You'd better Visit Malaysia 2007... or else

Isn't it a shame that when the government is working so hard (sic) to promote 2007 as Visit Malaysia Year, we have Malaysians destroying the image of our country in our visitors eyes? A report by the Star today said that a rogue taxi driver and three friends attacked a Canadian teen who refused to take his taxi when the driver did not use the meter. o.0 How unscrupulous can you get?

In the first place, the taxi driver shouldn't have attempted to make a quick buck off an unsuspecting tourist (not sure if the Canadian teen is a tourist or not!) by refusing to use the meter. In fact, the taxi driver should use the meter, seeing as how the rates were just recently increased.

Then, the Canadian teen was probably too smart for his own good. At night in Petaling Street area, you wanna get moral and argue / tell-off with the taxi driver for not using the meter? Uh-oh. Not a smart move in any country, I'm thinking.

Anyway, the Malaysians were so lembik that even though they outnumbered the teen four to one and were armed with batons and bamboo sticks, they didn't manage to do any damage beyond minor scrapes and bruisers. That teen must have been some brawler!

What a lovely advertisement for Visit Malaysia Year 2007, don't you think?

Is it too soon to be happy?

Did you hear that? That's the massive sigh of relief heaved by Malaysian drivers after the move to close all petrol stations in the country by 10.00pm by the Petroleum Dealers Association (PDA) was called off. I wonder what arm-twisting went on the the meeting between the PDA and the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry so that the move was "shelved".

But... will the consumers be made to pay the price one way or another? I predict that credit charges will still be passed back to the consumer OR after some "whining" about the stagnant petrol prices - fuel charge hike! Dearer petrol = less driving, maybe? Maybe this is the solution to the never-ending traffic jams in KL. That and making it harder for people to buy cars. But who am I to talk about this when I won't give up my Single Occupancy Vehicle no matter how the fuel prices go up. *grin*

Did the Malaysian system fail the public?

That surely must be the question asked by many as details slowly came to light in the wake of the express bus tragedy in Taiping which took 19 lives, one of the worst Malaysian road accidents ever. I myself am asking:

~ How did the bus driver manage to get away with 13 summonses totaling RM1,980? Doesn't the JPJ or police check when the summonses were issued? I thought just last year there was a highly publicized campaign wherein those who did not pay outstanding summonses would be arrested. I still remember seeing photos of people who were arrested and promptly paid up. It is said that TWO arrest warrants were issued for the driver. But he was still a free man the day he drove dangerously and killed 18 others along with him.

~ Why wasn't the bus driver's license revoked for his numerous offences? It was reported in the Star that he had been driving dangerously for over six years, broken nearly every law - speeding (in five different vehicles), obstructing traffic, driving without a seat belt, not producing a driving license, driving a bus without a permit - and racked up enough demerit points to suspend his license. How did he manage to renew his license? Surely it would have been easy to detect this in the JPJ / police system and revoke his license. But no action was taken. Why? Because the demerit point system has more holes in it than Swiss cheese, allowing you can get away scot free by: a) not paying your summonses and thus reducing the opportunity of seizing your license; and b) you can CHOOSE not to surrender your license after it has been suspended or cancelled. Then what is the demerit point system for? For show?

~ Why did the bus company hire him and keep him employed? Evidently the profit of the company is more valuable than lives, even the Transport Workers Union agrees in this article here. I am sure no action was taken against the driver for his summonses because he was still driving around for the company. This is pure neglience on the company's part. Are they now to be held accountable for the consequence of letting the driver loose on the road?

~ Did the driver think he was Superman? A survivor of the accident said that the driver was speeding, which by all conclusions, caused the fatal crash because the bus in question had faulty brakes (it failed Puspakom inspection FOUR times!). It has been repeated numerous time in tv adverts - speed kills. Evidently this message is not getting through to the Malaysian public.

~ Why did the bus company allow the vehicle to be used when it was evidently not roadworthy? Again, I'm thinking of profit over practicality. And the bus had 19 police summons with 79 JPJ summons to boot. It should be off the road!

I agree with this opinion article that said the blood of those killed in the accident is on the hands of the JPJ and the police. Had they done just a bit more to take the bus driver off the road (and the bus as well as the bus company), these victims would still be alive today.

