Giving seats on LRT

I was on my way back from work yesterday. As I was travelling by myself, I took the opportunity to catch up on my reading on the way home. While there were available seats, I decided to stand instead. I sat enough for one day.

The train just passed KL Sentral when I heard some argument going on behind me and I noticed people were looking at someone. Without turning around to look, I could tell that the argument was between an old Malay guy and a lady that sounded like in her 30's (later I caught a glimpse and saw that she was African, I think). I didn't catch the whole story, but apparently the guy said something about the lady not giving her seat to someone. The African lady argued back, saying that why did he said something like that to her when he himself could give his seat too, since he seemed to be in good health and has no problem standing.

The argument went on as people around were looking at them. They started cussing each other, calling each other names and everything. I'm surprised that they didn't break into a fight as things got heated up. I tried to ignore them and continued with my reading. Not my problem and I wasn't going to get myself involved. The incident ended as the lady got off at Bangsar station. Even so, the old man was so pissed that he didn't stop talking about it after I got off at Paramount.

I don’t know the whole story behind the argument, but I have my own opinions about both of them.

If the lady did refuse to give her seat to, let’s say, an elderly, she would be morally wrong. As educated people, we know we should be courteous and give our seats to someone who might need it. If we asked by someone to give up our seats, we should consider the situation and our options, and maybe agree to the request. Then again, she does have her rights to choose whether she wanted to give up her seat or not. It’s a public seat after all and the seating priority to the elderly, the injured, pregnant ladies is more of a moral value than an actual rule.

On the other hand, the old man, seemingly fit himself, could have given his seat too. Instead, he went on and had a heated argument with the lady when his action (giving up his seat) speaks louder than words. While it is ok to voice his opinion, which wasn’t wrong in itself, it wasn’t necessary for him to push his opinion onto her so hard until they had such an argument. He could have gave up his seat and then bad-mouth her, instead he just sat there and think he's all high-and mighty.

While they argue, the third party (whoever the person was that unintentionally started the dispute) benefited the least. He or she still doesn’t get a seat while having to listen to the unnecessary clash.

While both the man and the lady have valid points in their standing, the fact that they started cussing each other proved that their dispute has derailed to something other than about giving up seats. It has devolved into a fight of anger and about who will win, quite common when logic went out the window and emotion took over.

In the end, no one won. Not the old man, not the African lady, not even the third party. It was all pointless. The moral of this story: If no one is giving up his/her seat, just give up yours (assuming that you don’t have any physical problem that requires you to sit down) and keep your opinion to yourself. This way, everyone’s happy.