"Pada Awang, DAP meneruskan rekodnya sebagai parti paling rasis bukan sahaja di Malaysia, malah di dunia. "
Good ol' Awang. Never misses a beat.
Tuesday 29 December 2009
Friday 11 December 2009
Turner Prize 1993
Vong Phaophanit with Neon Rice Field at the 1993 exhibition© Tate Photography
‘I am writing to say something about one of the pieces of art in your gallery, The Rice. Although it looks quite impressive, are you thinking about the meaning? There are people starving. I know it’s not your fault but wouldn’t it be possible to take some of the rice and do something about what it is expressing. Try sending some to the starving people.’
– Letter from a member of the public (aged 9) to Tate, November 1993
Wednesday 9 December 2009
Friday 4 December 2009
On Pudu
In response to X no longer marks the spot in Kuala Lumpur, by Rehman Rashid, NST 4 Dec 2009.
The murals outside the Pudu Jail, at least, cannot and should not be destroyed. They reflect a deep sense of compassion and respect for the rights of the prisoner, a sense which we seem to have lost over years since. There used to be football games played outside the grounds among the prisoners, the field where you now see overgrown weeds.
The significance of a jail that allowed its prisoners these expressions should be kept by at least preserving its gates and walls. Now we have modern white-washed facilities in remote areas, which drain the will of the prisoner. Gone is the face of the prisoner, the hope that they can be rehabilitated, returned to society as functional human beings; replaced by cost-per-prisoner accounting and the dehumanization of the criminal.
As Ramsey Clark, the former U.S. Attorney General and human rights advocate said, “There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals”. The Pudu Jail remains the last symbol of our lost sense of respect for human expression, the reality of crime and punishment, and our responsibility towards criminals.
The murals outside the Pudu Jail, at least, cannot and should not be destroyed. They reflect a deep sense of compassion and respect for the rights of the prisoner, a sense which we seem to have lost over years since. There used to be football games played outside the grounds among the prisoners, the field where you now see overgrown weeds.
The significance of a jail that allowed its prisoners these expressions should be kept by at least preserving its gates and walls. Now we have modern white-washed facilities in remote areas, which drain the will of the prisoner. Gone is the face of the prisoner, the hope that they can be rehabilitated, returned to society as functional human beings; replaced by cost-per-prisoner accounting and the dehumanization of the criminal.
As Ramsey Clark, the former U.S. Attorney General and human rights advocate said, “There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals”. The Pudu Jail remains the last symbol of our lost sense of respect for human expression, the reality of crime and punishment, and our responsibility towards criminals.
Monday 9 November 2009
Malaysians and Free-markets
I have been to Waubebas' Akademi Merdeka, this is not an unbiased opinion. Malaysians don't yet understand free-markets and capitalism. We have a translucent wall, in our minds, which equates capitalism and Americanism. We want cheaper cars but we don't want foreign workers. We frequent McDonalds but we don't want free-trade agreements. We expect the most from home-grown companies but we reject privatisation of everything from healthcare to highways.
There is valid reasoning behind some of these contradictory viewpoints, but it always seems easier for us to reject non-intervention in the face of planned actions which more often than not, result in unplanned outcomes.
In response to:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/opinion/wan-saiful-wan-jan/42688-dua-puluh-tahun-robohnya-tembok-berlin--rayakan-keranapan-sosialisme
There is valid reasoning behind some of these contradictory viewpoints, but it always seems easier for us to reject non-intervention in the face of planned actions which more often than not, result in unplanned outcomes.
In response to:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/opinion/wan-saiful-wan-jan/42688-dua-puluh-tahun-robohnya-tembok-berlin--rayakan-keranapan-sosialisme
Wednesday 9 September 2009
On education
I was once on the mono-stream schooling brigade, until I realised freedom also includes the freedom to choose to where and how you want your kids to be educated. I studied in an SK and SMK all my life, and barely knew the Chinese-educated students. It wasn't their fault, and after high school, I became very close friends with a kid from my SMK, Chinese-educated, in university. It is not a fault of the education system if we are racist. It is the demarcation on ethnic lines which has been drilled into Malaysian society, from parents imposing their views on race on children, and the government with their hypocritical drawings of Malay,Chinese,Indians in primary school textbooks.
