Mr Siva to communicate with the Chinese-speaking cleaner.
The conversation did help the cleaner understand his mistake, and he subsequently apologised to Mr Siva.
Mr Siva’s post also attracted some flak as a number of his followers felt he was too aggressive when he decided to flip the trash bin on its side and to suggest settling the problem “with fists”.
One such commentator remarked that although he did commend Mr Siva’s patriotism, he did not agree with his methods. However, he was glad that the matter was settled in an amicable manner.
Mr Siva also later added this statement to his post, revealing that he did apologise to the cleaner for turning over the trash bin.
Thank u everyone… 1st of all i am not trying to be a fake hero or national hero… this is the least i could do for my country..that is respect the flag. Alot of u have given me thumbs up for my reaction. I also reacted badly by over turning the rubbish trolley..i did apologise to him also. Nobody wanna see the flag end up like that. I bet any of us would have least do was to remove it. Haters go ahead say what u want. I go no time to reason or argue with u. The rest.. let celebrate SG50. We dont know what future has for us. Once again thank you so much.
