BY JEFF YONG
WHAT started out as a zany idea in my recent piece (Fine way to make money on April 24) on a crowd-sourcing initiative to raise funds for the government and provide gainful employment for people at the same time, garnered much traction.
I had suggested establishing a start-up with people taking pictures and showing proof of fellow humans who commit traffic transgressions, as our local authorities had not been able to get a grip on the matter.
I had said that I could do it with the help of the public taking pictures and reporting offences to the authorities, who would then reward us. And if I were to have a new privatisation licence to do just that, we’d all be in business!
Lo and behold, my idea prompted a great many responses. Many such as Dinagaran said they liked it, and would like to join my noble crusade.
One unhappy Mrs C, living in Happy Gardens in the Jalan Kuchai Lama area of Kuala Lumpur, also wrote in to complain about non-civic-conscious people whose attitudes seem to be getting from bad to worse.
Even with the remarkable change in government on May 9, 2018, the bad habits of most Malaysian motorists hadn’t changed at all.
Mrs C revealed that residents along the main road of Jalan Rukun 6 are sick and tired of those who park indiscriminately in the area. Those drivers don’t display any rukun or principle at all, especially during lunch and dinner time.
Cars are usually double- or triple-parked, be it weekdays, weekends or public holidays, because of the lure of the restaurants in the area, former residential housing units which have morphed into commercial establishments.
Worst are those drivers who drive big and expensive cars and who don’t seem to be bothered at all. They’re usually oblivious to the fact that they are blocking the exits and entrances of the residents living there, and for the bus and lorry drivers trying to ease past their indiscriminately-parked vehicles.
The most uncouth of these uncivilised souls even have the temerity to claim that they have a right to park in front of your house, as they pay taxes! So the poor residents are prevented from driving even into their own porch!
These rascals even have the audacity to goad residents into reporting them to City Hall. For those residents who actually took the trouble to report these rascals to the authorities, many are disheartened when there’s no action taken.
Occasionally, some uniformed DBKL enforcement officers would come and issue summonses. That forced some of those car owners to switch tactics, by parking at the back lanes.
According to Mrs C, all these problems have developed over the past 20 years, when eateries started to spring up in the neighbourhood.
Before that, there were only three eateries, and the other business establishments were a laundromat, a hair-dressing salon and a barbershop.
A ‘food paradise’ has since emerged with more than 10 eating outlets that include a chap fun or mixed rice joint (since 1980), five shops selling either roast pork noodles, rice, wanton or curry noodles, one tea cafe, two outlets serving morning and afternoon light snacks, three tai chow or big-fry food restaurants, one teh tarik shop, and an open-air outlet serving beer and dinner until late at night.
There are only 10 residential houses along that road. Besides having to deal with discourteous drivers, the residents are also at the mercy of other unsavoury visitors – giant rats and cockroaches – which also come to eat, courtesy of restaurateurs dumping unfinished food into the big monsoon drains!
Mrs C says it would help if drivers who parked indiscriminately display their phone numbers on their windscreens, for residents to let them know to move their vehicles.
But she’s still wondering what has happened to the civic-consciousness of people who are supposed to be more literate in our so-called ‘new society’ these days.
Jeff Yong, after making his mark in the twisty maze of mainstream journalism, has finally decided to enjoy what he does best – observing the unusual and recounting the gleeful. He can be contacted at lifestyle.borak@gmail.com.