The best model we have, and the one that has proven resilient for decades is the East Malaysian model. Race is clear-cut,people are proud to affirm their race, but race relations are of no consequence to this. Restaurants, halal or not, are frequented by everyone, people get along anywhere anytime.
The real issue here is to stop inculcating racial lines, and start looking at schools from a purer perspective; that is centres of childhood development. The language and constituents of these schools should not play a part in determining our views of them. Right now, from a purely educational perspective, Chinese schools present the best model of academic achievement among the three streams we have. Their weaknesses and those of all non-private schools in Malaysia, the rote-learning system and the inadequate non-academic learning structure are not subjects of this debate.
At this moment, the heart of the matter is that Chinese schools present the best case for a good primary education, and it would not be a problem if all of us choose Chinese schools for our kids. Which would mean the end of racial separation at primary level.
The best model we have, and the one that has proven resilient for decades is the East Malaysian model. Race is clear-cut,people are proud to affirm their race, but race relations are of no consequence to this. Restaurants, halal or not, are frequented by everyone, people get along anywhere anytime.
The real issue here is to stop inculcating racial lines, and start looking at schools from a purer perspective; that is centres of childhood development. The language and constituents of these schools should not play a part in determining our views of them. Right now, from a purely educational perspective, Chinese schools present the best model of academic achievement among the three streams we have. Their weaknesses and those of all non-private schools in Malaysia, the rote-learning system and the inadequate non-academic learning structure are not subjects of this debate.
At this moment, the heart of the matter is that Chinese schools present the best case for a good primary education, and it would not be a problem if all of us choose Chinese schools for our kids. Which would mean the end of racial separation at primary level.
On maids
A good measure of how civilized a nation is in the treatment of fellow human beings. The ongoing debate on the treatment and wages of Indonesian maids puts shame on our people.It seems that what we want are slaves; to be paid as little as possible, and doing as much as possible. We denigrate our domestic help, criticizing their every move, but when enough is enough and they decide to leave we say we can’t live without them. We expect them to do everything, yet we pay them pittance wages, which we know are degrading to their very existence.
A family man with two young daughters once told me with satisfaction on what happened after he complained about his maid’s alleged incompetence. The maid was 16 years old, from a small Indonesian town far from the city. He told of how the agent beat and tortured her for 3 days before returning her; in a state of numb obedience.
I know of many people who intend to not comply with any ruling requiring maids to be given a day off. There are also those who feel that for RM 800 a month, they would expect their maids to feed themselves. These are the same people who can’t keep the same maid for more than 6 months without them running away or being ‘exchanged’ for a new maid.
However, the fact that these maids are willing to work for the RM600 they currently receive shows how few opportunities there are back home. For the authorities to raise the minimum wage would reduce work opportunities here as people stop taking in maids. This would punish prospective maids far more than the ill-treatment many of them have experienced while working in Malaysia.
What should happen is tightening of rules in regards to the treatment of maids and proper enforcement of them. Agencies should be properly regulated and the rights of maids should take greater precedence.
On a greater scale, we should begin putting perspective on how we treat foreigners in this country. The apartment where I live recently introduced a rule barring foreigners, mostly factory workers, from using the amenities, including swimming pools, playgrounds and gyms, despite the fact that they pay the same maintenance fees. On the other hand, we seem to be extraordinarily hospitable to foreigners of certain origins and wealth.
Xenophobia is rampant and selective racism seems to be the accepted order. It smacks of rotten values and a disrespect of human dignity. And it marks where we are as a self-described modern nation.
Friday 7 August 2009
Of unfair questions and unholy books
A common question in interviews with celebrities, A-list or not, is one I believe to be the world's most unfair one. You know it, the one about what book you're reading now. I for one have had numerous moments where after reading an epic, I need a brain-break and settle for some nefariously childish or immaturely crass literature. And having a question like that thrown at me at that moment would elicit a Simpsonian 'Doh!'. I am coming to the end of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, a novel which to read is to dig your nails into your backbone and crack your ribs, yes, excruciating, and after this I am going to read another modern classic, Catch 22. If there was a better time to do interviews, I can't think of one. I once was answering a interview questionnaire for a job vacancy when I was reading Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion. It was for a Malaysian bank, so I could not possibly write the truth, but it was a book that pushed me from being a liberal Catholic to full-on agnosticism, and nearly-there atheism. Yes, it did influence me a lot, but yet I am searching for more. Which is why I don't think losing God over one book is particularly intelligent. And is why I do not respect people who quote Dawkins in justifying their liberally cool non-beliefs. Its like the people who claim they are serious readers when their favourite books are by Sophie Kinsella or the Chicken Soup series. Long way to go, like the song.
