Ustaz And Man Who Claims To Be Eyewitness Defend Pak Cik Accused Of Touching Woman On LRT
According to a witness, the man was trying to adjust his robe.
By Justin Tan — 06 Mar 2018, 06:59 PM
A viral video alleging that an elderly man touched a woman’s thigh on the LRT has caused quite an uproar on social media, with netizens divided on whether or not the allegations are accurate
The 53-second clip showed the elderly man glancing at the woman’s left thigh multiple times while appearing to rub against it with the fingers and the back of his right hand.
The woman appeared to be asleep and was unaware of his actions.
The video, originally posted on 25 February, has since been taken down. The Facebook account that posted the video has also been deactivated.
Things escalated two days later, when Facebook user Ramesh De Ram claimed that he was there on the LRT and “saw it with his own eyes” that the woman was sitting on the man’s robe and he was merely trying to pull it away
Ramesh rebuked the media, netizens and the person who uploaded the video for painting a negative image of the ‘pak cik’. He urged people to share his side of the story.
At the time of writing, the post has garnered over 18,000 shares.
Celebrity ustaz Ebit Lew, who claimed that he knew the elderly man personally, also leapt to his defence
In a Facebook post uploaded on Sunday, 4 March, Lew claimed that he has known the elderly man since he was 12 years old, adding that they used to preach together in rural areas as well as in Orang Asli settlements.
According to Lew, the elderly man is a former high ranking officer, who is currently spending his retirement by preaching and helping out in mosques. The ustaz also said he knows the man’s children, adding that they are very religious and doing well in life like their father.
Lew said that it was unfair for the religious man to be accused so publicly.
“The uncle was being kind and careful as he did not want to wake the sleeping woman even though his robe was partially sat on. I want to find out who slandered (the uncle) and advise the person,” he wrote.
In addition, Ramesh and Lew teamed up for a live video to address how the “incident” could have been misinterpreted
During the Facebook live session, Ramesh said the ‘pak cik’ did not make any contact with the woman and that even if there was any contact, it was very minimal.
The duo also demonstrated how people could have assumed that the elderly man was touching the woman when there could have been no contact at all. Ramesh added that the man’s body was actually moving away from the girl and he tried his best to avoid touching her.
He reminded everyone that the ‘pak cik’ and the girl were not at fault, saying, “I don’t blame her for wearing short pants as locals these days like to follow Western culture.”
At the time of writing, the hour-long video has been viewed over 250,000 times and shared by more than 9,000 people.
Ramesh vowed that he will not stop looking for the original poster until the latter issues a public apology to the 'pak cik'
“What you did was wrong. It seems like you don’t have anything better to do than to get people into trouble,” he said.
“You should have minded your own business. And since you were at the incident, why didn’t you speak out (instead of recording the video).”
He defended the man once more, calling those who want to find fault with the elderly man to deal with him first.
"If you really want to criticise the 'pak cik', you face me first. I dare you to 'kecam' (criticise) the pakcik and I'll see how it goes," he said.