This is a classic case of jumping the gun without trying to find out the other side of the story.

On Saturday, June 9, local website The Independent published a story about Singapore Member of Parliament (MP) Fatimah Lateef, running comments from Facebook that accused her of "wayang-ing" (because the train looked empty at the time) and asking why she was occupying the "reserved" seat.

Here's its headline:

In its story, the website said the photo of the Marine Parade GRC MP (which you can see in the screenshot above) was "doing the rounds on social media", and showed that she was sitting on the reserved seat in the MRT, beside another commuter.

Fatimah responds

On June 9, Fatimah published a post on Facebook, giving her side of the story:

"Wah... The Independent can be lower than low...jumping to conclusions. Really shows what type of people they have working for them..This train just started from Pasir Ris and i was standing and talking to people ( by the way there were less than ten persons on board at that time).

This wonderful lady wanted to talk and share and instead of standing and towering my height of 1.8 metres above her, i felt it was polite and right to speak to her at eye level and give her the courtesy she deserves."

She added that there was no "wayang", and said that politics would not "change" her "direct and to the point" nature.

Pasir Ris is at the end of the East-West MRT line, and especially during the off-peak period, it would not have as many commuters on board as a station in the middle of the line.

And to be fair, at 1.8m, Fatimah Lateef is indeed quite tall — significantly taller than the average Singaporean woman.

Here she is with some residents:

She is also taller than our president and pretty much as tall as her husband:

And, of course, she is also taller than Fandi Ahmad:

The only person she isn't taller than, perhaps, is the also-really-tall Goh Chok Tong:

Here's her Facebook post:

[related_story]

Also argued against shaming people who sit on reserved seats

However in June 2017 The Independent also published an article titled "Do we really need reserved seats on MRT trains?"

It argues, first, that reserved seats are an "artificial means" of promoting graciousness, adding that commuters are hesitant to occupy a reserved seat due to the "prevalence of Internet shaming", and that the act of sitting on those seats has became "stigmatised".

"In cases of internet shaming, internet users only get to see one side of the story. The truth behind seemingly ungracious acts on MRT trains could be more nuanced than what is portrayed online.

However, internet users are often quick to criticise commuters based on one photo. This creates a culture of distrust and apprehension when it comes to occupying reserved seats."

Can't help but agree.

Top image adapted from Fatimah Lateef's Facebook page.