Wednesday 20 May 2009
Paradoxes : An entry inspired by Nury Vittachi
Its been a long time since I had something to write about, and I have to share this article by Nury Vittachi, an ad-man, by all accounts. I first read Vittachi in theSun, and sometimes in Reader's Digest. Read his article here.
The question is : Is the answer to this question no?
Read Eubulides too, as in:
A man says: "What I am saying now is a lie."
If the statement is true, then he is lying, even though the statement is true. If the statement is a lie, then he is not actually lying, even though the statement is a lie. Thus, if the speaker is lying, he tells the truth, and vice versa.
Wiki the guy.
The question is : Is the answer to this question no?
Read Eubulides too, as in:
A man says: "What I am saying now is a lie."
If the statement is true, then he is lying, even though the statement is true. If the statement is a lie, then he is not actually lying, even though the statement is a lie. Thus, if the speaker is lying, he tells the truth, and vice versa.
Wiki the guy.
Tuesday 10 March 2009
Opinion Without Thought
The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
Monday 23 February 2009
Lies
"The lies we get punished the most for are the lies we tell ourselves."
V. S. Naipaul, In A Free State
V. S. Naipaul, In A Free State
Saturday 14 February 2009
The Malaysian football mental block
Malaysian football should be over its tried-and-failed gimmicks of hiring English coaches and adopting English training methods. There seems to be a long-running strain of colonial veneration in the upper echelons of our football association always looking for help from the past masters.
We need to remind ourselves that England last won the World Cup in 1966, haven’t come close since, and are themselves experiencing problems with their grassroots setup; having a league over-run by better foreign players, lack of playing space and starry-eyed youngsters.
We have more than 150 countries ahead of us in the FIFA rankings, yet we keep calling on that one country for help.
As an avid player and observer of the game, I can testify that the players in the national team are the best of our crop technically, which is why coaches and managers change, but the team remains the same. What we have are problems in the mental department, specifically toughness, belief and determination.
What we need to do is send our players to the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ghana and all the African nations ranked higher than us to learn these attributes from those who live on a tenth of what we live on. Send them to Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to learn how they play at our level with the poverty they face. Send them to Brazil, Argentina and South America to discover the real love of the game.
But before that, start with accountability lessons for the upper management. They were in charge of hiring coaches and managers, but just can’t stand taking responsibility for their decisions. The CEO who hires bad managers and employees is accountable when they fail. Ministers are accountable when people under them fail. Change needs to start from the top.
We need to remind ourselves that England last won the World Cup in 1966, haven’t come close since, and are themselves experiencing problems with their grassroots setup; having a league over-run by better foreign players, lack of playing space and starry-eyed youngsters.
We have more than 150 countries ahead of us in the FIFA rankings, yet we keep calling on that one country for help.
As an avid player and observer of the game, I can testify that the players in the national team are the best of our crop technically, which is why coaches and managers change, but the team remains the same. What we have are problems in the mental department, specifically toughness, belief and determination.
What we need to do is send our players to the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ghana and all the African nations ranked higher than us to learn these attributes from those who live on a tenth of what we live on. Send them to Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to learn how they play at our level with the poverty they face. Send them to Brazil, Argentina and South America to discover the real love of the game.
But before that, start with accountability lessons for the upper management. They were in charge of hiring coaches and managers, but just can’t stand taking responsibility for their decisions. The CEO who hires bad managers and employees is accountable when they fail. Ministers are accountable when people under them fail. Change needs to start from the top.
We are as barbaric as the Israelis
We are as barbaric as the Israelis
What a shame that barbarism is secretly dwelling in the dark corners of our society. People now seem to enjoy taking the lives of dogs by breaking their skulls and necks and brutally beating them to death.
What is the difference between these heartless humans compared with the Israeli army murdering innocent souls?
Constantly we hear the same old saying that we are forbidden to touch dogs and that this animal is filthy and indecent.
If so, why would God have planted such loyalty and love in this particular animal?
