Tag: corruption

Follow-lor (law) day

While driving back from an appointment one day, I was spacing out though my attention span was still on the road. Don’t ask me if that’s possible, it’s just something I do.

So I was thinking of how recently we’ve been talking about fairness and corruption in the country. Then, a thought came to me. What would it be like for 1 day, if all of us didn’t give the road authorities any room of opportunity to be corrupted?

*ting*

It’ll be like an awareness campaign to fight corruption. Or, the fun part about it, seeing the faces of the authorities who have no excuse to write you a ticket or stop you. Or the least, creep them out.

In other words, we’d drive them nuts. *grin*

This list is some of the common mistakes we shouldn’t let the authorities take advantage of, though I know it can be difficult for some – out of habit.

  1. Wear your safety belt
  2. Renew your road tax, on time
  3. Use a hands-free bluetooth headset
  4. Respect the traffic light – don’t beat it
  5. Follow the speed limit – as stupid as it may be
  6. Avoid making illegal turns
  7. Park in allocated spaces
  8. Pay for parking (or, at least check if you have to)

So, if we were to follow the law for 1 day or during the seasons when most drivers get caught, they’ll be driven up the wall thinking, “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG TODAY?!”

Because there would be little to no tickets to write. *evil laughter*

I know. My spaced out thoughts are living in a world too perfect at times. 😛

The 2011 historical Malaysia event

Without doubt, I’m putting this recent Malaysia rally; Bersih 2.0, as the historical event of our country for 2011.

bersih 2.0 rally
It was a peaceful rally - honest

Apparently this is the 2nd rendition of a campaign run, hence the two-point-zero since 2007. Its purpose still remains the same – raise the awareness and demand for a fair electoral system independent of third parties.

I’m not a person likely to discuss politics and I prefer avoiding any of conflicts whatsoever. I love living a fruitful and un-stressful life with loved ones while doing what I love doing. Thus, I’m only going to write about the noticeable affects to this event.

Unnecessary traffic congestion due to roadblocks

Days leading up to this day, some of my friends have complained roadblocks on highways causing congestion. And a day before today, another friend on Facebook shared that some roadblocks made congestion last until 2:15AM into the morning.

Malaysia traffic congestion at night
Hope there were rest stops

I seriously wouldn’t want to be caught in that situation. Imagine if you had to pee! OMG!!!

Nationwide curfew rumor caused concern

It did make me worry. Not because whether I’d bump into rally members. More so because of police roadblocks and being unnecessarily questioned. Plus, the whole idea of curfew was plain dumb – Malaysians mamak and clubbing hours is part of our culture. But yeah, I don’t like being in cumbersome situations.

Escalating news coverage

In the morning, news of the rally had begun coming in. By the late afternoon, its flooded my Twitter timeline. But it was good to know what was happening, despite my neutrality.

malaysia police barricade
1st time I've seen them use this

Especially by being an outsider, you’ve the benefit to observe both sides.

Acts affecting businesses

Hear say some people got hurt in the rally by authorities. But I’ll leave that to be clarified by the news publishers unswayed by third parties. Instead, after watching a video of the authorities having to use tear gas, I thought to myself, “wouldn’t business traders nearby be affected too?”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=616ODL1z6dQ]

Plus, they fired more than 1 tear gas canister into the area. -_-|||

We (Malaysians) are really intuitive people

Friend of mine actually took this opportunity and came up with a pet project of his own to aggregate information of the event. Let me highlight one of the geeky things about the project.

malaysians around the world
Malaysians sharing the burden

That’s a map showing the Twitter conversations happening in areas co-relating to this event. If you zoom out, you’ll even notice the event affecting Malaysia across the world from the US to down under Australia.

The wonders of technology. And Malaysia’s historical event of 2011.