Sandakan man mistaken for S'porean pumping RON95
Admit it, Singapore drivers are not exactly well-loved in Malaysia.
From errant parking and jumping queues to rocking the car when refuelling and pumping the RON95 at petrol kiosks, the misconduct of Singapore drivers makes the news often enough to elicit disdain from our neighbours across the Causeway.
Malaysia in August 2010 banned the sale of RON95 petrol to foreign-registered vehicles as the subsidised fuel is meant to benefit Malaysians.
Petrol kiosk operators that breach this law risk getting fined and/or jailed.
Despite the ban and very small margin in price difference – RM3.47 per litre for RON97 and RM2.05 per litre for RON95 ($0.40 difference) – there are still Singapore drivers who shamelessly tank up with petrol meant for the "rakyat" (citizens).
So it comes as no surprise that Malaysians bay for blood when they spot a Singapore car being pumped with RON95.
However, a man from Sandakan, a city in Sabah, was wrongly accused of doing the illegal.
In a TikTok video uploaded by oppa_6972 in March, a man is seen pumping RON95 into his car, whose number plate bore the letters SMC.
The person holding the camera then called for an attendant to come over and told him to do something about the driver of the Singapore car.
The driver of the car calmly explained that he was from Sandakan and that his car, a Perodua Bezza, was Sandakan-licensed.
The petrol vigilante walked away, perhaps in embarrassment, without apologising to the driver.
Netizens were amused by the video, with a number of them commenting on the silliness of the exchange.
One wrote: "Why would a Singaporean be driving a Bezza?"
The Bezza is a sedan produced by Malaysian automobile manufacturer Perodua.
The more observant netizens commented that the number plates of Singapore-registered cars use a different typeface and the numbers typically end with a letter, unlike the one on the Sandakan-licensed car in the video clip.
Phew!
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