Monday, 20th December 2010: The Star:
Twenty-seven passengers of a tour bus were killed after the vehicle hit a divider and overturned on its way down from Cameron Highlands Monday. Twenty-two died at the scene of the accident and five at the Raja Permaisuri hospital here. Another 10 injured, four of whom are men, were being treated at the hospital. Two of the men were said to be in critical condition. This is believed to be the worst road accident in the nation's history.
Discussion thread in Facebook;
Ahmad Rafdi Endut: Selagi tiada penguatkuasaan yang lebih ketat kepada pengusaha dan pemandu bas, selagi itulah kemalangan ini akan sentiasa berlaku. Just came back from KL just now driving in NPE. I drove in the middle lane with a speed of approx. 90kmh. Sud...denly, saw a headlight flashing on me and saw a tour bus behind me. Without any warning, the bus overtook me on the left lane and in a bout less than 5 minute, the bus was gone. The driver drove it like a mad man and manage to see the driver swerving from right to left lane like a mad men. That's how buses were drove in Malaysia.....masyaallah...
Razali Derahman: Safety of public buses have been discussed too many times but things like thing keep happening.. Time to talk less and act more. Each bus need to display the driver's name, bus comp, bus number, route no and JPJ Aduan number with message "Sila lapor kpd no. Ini jika pemandu memandu dgn cara bahaya" - in 3 languages.
Moslim Othman: My personal opinion for long distance express bus, it is the drivers welfare, reasonable salary and working hours that must be looked into. Pass the cost to the passengers. Otherwise aduan is just another aduan waiting for accidents to happen
I believe the crux of the problem is that we are still far from reaching the status of a Civil Society where civilised culture is entrenched in the way of life of the population. If we are living in such a society, the drivers would understand that their driving license is in fact an acknowledgement of responsibility on the road. They would respect such acknowledgement and uphold safety as consequence of such respect. They would not jeopardised such acknowledgement by maniacal driving to achieve trip counts demanded by their tawkeys or bus operators. When drivers would not succumb to such demands, the operators would have no choice but be responsible as well, else they will be left with buses without drivers. The Law of Supply and Demand would operate here.
The journey to a Civilised Culture where responsibility is paramount and in-built into the psyche of the people as intrinsic of their culture needs more than the hands of the government or regulators.
It need Mass Movement where such feelings need to be sowed, cultivated, popularised and culturised to become National Identity. It needs support from all fronts; media, social network, blogs, talk show, radio (rather than just song after song and rubbish talks), kedai kopi talk, and social discussions apart from good regulation and appropriate law.
People need to believe and feel that being responsible is chick, up-to-date, trendy, enviable and not giving way to rebellion culture. This should be across board, across religions, across racial identity and should become a Mass Movement that transcend partisan politics.
This must be a top priority. People need to believe that this Movement is for the betterment of all and not just a tool for the Government of the Day and rally to this call as Malaysian.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
KULAI STUDENT
A student of Kulai Primary school name Chong San was named best student of Sejarah for his sound knowledge of local history. Despite gross assumption by many of the racialist minded spectrum of the society, Chong San was a true blue 1M at heart. His hero is PM Najib Tun Razak of whom he held in high regard. However Chong San had at first difficulty in adusting to the new environment of his school being freshly transfered from his home town of Melaka, and from the Baba heritage.
His best friend is Tan Hong Ming who has a crutch to a certain Malay girl named Umi Kazrina. Both were sore thumbs to some sector who sees befriending and socialising with the etnic malays as loosing their roots. Those group of people resort to namings to plant hatred among the chinese youths. Jibes such as Mammakutty were frequently used to sow hatred. However their hatred were only for the local etnics. Even a Singh (Punjabi) was accepted as a hero to play Phua Chu Kang. A Punjabi with 'baby' name was most vocal in jeering and mockering the local etnics and his posts past around among those groups and laugh at amidst bouts of beer and other alcoholic drinks.
Chong San was saddened at these trends that resort to poisoning of the minds among racial line. Being a Baba origin who have lived in this county since Hang Li Po's arrival at Melaka during the Melaka Sultanate and enjoyed the mixing of culture over centuries, he understood very well the expansive spirit of the local etnics, their patience sowed through Islam upbringing and easy loving culture that had welcomed the immigrants from other countries to live peacefully among themselves. The ingrate tendencies being perpetually poisoned in the minds of his racial groups makes him very worried. He remembers very well the lessons implanted by his parent to treat and mix with the locals well and never to provoke the locals too much for too long that broke their armour of goodness and pushed them to the 'amok' tendencies. Tales of such amoks were told. Under that condition they would swept anything in their path, even death. With that background, Chong San was always cordial with the society around him and when the call of 1M was made by PM Najib, he was most happy and immediately sign as fan to the PM's blog.
