Malaysia made headlines for building an MRT system that is apparently “Better than London‘s, New York’s and is on par with Singapore”.
While we make no assurances towards those statements, I think that most of us can agree that the system does look nice.
That is, until it’s all vandalised by third-class citizens irresponsibly wasting that effort.
Perhaps in response to this unfortunate circumstance (and the disappointment of watching their brand new toy get mistreated), Rapid KL has decided start uploading pictures of commuters misusing the train’s amenities, breaking the rules, or just being a bit inconsiderate of other commuters.
Some might not support Rapid KL’s decision to #commutershame irresponsible riders, but we say, keep shaming them. Because:
- At least they’re not naming and shaming these commuters. As far as we can tell, they’ve either tried to crop out, or cover-up their faces, though perhaps friends and family might still be able to recognise the source of these shenanigans.
- It’s a good piece of deterrent for riders. Better behave and follow the rules, or you might make an ungraceful feature on their Facebook page. And Asians are very susceptible to shame as a motivator.
Without further ado, here’s Rapid KL’s shame game.
It seems like Rapid KL has slowly begun the stepping blocks for what would eventually become this rider shaming back in May, with this friendly PSA on their Instagram.
One day after the Rapid KL shared an article about how their brand new trains were vandalised less than a week after their launch, they tentatively began to take their first steps into commuter shaming.
Their first post was about either a little-known, or often ignored rule on Rapid KL: no eating on the train.
But by the time the second post came along, Rapid KL began sprinkling some salt.
The post implores riders to not put their feet on the train chairs to respect other riders.
This next one surprised us the most. I mean really, no matter how swole you are, at what point did you think that this was a good idea? The handles in the train were not meant to support the weight of an entire person.
The team even began dabbling in some poetry, or as the kids say, bersajak pantun.
They incorporated famous names such as Fatah Amin and Fazura. And this time, they called out more train-eaters.
This method of PSA seems to be part of Rapid KL’s efforts not just to discourage outright vandalism, but also to bring attention to good public etiquette for Malaysians.
By the 28th of July, their salt game has grown strong.
The post speaks to riders who might not be in the know about how bags don’t need a special seat in the train. Instead, someone else could be given a spot.
Even an all-too-familiar case of littering in the train is met with some humour from the admins.
Their latest post in what is looking to be a continuing trend on their Facebook happened just yesterday. And honestly we can’t really figure out what that person is doing in the picture.
Their comment game is also strong.
Besides just the shaming though, what really sells this for some of the netizens Rapid KL’s rapid-fire sassmastering in the comments as well.
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All in all, while we appreciate the sass, these posts could only have happened in the first place thanks to the thoughtlessness of certain MRT riders in Malaysia who are tarnishing this very positive step towards modernism.
But all hope isn’t lost. With the amount of traction these posts are getting, it’s heartening to know that these posts do resonate with a lot of Malaysians.
Here’s to hoping that in a little way, Rapid KL’s shaming spree will help deter monorail misuse in the future, though we’ll be sad to see the Rapid KL admin run out of pictures to sass about.
