Happy Chinese New Year

Greetings to all who celebrate CNY. It was a good long weekend for me, my wife and her family in Penang. I was lucky to have gotten bus tickets for the trip to and from Penang . After witnessing the massive traffic jams on higways (if you could call them that given that the traffic was literally crawling), I was happy that I chose not to drive. I can't imagine what emotional state I would have been in after a 10 hour drive from Penang, followed by a 1 hour drive to Port Dickson at 3 am in the morning.

Anyway, in the time between naps on the bus, I began to think about "Ops Sikap" that the traffic police launch every holiday season. By definition, it is meant to reprimand errant drivers for displaying lack of courtesy on the roads. However, it seems that Malaysian police mostly focus on speeding as errant driving. If I had a sen for every time I saw vehicles weave in and out of lanes without giving signals, driving without both headlights or rear lights working, or using the emergency lane to overtake from the left, I would be a millionaire, but somehow, the police are blind to these displays of errant driving. Makes you wonder if the police are just too lazy to chase after these drivers when they can easily send out a few thousand summonses via mail just by sitting down and pointing a speed trap camera from a comfortable perch along a highway. Perhaps they don't see the significance of these "little" things in making the roads safe for everyone.

How is it there can be so many errant drivers with poor driving ethics on the road in the first place. I think it all roots down to the way in which vehicles and driving licenses are issued. Sorry to say, the plain truth is that there is still plenty of corruption in the system. More often than not, if you go to a driving school, you will be openly offered the "easy way" or the "hard way" to get your license. Likewise, vehicle inspections at JPJ offer no guarantee that they vehicle is in genuinely good condition and fit for the road. Evidence, you ask? Just open your ears and eyes, and it will become evident.