Hereby is the compulsory second part of the end year reflection on the year gone by and what is hoped for in 2009. Let's come back some 12 months later and see how much things have changed or not at all and have a good laugh at this resolution malarkey.
We all have aspirations for the nation to achieve in the next year and years after but in short term I would like to see some improvements on the bread-and-butter stuff, such as
1. Increased efficiency of the public transport
The reason why people drive their cars and create more jams when it is already jammed beyond jammed jammed is because the public transport can't be relied on to bring them where they want to go. Many reasons for that being that either they are not on time, are of too low of capacity to serve rush hour traffic as well as not going anywhere people want to go.
The first reason is simple enough as it is well known of over here and even in developed nations like Britain as well - I frequent RAWK, a predominantly British site of people there complaining about the bus system there that is sh****. I suppose sh*** is better than over here since as Malaysians we have that prenatural instinct to laud anything overseas, but it's just about similar just somewhat better. There's an old joke about London busses - you wait for ages and suddenly three comes by. Why not drive the car where I can dictate when I leave and arrive?
The second reason is because nobody likes to get up close and personal with a stranger unless they're physically attractive and don't smell like camels after a day's work. Why not drive the car where I have a big space for myself in the airconditioner?
The final reason is more of a planning problem as you can't expect people to drive kilometres just to take the bus or the train to work, it's ridiculous. Furthermore with the jam in between transit to the station, you have to fight for parking space as well. Why not drive the car straight to where I want to go?
And all three reasons of why we don't just drive the car brings about that endless cycle of jam - unsatisfactory public transport system --> people drive car --> create jams --> impacts unsatisfactory public transport system --> more people drive car --> create more jams ... repeat ad nauseum.
To be more specific - a transport system that arrives would be a good start - if it arrives 5 minutes late is still somewhat acceptable, just not when it doesn't arrive at all.
Otherwise higher frequency would be a good idea as well so that we don't have to squeeze in with everybody else as well as reduce the number of people jostling to get into the train because they don't come frequently enough.
In short, it can be better - if the price of petrol skyrockets again there won't be a sudden shock to the public transport system that it struggles to cope like it did in the past five months as most people are already taking the bus, train, monorail etc.
2. Less politicking, more work done
There's this thing about getting elected to Parliament that appeals to certain people that it affords a high profile exposure to the nation either via the press or media or from making ridiculous statements without first engaging the grey matter.
The problem with being a national figure is that whatever you say and do end up on the papers, especially on national policies or comments on whatever is happening in the nation. Nowhere is a debate more important than at the august that is our Dewan Rakyat where the elected representatives debate on national issues and enact laws & ordinances.
Now that is how it is supposed to and yet with the world watching via the live telecasts of the parliamentary sittings, the MPs from either side are content on indulging in the practice of name calling, be it bigfoot, monyet, kayu or bodoh. Over and over.
If this is how it is like in the highest lawmaking house of the nation you have to wonder why the younger generation simply don't care about politics anymore - much grief to the Speaker of the house for trying the calm a bunch of schoolchildren. No doubt the issues are important (or appear to be important) but certain MPs seemed to feel that just appearing and picking a fight (or four) whilst doing nothing substantial to the sitting is all they were elected to do.
"Hey, I'm the ruling party you listen to what I say or I'd do your head in."
"Who cares, I'm the opposition and my job is to oppose what you say even if it makes sense".
If you have the time and the Internet connection, try searching around for C-Span telecasts online - the US channel that broadcasts national lawmaking and executive events such as Congressional or Senatorial debates - those monyet in Dewan Rakyat pales in comparison to these well researched and substantiated debates. Rebuttals, if any are made with equally well made arguments. And the Republican senator might vote for a bill that is presented by a Democrat as well as the other way round if it is good.
Try the British Parliament as well - in their exquisite accents, the MPs make good use of flair in their speeches about debates on national issues. If there were counter-arguments that border on sensitive matters (read: racial) they're made properly and with reason without resorting to cheap shots and scoring political points.
We're not far away from that level of debate actually, it's just whether they want to do it or not. The increase in Opposition numbers in Parliament did help somewhat as most of them are made up of professionals who know their stuff, so the ruling party will have to debate at the same level or end up looking to be stuck in the old era of debating something they don't know about.
3. Stop the sale of cars with broken signal lights.
It's quite funny to know considering that the Mercedes, Camry, Alfa Rome, Accord as well as our (own Proton & Perodua) imported into the country are fitted with substandard signal lights that works sometimes but nowhere are they more apparent in those popular but more expensive versions. I'm sure the drivers who flick on their signal lights aren't aware that the high premium they pay for their cars does not seem to guarantee working signal lights. It seems like the expensive and high-tech parts that make up the car are engineered to work well in all road conditions, with the exception of the signal light.
It's not a certain occurence as in they stop working every single time but regularly enough to warrant a comment. The more interesting part is that a lot of these cars are from the more expensive variety of the imported vehicles as mentioned above including those Peugeot, VW etc. Why do they skim on signal lights? Does the material burn out after the 10th flick of the switch? I'm sure the on/off mechanism used to control it is not that difficult to do - I remember we're taught how to wire a few LEDs to a circuit and make it blink with a switch.
Perhaps in Europe or Japan they're way advanced when it comes to mental capacity that they have developed telepathy or ESP to tell the other guy on the road that they want to make a right turn, they just slow down and make the proper adjustments hence eliminating the need for signal lights?
Soon maybe even the headlight will no longer needed in the future as we can all 'sense' the presence of another car from which direction and at what speed in the darkness of night.
Until all that happens, I ask for the government to disallow sale of cars with subpar signal lights to the people.
There's a part on people and how they should realise that the world is bigger than their backyard and different people think differently and there is no black or white in life but I'll write that as part of a story itself.
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