987 DJ Joakim Gomez Defends His Neighbourhood Of Bishan Against Netizen Who Called Them “Uncultured” - 8days Skip to main content

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987 DJ Joakim Gomez Defends His Neighbourhood Of Bishan Against Netizen Who Called Them “Uncultured”

All because they don’t queue ‘properly’ for buses at the Bishan interchange.

987 DJ Joakim Gomez Defends His Neighbourhood Of Bishan Against Netizen Who Called Them “Uncultured”

Ever heard of the “east side best side” versus “west side best side” argument between friends? Well, if one thing can be said about Singaporeans, it’s that we can be pretty passionate when it comes to insisting our neighbourhood is the best. 

Naturally, 987 jock Joakim Gomez, 34, felt compelled to post a TikTok video in response to a netizen who called the people of his ‘hood, Bishan, “uncultured”.

He reacted to an Mothership article on Mar 8, which had detailed a Facebook post by a “non-Bishan dweller” expressing their shock at the lack of queues at the Bishan bus Interchange. 

Here's the original facebook complaint

In the original post made by the netizen, they asserted that of all interchanges they've been to, Bishan was “the worst" one. Said netizen was angered by the fact that they queued up, only to see Bishan citizens "chiong" into the bus from the surrounding boarding area. 

He went on to claim that "Bishaners" are "uncultured and boorish" and doubled down by adding that the neighbourhood is a "former dead corpse land".

That last sentence, though mean and uncalled for, ended up sounding quite comical in a rant. 

After the post went viral, there were several netizens who spoke up for those who lived in Bishan, explaining that "such things are normal" when there is more than one bus service that heads to the same location. 

There were also others however, that agreed with the original poster, saying that passengers should queue for their buses, regardless.

In his video, Joakim sought to explain why Bishaners “don’t queue for buses at the interchange”. 

He started off by giving his followers some painstaking background on Bishan bus services, saying: “A long time ago, [buses] 410G and 410W, which are feeder services, were on the same bus loading bay. They go the same route but [in] different directions.” 

He then continued, stating an example of how a person could choose to take either bus if they wanted to go to a location such as Thomson Plaza, depending on how much time they had to spare. 

“So we choose to not cram ourselves in the queue, we choose to wait at the side. Because if either one shows up, we can take the damn bus. And we let people in the queue go up first before those at the side go up,” he explained. 

Joakim then provided more current day context, illustrating how both buses 410G and 54, on the same bus bay, go to Bishan Street 22. Hence, the same unspoken rule - some passengers wait for their buses by the side of the queue instead of in it. 

Joakim sought to explain the origins of the "waiting at the side" practice

It must be said that such occurrences aren’t uncommon at bus interchanges, and we’ve seen it practised at other locations. 

Which makes us wonder how often and where the anti-Bishaner takes a bus.

Many netizens who lived elsewhere could relate to the queue situation at Bishan interchange

“If you didn’t know, now you know,” said Joakim after his one-minute quick fire explanation. 

As much as it was nice to see the jock stand up for his ‘hood, which he clearly is quite proud of, we were also tickled by how offended he was by the “uncultured” comment. 

Especially when he ended off his TikTok with this final salvo towards the netizen: “Uncultured. You then uncultured lah.”

Photos: Joakim Gomez/ TikTok, Joakim Gomez/ Instagram

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