MSF clarifies FB post alleging that "Jalan Besar CC staff" chased away tissue-sellers at Lavender MRT

Turns out, the "staff" in question were from the Social Service Office in Jalan Besar.

Matthias Ang | April 16, 2019, 05:12 PM

On April 12, a Facebook page called Bread&Butter put up a post alleging that two elderly tissue-sellers at Lavender MRT station were chased away by the staff of Jalan Besar Community Club.

And in response, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) stated, on April 15, that the "staff" in question were really staff from the ministry's Social Service Office (SSO) in Jalan Besar, who were there to assist the tissue-sellers.

Netizens call out post for lack of details

Prior to the response of MSF, several netizens had already called out the page for the lack of details in their post.

This was because the post had consisted of four photos of some people talking to two elderly men, one of whom was wheelchair-bound, seated outside Lavender MRT station while surrounded by plastic bags.

The post was further captioned:

"Jalan Besar CC Staff says they cannot sell Tissue at Lavender Mrt Station."

Here is a screenshot of the post which has since been removed:

Source: Screenshot from Bread&Butter

In response, several netizens acknowledged that while Bread&Butter had good intentions, they had failed to mention key details, such as what exactly was discussed between the "staff" and the two senior citizens, and whether the "staff" were really from Jalan Besar CC in the first place.

All screenshots from Bread&Butter

MSF responds

MSF clarified that the "staff" in question were really from its SSO in Jalan Besar.

The ministry added that the two elderly men were known to the SSO and that it was currently assisting both of them -- one with ComCare Long Term Assistance, while the other was being helped with his application for financial assistance.

In clarifying the context of the situation, MSF explained that its officers were following up on the two men by checking on their well-being and assessing how else they could be supported.

Here is MSF's post in full:

Top image collage from Bread&Butter Facebook