Angry Thai man condemns foreigner for not wearing a mask on BTS

An angry Thai man, claiming to be a police officer, gave a foreign man a mouthful of abuse for not wearing a mask on the BTS Skytrain in Bangkok. The irate man blamed the unflustered foreigner for bringing Covid-19 into the country.

The angry exchange was recorded and uploaded to the Twitter account @kinnifers. The video was recorded by a mask-wearing friend of the maskless foreigner.

In the video, the angry Thai man said…

“I’m an officer, see (unzipping his jacket to show the reflective vest with a Royal Thai police symbol). Are people from your country like this? Thai people all wear face masks, but you don’t. What does it mean to do this? Filming this, my friend, you. You can’t just say sorry, sorry. You did not follow the rules. You spread Covid throughout my country. You have to think about it. Everybody wears it. Only you don’t. I will get the staff to remove you. Check out!”

Although the Thai man claimed to be a policeman his behaviour, and not knowing the mask-wearing rules, suggest he was probably a traffic officer or traffic police volunteer.

The @kinnifers Twitter account was quickly set to private after being bombarded by comments from netizens.

After the story went viral, the official BTS account re-announced their statement about the wearing of face masks on trains.

BTS announced…

“Passengers are reminded that although the wearing of masks has been relaxed for outdoor public areas, BTS SkyTrain still requests your cooperation to wear a mask while using the system, as recommended by the Ministry of Public Health.”

The opinions of netizens from both Thai and the international community were split. Some agreed with the Thai man that foreigners should follow the social norms of the country and respect their hosts.

Some said that wearing masks was not a law or a mandate anymore in Thailand. The BTS Skytrain just asked for coordination and urged passengers to wear masks, but no law enforcement stated.

One Thai Twitter user attached the latest update on the coronavirus situation in Thailand to the thread. According to the update, 4,914 people have been infected with Covid in the past seven days, with 74 deaths.

The Thai authorities also urged residents to get another booster dose because the cold weather helps the disease to spread more quickly.