The Malaysian Maladies - Part 1

For some reasons, I tend to think that the enforcement of the social order in Malaysia has been deteriorating resulting in us seeing so many unacceptable practices becoming a norm in our everyday lives.

In this series, I'm posting some of the example of what I'm referring to. So rampant, Malaysians have slowly becoming immune and starting to accept these practices as part of the Malaysian way of doing things.

This "Malaysian Maladies" is of course might not be exclusive to the land known as Malaysia, as I'm pretty sure it is also rampant at other backward third world countries. For sure, you will not find these in our nearest and first world neighbour, Singapore.

The first malady is the hoisting of an extremely damaged national flag even though it is during the so-called Merdeka Month.

Believe it or not, this despicable view was taken at a Kindergarten, a fully operational kindergarten where its students are seeing the "flag" on a daily basis.

Respect for the flag is utterly zero with the management and teachers of this kindergarten, and the neighbours, well nobody seems to be bothered to tick off the the kindergarten or better still the local authority.

While some might be indifferent on the flag that they fly at their premises, there are also those who doesn't seem to be thinking straight when picking a pole to hoist the flag.

This pole for instance was picked to hoist the Jalur Gemilang during the Merdeka month and what do you see? It's a flag being hoisted at half-mast! So instead of celebrating the nation's 51st Anniversary of Independence, the nation is as if in mourning!

Maybe, we do have a reason to mourn, with all the arrest of prominent figures like RPK and Teresa Kok, for reasons beyond the comprehension of any normal apolitical Malaysians like me.
Next is the selfish attitude of Malaysian drivers. Like the one in this picture, there is absolutely no respect to the yellow line which means "No Parking" along the lane, but as you can see everyone parks the car along this yellow line, not on one side of the road but on both sides!

Further up is a taxi stop, guess who stops there? None other than more cars leaving taxi commuters having to waive for the taxis in the middle of the road. And the taxis have no choice but to drop and pick their passengers from the middle of the road!

Very frustrating right? But this is what we at Leboh Ampang, Kuala Lumpur have to endure almost every day and at every hour of the day (especially during office hours). Where are Bandaraya and PDRM? Don't know!
And lastly (for this series) is the nuisance motorcyclists who just refuse to use the dedicated motorcycle lane provided along certain expressways.

This picture was taken along Kesas Highway, I just can't understand the mind of the motorcyclist pictured here. The motorcycle lane (which is much safer)is just beside the expressway but he chose to ride on the highway, racing with the speeding cars.

I wonder who would be at fault if there is an accident involving a car and a motorcycle on an expressway like this. I won't be surprised if the driver of the motorcar is put at fault since it is an acceptable practice to ISA a journalist while the perpetrator (as reported by the journalist) is scot free (and going to be on a nationwide road show soon).

Uniquely Singapore, I don't think so, I think "Uniquely Malaysia" is more appropriate.


Jasni AJ