[B]By Foo Jie Ying[/B] The New Paper Wednesday, Feb 20, 2013
SINGAPORE - Was my life worth less than a dog's, that they had to beat me up like that?
That is the question taxi driver Ling Ah Yen, 67, has been asking himself repeatedly since he was beaten up on Feb 8, the day before the eve of Chinese New Year.
Mr Ling was driving two passengers from Holland Village to Ang Mo Kio around 1am that day.
As he turned into Ang Mo Kio Street 12, he saw a man with an outstretched palm, signalling that he wanted to cross the road.
There was no pedestrian crossing there, but Mr Ling slowed down anyway.
As he picked up speed again after watching the man get to the other side of the road safely, he felt the taxi go over something.
Mr Ling thought nothing of it, until his passengers exclaimed that he might have run over a dog.
When The New Paper spoke to Mr Ling on Sunday, he was visibly frustrated.
[B]Didn't see dog[/B]
"I didn't see the dog at all!" he insisted.
Mr Ling added: "The dog was so small, almost the size of a cat. How could I have seen it?"
After the passengers paid and alighted, the owner of the dog - the same man Mr Ling had slowed down his taxi for - went over to him and shouted for him to alight. Mr Ling apologised profusely to the owner.
"I kept saying sorry, and that I didn't mean it at all. I kept trying to tell them I couldn't see the dog," he said.
But the dog owner was not appeased, and he was not alone.
Mr Ling was greeted with a stream of Hokkien vulgarities instead, before the owner shouted for him to "get out of the car". And Mr Ling's nightmare began.
The dog owner and his group of five friends surrounded him. Two women in the group, who looked like they were in their 30s, had tried telling the dog owner to calm down, Mr Ling said. But that didn't stop the dog owner from attacking Mr Ling.
The dog owner, believed to be in his 40s, flung his T-shirt at Mr Ling, before kicking him in his stomach.
Said Mr Ling: "My vision was blocked by his T-shirt. I couldn't see anything.
"And the next thing I knew, I saw his leg coming towards me."
Mr Ling successfully dodged the kick. But he did not expect a few swift punches in his face that followed from the dog owner's friends right after the kick.
"I felt so dizzy after the punches and fell to the ground. It was only then that the whole group left me alone," said Mr Ling.
When asked to describe the group that assaulted him, Mr Ling would only say they looked like they were in their late 30s, and were heavily tattooed.
The passengers whom Mr Ling had dropped off earlier had hung around when Mr Ling was attacked, and called for an ambulance when they saw him fall to the ground.
"I was slightly breathless because I have asthma. (The passengers) kept telling me to relax and calm down.
"Luckily they were around to help me out," said Mr Ling.
He parked his taxi in one of the lots in the residential estate and informed the relief driver about it, before he was taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. He was discharged around 11am the same day.
A medical examination at the hospital revealed that Mr Ling suffered from an orbital fracture - a fracture of the bones of the eye socket - and a severely bruised face.
Even blinking hurt, and he could eat only porridge because of his bruised jaws. As a result, he had to skip reunion dinner at his son's place.
"I told my son there was no point in me going. I couldn't even eat properly. In the end, I stayed at home to eat porridge," said Mr Ling, who has three daughters and a son. He lives alone in a flat in Sengkang.
The incident also burned a hole in Mr Ling's pocket.
The hospital bill came to more than $1,000.
"I can only say I'm so unlucky. I have been driving for more than 20 years, and this is the first time such a thing has happened to me.
"And it was just before Chinese New Year. This incident ruined it for me," Mr Ling said, shaking his head.
[B]'Just a dog'[/B]
"I may have been in the wrong, but it was just a dog. Did they have to beat me up to this extent?" Mr Ling said, fingers tracing the bruises that ran down his cheeks and had turned into blood clots.
"I am just an old man. Am I not worth more than a dog?"
Mr Ling resumed working on Thursday. His eyes no longer hurt as much, but he has to stick to porridge as he still cannot chew.
He will be returning to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital for a follow-up today.
Mr Ling has lodged a police report about the incident. The police have confirmed this.
Mr Ling intends to bring the matter up to court in the hope of getting some form of compensation for being physically and emotionally injured.
"I'm going to make sure he pays for beating me up like that," said Mr Ling
