British Expat sorry for 'poor' transport call in Singapore

In my recollection of them, Singapore buses can be a bit basic and not well adapted to long Western legs but remarks that might  go down well among friends might upset other audiences.  The offender below did nothing more than speak the truth as he saw it but he greatly offended Singaporean pride and he did lose his job over it.  He has now relocated to Australia.  I hope he realizes that Australians don't much like disparaging remarks about their country either.  If your job depends on goodwill, anything likely to damage goodwill is highly likely to damage yourself.  Free speech is not necessarily wise speech

A PORSCHE-DRIVING British wealth manager in Singapore who referred to public transport commuters as "poor people" has apologised.

Anton Casey, a 39-year-old who is married to a former Miss Singapore Universe Bernice Wong, had also referred to washing "the stench of public transport off me" in one of his posts on the social network.

Furious internet users lashed out at Mr Casey, a Singapore permanent resident, with many subjecting him and his family to verbal abuse.

Singapore has one of the world's highest per capita incomes, with official data showing it stood at $Sg65,048 ($74,000) in 2012. The city-state also boasts one of Asia's most modern public transport systems, with its 150-kilometre metro network carrying about two million people daily.

"I would like to extend a sincere apology to the people of Singapore ... for my poor judgement," Mr Casey said in a statement late on Tuesday.

"I have the highest respect and regard for Singapore and the good people of Singapore; this is my home," he said.

One of Mr Casey's posts showed a picture of a boy, apparently his five-year-old son, sitting inside a metro train with a caption above the photo saying: "Daddy, where is your car & who are all these poor people?"

Another showed a waving boy sitting inside a silver convertible Porsche, with a caption saying: "Ahhhhhhhh reunited with my baby. Normal service can resume, once I have washed the stench of public transport off me."

"This guy is rich materially but poor spiritually," one furious Internet user wrote about Mr Casey. 

"Why oh why do you think you are so much better than others just because you happen to have cash ... Shame on you mate, shame!" said another user.

Mr Casey's employer, Crossinvest (Asia) Pte Ltd, said it does not condone his comments which"`were made in poor taste".  "We are currently investigating the comments made by our employee and will take appropriate action once we are in possession of all the facts," it said in a statement.

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