To all my fellow Muslims, I shall quote from Surah Al-Kahf in the Holy Quran verse number 18: “And you would have thought them awake, while they were asleep. And We turned them on their right and on their left sides, and their dog stretching forth his two forelegs at the entrance [of the Cave or in the space near to the entrance of the Cave (as a guard at the gate)]. Had you looked at them, you would certainly have turned back from them in flight, and would certainly have been filled with awe of them.”
If our very own Holy book shows us how loyal and protective these dogs were to those who did not do wrong, where did we learn to hate and despise this animal?
NOROZ Khan,
Kuala Lumpur.
as printed in The Star, 12 February 2009
What a shame that barbarism is secretly dwelling in the dark corners of our society. People now seem to enjoy taking the lives of dogs by breaking their skulls and necks and brutally beating them to death.
What is the difference between these heartless humans compared with the Israeli army murdering innocent souls?
Constantly we hear the same old saying that we are forbidden to touch dogs and that this animal is filthy and indecent.
If so, why would God have planted such loyalty and love in this particular animal?
To all my fellow Muslims, I shall quote from Surah Al-Kahf in the Holy Quran verse number 18: “And you would have thought them awake, while they were asleep. And We turned them on their right and on their left sides, and their dog stretching forth his two forelegs at the entrance [of the Cave or in the space near to the entrance of the Cave (as a guard at the gate)]. Had you looked at them, you would certainly have turned back from them in flight, and would certainly have been filled with awe of them.”
If our very own Holy book shows us how loyal and protective these dogs were to those who did not do wrong, where did we learn to hate and despise this animal?
NOROZ Khan,
Kuala Lumpur.
as printed in The Star, 12 February 2009
Saturday 7 February 2009
Syed Hamid Albar the comic
Found this old, but relevant BBC interview transcript, from 2007 (thecicak.com).
Particularly liked this point:
Sarah Montague:
There is outside… there is inside Malaysia who say this.. this social contract is actually State racism. What do you say to that?
Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar:
Oh. I can say the worse about Israeli State racism; in our case we don’t have that provision. You have to look at it in, I think, objectively. I don’t think it is right to look at Malaysia as a racist country. I don’t think it is right. You should see how the infusion of cultures, the getting together, the people get along together.. Yes you can find there are.. people who disagree with it.. there are certain things that people say ‘Ah it’s not perfect,’.. I would be the last person that say this is a perfect situation, but I think we have succeeded in building a multiracial society out of our diversity. We have succeeded in bringing the whole of the Malaysian community, even against the diverse backgrounds, together, to work together. There will come a time… that… if it is the choice of the people, because one person is one vote..
Sarah Montague:
When do you think that time will come..
Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar:
… That is up to the voters…
Particularly liked this point:
Sarah Montague:
There is outside… there is inside Malaysia who say this.. this social contract is actually State racism. What do you say to that?
Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar:
Oh. I can say the worse about Israeli State racism; in our case we don’t have that provision. You have to look at it in, I think, objectively. I don’t think it is right to look at Malaysia as a racist country. I don’t think it is right. You should see how the infusion of cultures, the getting together, the people get along together.. Yes you can find there are.. people who disagree with it.. there are certain things that people say ‘Ah it’s not perfect,’.. I would be the last person that say this is a perfect situation, but I think we have succeeded in building a multiracial society out of our diversity. We have succeeded in bringing the whole of the Malaysian community, even against the diverse backgrounds, together, to work together. There will come a time… that… if it is the choice of the people, because one person is one vote..
Sarah Montague:
When do you think that time will come..
Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar:
… That is up to the voters…
MGMT - Time to Pretend
I'm feeling rough, I'm feeling raw, I'm in the prime of my life.
Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives.
I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin, and fuck with the stars.
You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars.
This is our decision, to live fast and die young.
We've got the vision, now let's have some fun.
Yeah, it's overwhelming, but what else can we do.
Get jobs in offices, and wake up for the morning commute?
Forget about our mothers and our friends
We're fated to pretend
To pretend
We're fated to pretend
To pretend
I'll miss the playgrounds and the animals and digging up worms
I'll miss the comfort of my mother and the weight of the world
I'll miss my sister, miss my father, miss my dog and my home
Yeah, I'll miss the boredom and the freedom and the time spent alone.
There is really nothing, nothing we can do
Love must be forgotten, life can always start up anew.
The models will have children, we'll get a divorce
We'll find some more models, everything must run it's course.
