Elderly blind man in KL demands money to get off the road
PETALING JAYA: An elderly blind man forced traffic on a street in the Malaysian capital to come to a standstill last week, refusing to budge unless he was given RM20 (S$ 6.50).
In a video recorded by radio presenter Matthew Ong, which has gone viral, the man is seen standing in the middle of Jalan Telawi 4 in Bangsar, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, with a line of cars in front of him.
Mr Ong said he first noticed the man when he did not move even after a passer-by attempted to help him.
"Thinking it was a language issue, I went up to him to help, but then I realised that he wasn't clueless.
"He knew exactly what he was doing and wouldn't budge unless I gave him some money," he wrote in a Facebook post.
Mr Ong said he handed the man RM1, but the man still refused to move off the road.
"He took the cash and then continued standing there after berating me that it wasn't enough. He wanted RM10 or RM20. That's when I took this video," he said.
In the video, Mr Ong can be heard telling the man in Hokkien that he is holding up traffic and offers him RM5.
But the man refuses to accept and replies, "Don't make me angry or I will hit you".
The camera then pans to a car blocked by the elderly man.
The driver, who appears frustrated, hands RM10 to Mr Ong to pass to the man to get him to move away.
The man accepts the money and slowly ambles off to the side of the road, allowing traffic to pass.
The video has been viewed more than 150,000 times, received 2,000 shares and has garnered comments from members of the public who claimed to have encountered the same man with the same modus operandi. - THE STAR
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