I would like to offer the other side of the story since I was on the bus and happened to witness the incident when it occurred. As mentioned in the news report, it started off with a fare dispute between the father and the driver near Khatib. The driver mentioned that the kid has passed the height limit which entitles for a free ride and requested that he should make the payments.
The father refused and insisted the driver to communicate with him in English. Seeing the situation, one of the passengers actually offered to help translate what the bus driver is saying for the father, but the father told the passenger not to translate and it’s the driver’s job to communicate with him. I then decided to alight as the whole situation is holding up my time.
From what I have observed like many comments here were pointing out, the driver should have been better trained in his English proficiency. However, I think that’s where the driver’s fault end. By turning down other passenger’s offer to help him translate what the driver is trying to convey, the father was obviously trying to be difficult. If he had really wanted to solve the issue, he would have tried to communicate properly with the driver through the help offered, but he didn’t.
Personally, I also think that the driver is just doing his job, and has the rights to refuse to continue with the journey in the event there is a fare cheat. And in this case, I do not know whether the father tried to cheat the fare, but one thing for sure is that this issue will be resolved faster should the father have co-operated and not try to be difficult and holding up the time of all the other passengers onboard.
Source: FB post by Jian Wei