We'll choke on our vomit and that will be the end
We were fated to pretend
To pretend
We're fated to pretend
To pretend
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives.
I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin, and fuck with the stars.
You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars.
This is our decision, to live fast and die young.
We've got the vision, now let's have some fun.
Yeah, it's overwhelming, but what else can we do.
Get jobs in offices, and wake up for the morning commute?
Forget about our mothers and our friends
We're fated to pretend
To pretend
We're fated to pretend
To pretend
I'll miss the playgrounds and the animals and digging up worms
I'll miss the comfort of my mother and the weight of the world
I'll miss my sister, miss my father, miss my dog and my home
Yeah, I'll miss the boredom and the freedom and the time spent alone.
There is really nothing, nothing we can do
Love must be forgotten, life can always start up anew.
The models will have children, we'll get a divorce
We'll find some more models, everything must run it's course.
We'll choke on our vomit and that will be the end
We were fated to pretend
To pretend
We're fated to pretend
To pretend
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Friday 6 February 2009
Tuesday 27 January 2009
Freedom II
Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.
D.H. Lawrence
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Patrick Henry
D.H. Lawrence
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Patrick Henry
Monday 26 January 2009
In this day and age...
I made a commitment to myself a long time ago that I would never insult a person directly or consciously. I often do, though, out of personal weakness.
A word that hurts is stupid. I don't call people stupid often because it hurts, and I don't like to be called stupid either. However, when I call people stupid outside of moments of momentary weakness, I do not mean the traditional definition which includes personifying idiotic, retarded, dumb, etc. behaviour. What I mean when I call someone stupid is that they are, to me, misinformed, or have misinterpreted information.
So, when I say that people who fight for protectionism and who are against free trade are STUPID, please don't feel bad. Although I should add the words unbelievably, dumb-founding and wow-that-is-amazingly before the s-word.
Here's a quick lesson.
A word that hurts is stupid. I don't call people stupid often because it hurts, and I don't like to be called stupid either. However, when I call people stupid outside of moments of momentary weakness, I do not mean the traditional definition which includes personifying idiotic, retarded, dumb, etc. behaviour. What I mean when I call someone stupid is that they are, to me, misinformed, or have misinterpreted information.
So, when I say that people who fight for protectionism and who are against free trade are STUPID, please don't feel bad. Although I should add the words unbelievably, dumb-founding and wow-that-is-amazingly before the s-word.
Here's a quick lesson.
- Proton is protected. If it wasn't we wouldn't have a mat rempit problem, as people would be able to afford cars, we would have half as many road deaths as people would have safer cars, and we probably would have had a 5% higher GDP had we not pumped money into this rubbish carmaker. You could draw parallels with Chrysler and GM.
- MAS is protected. If it wasn't we would have been flying to Singapore for RM100 anytime we wanted to, or anywhere else for that matter. We wouldn't have pregnant air-stewardesses being fired. We wouldn't have a government crony being given a RM 1 billion bail-out. We would not hear anything against a competitor building an airport, as facilities would have been built and managed privately long before the government could even issue a passport.
- A student's entire schooling needs for a whole year can be bought at any hypermarket for less than RM 100 all in the same place. Before these existed, we had to go to Mydin to buy sub-standard school uniforms which would tear within three months, go to a stationery shop to buy exercise books at RM1 each, together with RM1 pencils and RM5 pens. We'd have to go to Bata to buy white shoes together with the shoe-white.
That's just the schooling needs. A conservative guess on the savings received by the average consumer who buys from a hypermarket, compared with one who buys from the neighbourhood provision shop, would be 30%. Workers at hypermarkets have the opportunity of vertical mobility, compared with the provision shop owner who hires one person for thirty years to do all the labour. - What if the West had protected its products and opposed trade? We wouldn't have the Internet, the car, the computer, the refridgerator, this is a redundant list.
- We want to protect out rice farmers against imports of American rice. But Thai rice, Indian rice, Vietnamese rice is OK. And what are we protecting our rice farmers from? Even more misery. Our rice farmers suffer because the monopoly that is Bernas flushes its money straight to Syed Al-Bukhary, the philanthropic mosque-building billionaire, and is more concerned with feeding its rent-seeking crony than feeding rice farmers. If we had a competitive market for local rice, our rice farmers would be a lot better off.