Chong San now has a mission. Together with Tan Hong Ming, they strived to lead a new way. They planned to start a new trend of social integration that blurs the racial lines that divides. They strove to stop this trend of hatred sentiments amongs the chinese minds through perpetual readings of Malaysiakini and other hatred mails of the day being made staple diets to poisoned minds. Chong San is very conscious of the lessons learnt through his parent and his in-depth knowledge of local history that the current trend is a recipe to disaster. He does not want the good life his family had through the ages here be jeopardised by these rabid disease spreading among younger people and in blogspears.
Well, Chong San and Tan Hong Ming... good luck. You have my full support. May you be successful in your endeavours.
His best friend is Tan Hong Ming who has a crutch to a certain Malay girl named Umi Kazrina. Both were sore thumbs to some sector who sees befriending and socialising with the etnic malays as loosing their roots. Those group of people resort to namings to plant hatred among the chinese youths. Jibes such as Mammakutty were frequently used to sow hatred. However their hatred were only for the local etnics. Even a Singh (Punjabi) was accepted as a hero to play Phua Chu Kang. A Punjabi with 'baby' name was most vocal in jeering and mockering the local etnics and his posts past around among those groups and laugh at amidst bouts of beer and other alcoholic drinks.
Chong San was saddened at these trends that resort to poisoning of the minds among racial line. Being a Baba origin who have lived in this county since Hang Li Po's arrival at Melaka during the Melaka Sultanate and enjoyed the mixing of culture over centuries, he understood very well the expansive spirit of the local etnics, their patience sowed through Islam upbringing and easy loving culture that had welcomed the immigrants from other countries to live peacefully among themselves. The ingrate tendencies being perpetually poisoned in the minds of his racial groups makes him very worried. He remembers very well the lessons implanted by his parent to treat and mix with the locals well and never to provoke the locals too much for too long that broke their armour of goodness and pushed them to the 'amok' tendencies. Tales of such amoks were told. Under that condition they would swept anything in their path, even death. With that background, Chong San was always cordial with the society around him and when the call of 1M was made by PM Najib, he was most happy and immediately sign as fan to the PM's blog.
Chong San now has a mission. Together with Tan Hong Ming, they strived to lead a new way. They planned to start a new trend of social integration that blurs the racial lines that divides. They strove to stop this trend of hatred sentiments amongs the chinese minds through perpetual readings of Malaysiakini and other hatred mails of the day being made staple diets to poisoned minds. Chong San is very conscious of the lessons learnt through his parent and his in-depth knowledge of local history that the current trend is a recipe to disaster. He does not want the good life his family had through the ages here be jeopardised by these rabid disease spreading among younger people and in blogspears.
Well, Chong San and Tan Hong Ming... good luck. You have my full support. May you be successful in your endeavours.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
3 CHINESE BROTHERS
Three Chinese brothers, Bu, Chu, and Fu, want to illegally live in America. The brothers decide to change their names to seem American. Bu changes his name to Buck. Chu changes his name to Chuck. And Fu got sent back to China.
CHINESE SUPPLIES
An Italian, a Scotsman and a Chinese fellow are hired at a construction site. The foreman points out a huge pile of sand. He says to the Italian guy, "You're in charge of sweeping." To the Scotsman he says, "You're in charge of shovelling." And to the Chinese guy, "You're in charge of supplies." He then says, "Now, I have to leave for a little while. I expect you guys to make a dent in that there pile of sand."
So when the foreman returns, after being away for a couple of hours, the pile of sand is untouched. He asks the Italian, "Why didn't you sweep any of it?"
The Italian replies, "I no hava no broom. You saida to the Chinese-a fella that he a wasa in a charge of supplies, but he hasa disappeared and I no coulda finda him nowhere."
Then the foreman turns to the Scotsman and says, And you, I thought I told you to shovel this pile." The Scotsman replies, "Aye, that ye did laddie, boot ah couldnay get meself a shoovel! Ye left th' Chinese gadgie in chairge of supplies, boot ah couldnay fin' him neither."
The foreman is really angry now. He storms off toward the pile of sand to look for the Chinese guy. Just then, the Chinese guy leaps out from behind the pile of sand and yells, "SUPPLIES!!"
So when the foreman returns, after being away for a couple of hours, the pile of sand is untouched. He asks the Italian, "Why didn't you sweep any of it?"
The Italian replies, "I no hava no broom. You saida to the Chinese-a fella that he a wasa in a charge of supplies, but he hasa disappeared and I no coulda finda him nowhere."
Then the foreman turns to the Scotsman and says, And you, I thought I told you to shovel this pile." The Scotsman replies, "Aye, that ye did laddie, boot ah couldnay get meself a shoovel! Ye left th' Chinese gadgie in chairge of supplies, boot ah couldnay fin' him neither."
The foreman is really angry now. He storms off toward the pile of sand to look for the Chinese guy. Just then, the Chinese guy leaps out from behind the pile of sand and yells, "SUPPLIES!!"