As usual, after any incident or tragedy that occurs, all the politicians and officials will be pointing the finger at each other and refusing to take the blame that is rightly (or wrongly!) appropriated to them. I don't want to hear the blame game, I just want to know what is being done to make Malaysia a safer place for all of us.

A long way to go before achieving first class mentality

We may boast of having first class infrastructure and the like in our country, but sadly, I find that Malaysia still has a long way to go in achieving a first class mentality to go along with what we already have. Case in point:

We were at Hospital University Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM) last night as a close relative was in a critical condition. Family members were there to say goodbye to him. He was not in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) but in an ordinary ward. As the evening passed and his condition steadily deteriorated, we all knew he could not last the night, it was just a matter of time when he passed on.

At 9.30pm, the security guard asked all non-immediate family members to leave the ward. That was not a problem. We waited outside the ward, in the corridor where benches were placed for people to wait.

At 10.00pm, the nurses said that even his family members could not be at his bedside, only two would be allowed inside the ward as they were locking the door. And we could not even wait outside the ward - we were told that we had to leave as it was beyond hospital operating hours.

Hello? The man only had a few more moments to live, and you forbid his children from being at his side at this critical moment? And you don't allow them to wait outside the ward too? If only Malaysians could be more understanding as to when the rules may be bent a little. Had the nurses and security guards of the Oncology ward been a little more understanding, the man's family - all of them - would have been able to be at his side when he passed away just a little after 10.10pm. From 10.00pm to 10.10pm it was only a few more minutes. Why couldn't they have seen that and shown more empathy?

First class facilities, third class mentality. How Malaysian.

They fight, we lose

After the announcement by the Petrol Dealers Association of Malaysia (PDAM) that they will close at 10.00pm by hook or by crook, suddenly the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs ministry (DTCA) has become vocal about the subject. They issued a stern warning to the petrol dealers not to close as this would affect the economy and they have no right to make such a decision without consulting the Government. It also quotes Pan Malaysian Lorry Owners Association president Er Sui See and Federal Territory and Selangor Taxi Operators Association president Datuk Aslah Abdullah as saying that the closure of petrol stations at 10pm would only drive up transportation costs and affect taxi drivers' income. I can just see the domino effect - lorries and taxi drivers hike their costs and fees because of the scarcity of petrol stations. The consumer is the end one affected by all this bickering.

Then the following day, DTCA says that petrol dealers who cannot take the high cost of operating a dealership should give up as there are many others waiting to take their place. I agree with this point. If you can't hack it, quit and let others who are willing to take it have a go at it.

U-turn

After days (and even months!) of labeling bloggers as being mostly unemployed people who are liars and stupid, the Information Minister has made an abrupt u-turn to say not all bloggers are stupid. Huh?!?!?!?! The Minister is quoted as saying:

"Some of them are informative, knowledgeable and disseminate positive views on current issues. The ones that were mostly goblok (stupid, in Indonesian) were political bloggers who float rumours and create hatred among the people."

Excuse me, Mr. Minister, can you make up your mind what we bloggers are?

Liquid gold

Yesterday, it was reported that the Petrol Dealers Association was seeking government approval to close all petrol stations (except those on highways) by 10.00pm daily. Today, they say they are closing at 10.00pm, with or without approval.

No need to bother about the people who may need to fill up late at night; we'll just let them run out of petrol. No need to bother about those working on night shifts; they don't need to fill up during regular hours. No need to worry about those running low on fuel who have emergencies in the middle of the night; that'll teach them a lesson not to fill up during normal working hours.

Escalating costs and security risk was cited at the reasons behind the push for shorter hours. I can understand about cost if you need to have a few attendants walking around. I know security risk is a factor - robberies might and can happen. But if you're a completely self-serve station (like all the stations I go to anyway), it eliminates the need to have a few workers working throughout the night. The customers can take care of themselves, the way I do. And the customers do know the security risk of filling up late at night. Plus, if it's a self-serve station, you can always make the ruling of no cash transactions after 10.00pm, just like how 7-Eleven does their little cash in the register policy.

And they want to pass on the 1% charge for credit card transactions back to the consumer. It's only 1%, and if I'm not mistaken other types of retailers are 3%. Who suffers? The consumer.

How Malaysian.