The Malaysian transport mentality
It’s easy to suddenly have a heart attack or a bout of high blood pressure in Malaysia. Especially if you, like millions of others, rely on public transport for your daily commute. No, this isn’t a blog full of complaints about Malaysia’s lovely public transportation services. I’ll leave that to battle another day. This is about Malaysians. The commuter. Your fellow bus passenger. Your train-mate. Your monorail buddy.
Malaysians, defend yourselves!
I’d like to give every living breathing Malaysian a chance to defend him/herself here. Perhaps you can explain. Humour me. I need it. Where is the logic of not letting passengers alight from the train before you board? Like idiots – blind, stupid and uncivil, they stand in your way, minding the platform gap (hmm..they do have some intelligence after all), don’t see you, while you struggle pass.
Oh blimey, we’re Third World
This is third world. No kidding. Sorry. We may have the tallest buildings in the world, one of the most modern cities in South East Asia, have our own national car, our Silicon Valley equivalent in Cyberjaya, a beautiful new airport. It does not mean shit. We are still third world. We are stilll in the same bracket as Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand. We still have neandarthal mentality in everyday living. We have not learned. We think we have. But I digress.
It’s jam, but it ain’t strawberry
Give Malaysians a roundabout. You get a jam. Give Malaysians an intersection. You get queue jumpers from a mile away (sometimes two), as if Kiera Knightly was standing naked in the street selling nasi lemak. (now that’s a thought!). You get a jam. You have an accident. You get a jam. You see an accident. You get a jam. Where is the courtesy you ask?
Apa tu?
Malaysians do not know how to use ‘public’ transport. We need reminders to tell us to “Please let passengers alight first”. Or “Please pee straight”, “Please give way”. We need to constantly be reminded that there are ‘others’ besides you and your girlfriend in your car. That there are hundreds of others on the train you are about to board.
Wanna merge? Don’t signal
Don’t even get me started on the driving standards of this country. It’s embarrassing. All those bribes you paid to the instructor to pass your tests or skip lessons? It shows. I think cars in this country could be cheaper. Why? Signal lights could be optional items. Premium accessories even. Because Malaysians don’t signal even if their lives depended on them. You wait like an ass at a junction for the car to pass only to see it turn towards you. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that when you signal to merge with other traffic, the other car simply moves faster, to deliberately not let you pass. And with such determination too. Bastards. If only they used that same determination in our endeavours in sports. National football team?
Ending note for unending problems
For those who were muscled and elbowed when I was alighting from the train, I apologise. I apologise as a fellow human being who just wants some space to get out of the bloody train. And one who just needs you to give way once or twice, without revving your badly-modded Proton and making it into a competition (a 0-2-metre race isn’t really thrilling). A Malaysian who sees a better Malaysia. A Malaysian who still hopes. Or still has hope.
Nuff said. For now.
Header image: Hype.my