- Compare life in communist China, the former Soviet Union, Cuba (where mobile phones will celebrate their one-year anniversary in March), National Socialist Germany with Hong Kong, Belgium, Singapore (although this is a place where life isn't really worth living), the new China, the new Russia, the new Germany.
- The current economic crisis has not been caused by greed or capitalism. It has been caused by too much interference by the US government into financial markets. Alan Greenspan as head of the Treasury for 28 years was responsible for keeping interest rates artificially low even during boom times, which he subsequently labeled "irrational exuberance". He coupled this with allowing unregulated financial engineering creating complex derivatives which even experts don't understand and can't appraise. When the banks were going bust, the government stepped in to help the ones with connections i.e. Goldman Sachs, where Henry Paulson was head of investment banking. They disallowed interested parties from buying up bad debt and the US$ 700 billion TARP fund received 10 times worse terms than Warren Buffett did with his US$5 billion investment. There is no clearer picture against protectionism than the actions which have led to the worst financial meltdown ever.
Friday 23 January 2009
The cartel and the working class
It begins on the premise that everyone is good. Only then can you judge people for what they are worth.
I take the train usually to and from UPM, Serdang. Last year, a consortium of Putrajaya taxi drivers took over the taxi service from the KTM Serdang station under the guise of a co-op. A more brazen cartel I have never seen. Overnight, taking a taxi went from paying RM10 for a 5 minute drive, and in the process finding 2-3 people willing to share the cost, or looking for the one in five gem of a taxi driver who will use the meter, to a RM10 coupon taxi ride – no sharing.
I took a taxi home last night from Kepong at 11.00 pm. An African girl, a young female office-worker and myself squeezed into the Proton Iswara. We approached an interchange, and the conversation between the African and the driver went like this;
“I think you can use this way, left.”
“How many ways do you know?”
“I said I think, I didn’t say I know”
“How many ways do you know?! I’m driving taxis, I know. Just sit and don’t argue! There are so many ways.”
Uncomfortable to say the least.
Her fare came to RM 3.30, and later we went pass the interchange she thought she knew. It was jammed, and the man told me it would have cost all three of us more if he had used that way. He didn’t charge me the RM 5 shown on the meter when we came to my house, and just asked for the usual fare, which was RM 4.
In my almost three years of taking taxis in Serdang, only once did I find a taxi that used the meter, and the driver was a saint. He picked up one more person on the way (there were already two of us), and used the meter all the way; I payed RM3 for a ride which would cost me RM 10 now.
To the socialists crying out for the right of taxi drivers to fleece customers, I say keep your voices. There are more than enough taxi drivers who are honest enough to put in a decent day’s work for a decent day’s pay.
I wonder how they, the honest ones, feel when they know they have to fleece ordinary people in the name of a koperasi.
I take the train usually to and from UPM, Serdang. Last year, a consortium of Putrajaya taxi drivers took over the taxi service from the KTM Serdang station under the guise of a co-op. A more brazen cartel I have never seen. Overnight, taking a taxi went from paying RM10 for a 5 minute drive, and in the process finding 2-3 people willing to share the cost, or looking for the one in five gem of a taxi driver who will use the meter, to a RM10 coupon taxi ride – no sharing.
I took a taxi home last night from Kepong at 11.00 pm. An African girl, a young female office-worker and myself squeezed into the Proton Iswara. We approached an interchange, and the conversation between the African and the driver went like this;
“I think you can use this way, left.”
“How many ways do you know?”
“I said I think, I didn’t say I know”
“How many ways do you know?! I’m driving taxis, I know. Just sit and don’t argue! There are so many ways.”
Uncomfortable to say the least.
Her fare came to RM 3.30, and later we went pass the interchange she thought she knew. It was jammed, and the man told me it would have cost all three of us more if he had used that way. He didn’t charge me the RM 5 shown on the meter when we came to my house, and just asked for the usual fare, which was RM 4.
In my almost three years of taking taxis in Serdang, only once did I find a taxi that used the meter, and the driver was a saint. He picked up one more person on the way (there were already two of us), and used the meter all the way; I payed RM3 for a ride which would cost me RM 10 now.
To the socialists crying out for the right of taxi drivers to fleece customers, I say keep your voices. There are more than enough taxi drivers who are honest enough to put in a decent day’s work for a decent day’s pay.
I wonder how they, the honest ones, feel when they know they have to fleece ordinary people in the name of a koperasi.
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