Singaporean actor and TV host Suhaimi Yusof publicly apologised on Mar. 22 after he was accused of behaving rudely and insulting the workers at a drinks stall at the Admiralty Ramadan bazaar.
Sheik Mohammad, owner of the stall named Sizzlers by Bismi Biryani, initially posted a TikTok video on Mar. 19 detailing the situation and criticising Suhaimi's behaviour.
According to him, Suhaimi wanted to buy S$50 worth of drinks and give them away to customers at the stall as a form of charity, but later called Sheik's mother "blur" and insulted his staff when things did not go as planned.
Sheik's account
Here's what went down, according to Sheik's video:
It was around 6pm that eventful day and queues were long.
Suhaimi allegedly went to the front of the queue to tell Sheik's mother, who was helping to tend the stall, that he wanted to buy S$50 worth of drinks for the customers as a form of charity.
Sheik was preparing drinks at the back of the stall when he noticed that the queue got longer.
In an attempt to ease the queues, Sheik said that he went to the front of the stall to give the donated drinks away to the queueing customers. The flavours were given randomly.
When Suhaimi saw this, he allegedly stopped Sheik and said he wanted the customers to choose their flavours.
In the video, Sheik responded:
"That's crazy. You want them to choose the drinks? It would be better for you to open your own stall."
He also criticised the actor's "lack of manners" for calling his mother "blur" and his worker "stupid".
He noted that Suhaimi was accompanied by cameramen, and questioned his true intentions for doing charity.
"This is not charity. Charity should be done discreetly," Sheik added.
According to him, Suhaimi also insulted another worker for having tattoos after the latter chided him for his behaviour.
Sheik also claimed that the actor yelled at the stall, saying: "People like you have never done any good deeds."
Suhaimi's explanation and apology
In a Facebook video shared on Mar. 22, Suhaimi expressed his regret for his actions and apologised to all involved at the scene, in response to Sheik's video.
"This incident happened due to my mistake and inability to communicate clearly," he said.
"I intended to do one thing, but something else happened. I understand that anyone would feel uncomfortable in a situation like this, and that you have the right to be angry. So I'm very sorry for my errs."
Here's a summary of Suhaimi's solemn video:
Suhaimi explained that he and his filming crew were at the bazaar in Admiralty after they finished an earlier shoot.
He intended to buy food for iftar, and at the same time to promote the stalls there.
Sizzlers caught his attention because of its long queues.
Suhaimi approached Sheik's mother to ask if he could film them.
At the same time, he offered to pay for S$50 worth of drinks for people in the queue and asked how many cups that amount of money could yield. Sheik's mother allegedly replied that he could get about 14 cups of drinks.
However, he claimed that there was a "miscommunication" and didn't know that Sizzlers had different sizes and promotions for its drinks.
He noted that the stall workers were very busy at the time, and admitted that he did not explain his plans clearly to them in the first place.
Tearfully, Suhaimi said in the video that he would never use callous terms like "bodoh" (Malay for stupid) on people, especially the elders.
However, he still apologised if he was misheard or unintentionally mentioned such terms at the time.
Suhaimi said: “I am very sorry to makcik (Sheik's mother) for hurting your feelings."
He also apologised to the customers who witnessed the incident for causing any unease or confusion.
"This matter would not have happened if I had communicated appropriately and chosen a suitable time to be there," Suhaimi said.
He said if given a chance, he intends to provide some compensation, in any form, to the stall owner for the incident.
https://mothership.sg/2024/03/suhaimi-yusof-bazaar-stall-spore/
