The Bentley Situation

One piece of hot news this week is of course the Bentley driver VS RSS security guard story. I was following the story with amusement and waiting to see how it develops. First thoughts were ‘alamak, why so angry? You missed the entrance then just drive down a bit more got a huge HDB carpark where there’s a school side gate. Just drop off there lah! Die die must drop inside school ah? Walk a bit will die?‘

Observation 1: Oh how quickly this caught everyone’s attention

The incident happened on a Tuesday morning when everyone was rushing to get to school. A couple of videos were circulated and by noon time, the Minister of Education has responded with sharp criticisms against the driver (👏), Uncle has seen a doctor and got 3 days MC, and there were talks about police reports and an arrest. Representatives from different unions including NTUC either visited the uncle or voiced their criticisms. Before the week is over, the driver has been arrested, uncle has completed his MC and returned to work, and online trolls are now hunting down the real identity of the Bentley driver.

And yet, parents who are interviewed say such things happen everyday. Ok maybe not as serious as driver inching forward to push security uncle out of the way. But the long jams, queue cutting, frustrations and most importantly abuse on the service providers occur on a day to day basis. Yet we just turn a blind eye to it. Until social media did its duty this time round again.

Do we need another incident with more serious outcomes before we look at these issues more seriously? Now that the driver is arrested and charged, we await the sentencing and many people will be interested to know how heavily he is punished since there were similar cases prior to this. Or will driving a BENTLEY mean anything special… and this brings us to point 2.

Observation 2: The focus on BENTLEY

Why do we keep referring to the brand of the car? Why not Angry Driver or Aggressive Grandparent? Why the focus on BENTLEY driver 🤔 ? Do we expect a certain arrogant heck-care behaviour from Bentley drivers? A check on SG Carmart indicates an average price of $800k - $1mil for a Bentley depending on the model. Thus does that mean it is normal to see them behaving in such a way to service providers just because they drive expensive cars?

Hence the backlash. Its like every angry reader is saying we have enough nonsense from these Bentley/Porsche/ Mercedes/ BMW drivers who behave like kings on the road. Time to punish such behaviour! (No offence to friends who drive these cars 🙊 )

What if he is a Nissan driver? Or Proton??? Will we be saying ‘Wah drive Nissan only and want to behave like king tsk tsk tsk…’ (Again, no offence to Nissan drivers. I drive a Nissan too and we know our rightful place 😊)

I seriously wonder if the backlash will be that strong if a much cheaper car is driven. Will the headlines be “Proton driver injures security guard while trying to force his way into school”? Probably the backlash will be on why we are ostracising/ picking on Proton drivers 🙊 But let’s not go there for now…

Observation 3: What did we learn as parents?

Honestly, touch our hearts. As much as we are angry at the driver’s actions, did this incident make us want to be more gracious drivers? Especially in front of our children. Minister brought out that we should set a positive example for our children. Did we learn positive role-modelling after this episode? Am sure such stories of queue cutting, forceful entries and rude aggressive behaviour are NOT NEW to parents who ferry kids to school. So what’s next? Do we still pledge to be a good role model of graciousness to our kids and let other drivers ‘jiak’ us? Or we role model tenacity and simply don’t give way to others, and seek every little opportunity to jiak others?

I confess I am NOT A GRACIOUS DRIVER. There are countless times I was sarcastic / angry/ frustrated towards other road users even when my kids are in the car. I usually try to justify my reactions to them. It’s his fault! Oi why he never see properly!

Want drive slowly then keep left lah! Drive so fast! Want go home use toilet ah?!

Nowadays they’ll just 🙄 at me and let it go. So on days when I am supposed to ferry them to school, which thankfully are not many, I’ll make sure to avoid The Bentley Situation.

1. Avoid going during peak hours by going earlier. I still can have the luxury of dropping them off and hugging each of them without getting angry stares from cars behind.

2. Drop them off at alternative drop off points instead of insisting to enter the school. 走一点不会死的. 3. Park the car somewhere further away to avoid long queues or jams. Walk with them to school or wait for them at pre-agreed side gate to pick them up and walk back to car together.

Avoid putting yourself in The Bentley Situation.

Finally, the issue with our egos, especially fathers’. Are we upset because we are stopped from dropping off kids in the school?

Or are we upset because we are stopped from dropping off kids in the school?

If only we can cast aside our selfish egos at times and focus on being a good example to our kids, we will be able to avoid so much frustrations and anger, and teach our kids to simply laugh it off in a good natured way. We can then avoid many Bentley, BMW, Toyota and Proton situations.

“So put away all pride from yourselves... At the right time He will lift you up.” 1 Peter 5:6