Friday, December 23, 2005

Are We Really That Bad?

According to the article "Bad driving irritates us most" ("The Star) by Clara Chooi, "driving like a maniac, queue jumping and spitting in public – these are the top three peeves for Malaysians. According to the results of the survey, bad driving grumbled its way to the top of the list, with 86% of respondents agreeing that it should be the "winner"."

Bad driving.

Are we really that bad? Most agree that Malaysian drivers have been synonymous with BAD DRIVERS. Even foreigners living in this country think so.

Do we know why?

During a conversation with some friends last weekend, a friend brought up a reason: LACK OF CIVIL AWARENESS.

Lack of civil awareness. Kekurangan kesedaran sivik. Well I can't agree more. For instance, when we see a pedestrian (a kid or an old woman using a freakin' cane to walk, who cares) crossing the road in front of us, we tend to hit the gas, somewhat "threatening" to hit the innocent pedestrian. When I was studying in the United States, from my observation, I can see that American drivers/motorists slow down, unexpectedly giving way to the pedestrians. It was a culture shock, really. Pedestrians and cyclists are given the priority. But perhaps that only applies in the rural areas, drivers in big cities like New York, Chicago and Bostons are impatient drivers too. We all tend to be impatient when we're stuck in long traffic jams eh? But still I strongly feel that drivers in Chicago are better drivers than us.

Nonetheless having said all this, I have another theory why we are such bad drivers. Why do we drive 160 km/h in a 110 km/h zone? Why do we hit the red lights? Why do we ignore the stop signs? Why do we overtake/pass other cars in double lines? Why we never bother to use the freakin' helmet?

My theory: The PRECONCEPTION that we can bribe Law Enforcement Officers.

Ah yes. Bribery.

The bribery issue in Malaysia may not be as terrible as India, but it's still a major problem we need to tackle, together. Okay how much is a speeding ticket nowadays? RM300? RM400? Depends. But would be a no brainer if we could settle the matter immediately with just as low as RM50.00. Easy. Simple. No hassle. We don't even have to go to court. Yes, it would be unethical, but sometimes that would be the last thing on our mind. Who cares about ethics if we could save hundreds of dollars on speeding tickets?

When we drive above the speed limit or break any other laws, we have these kinds of crazy ideas (PRECONCEPTIONS):
i) I've been speeding in this area for 5 years and never get a speeding ticket. Ever.
ii) The Law Enforcement Officers are never around anyway, so who cares? Good for me!
iii) Even if I do get caught, well, tough luck bro. But I still can get away with a RM50.00 bribe. These law enforcement officers need to "cari makan" too.

A relative of mine got his VALID motorcycle license for only RM60.00. He doesn't need to go through the hassle of driving tests and whatever. Can you believe it, there's even corruption in driving tests? No wonder there are so many unqualified drivers/motorists on the road! For merely RM60, we're allowing a young naive kid to be on the road legally, without the proper training and test. Well I gotta say my relative turned out to be a very good and careful motorist, thank God, but what about others? Do we dare to say thousands others, who bribe the officers to get valid licenses? Are we surrounded by hundreds of motorists everyday, who don't deserve to be on the road? What a thought.

What do you guys think?

posted by judd. # 12/23/2005 11:12:00 PM

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