Sister Umbrella saga riles S'pore/M'sia netizens but there may be a plot twist

Jeng jeng jeng?

Jonathan Lim | May 27, 2016, 01:12 PM

It's day two of the Sister Umbrella saga which saw a bust-up occurring at a car workshop in Pioneer and overnight infamy for one umbrella-toting lady.

The news has spread as far as Taiwan. Most of the buzz is actually happening in Malaysia, where the popular narrative of the incident is that Singaporeans, including Sister Umbrella, are seen to be bullying and beating up Malaysian foreign workers.

Netizens from Malaysia have been piling on the hate and seem to focus most of it on Sister Umbrella. She was caught on camera spewing Hokkien expletives and attempting to strike people with her white umbrella. She was also heard telling the workshop employees that she is Singaporean and that they should go back to Malaysia.

In response, Malaysian netizens took to generalising Singaporeans as uncouth and overbearing. On the flip side, forum users in Hardwarezone are also taking this opportunity to generalise Malaysians negatively.

Potential plot twist

According to news and lifestyle portal Orange01, "Sister Umbrella" may actually be Malaysian as well. Orange01 claims that several people have come forth to highlight this fact.

sharon seet malaysian Rough translation: She is Malaysian

What does this all mean?

The saga first broke when a Facebook video featured footage of the fight. The post was accompanied with this caption - "新加坡的朋友们,可以不要欺负我们马来西亚打工人吗? 我们马劳在新加坡工作已经很难想象有多难受了" (translated: Friends from Singapore, can you not bully our Malaysian workers? Our Malaysian workers are already having an unimaginably hard time working in Singapore.)

Comments on the post initially were full of hate and vitriol directed at both Malaysians and Singaporeans. It looked like angry keyboard warriors were using this saga as an opportunity to spread hate based on nationality.

Fortunately, cooler kinder heads have prevailed. There are now several top-liked comments on the post calling for calm and not to generalise any group of people, like this one:

umbrella saga

Bottomline, idiots exist everywhere regardless of their skin colour or the passport they hold. Everyone should just hakuna their matatas.

Here's some comic relief (warning: strong language):

 

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