The Clockwork

Situation 1:A Singaporean clerk earns 2000S$ and their petrol costs RM5+.
Situation 2:Our clerk earns RM2000 and our petrol costs RM2.70.
Telling people that a tonne of feather is heavier than a tonne of steel is silly, yet,ministers were screaming that our petrol is the lowest in the region.

I’m always having trouble with precise timing. I often discussed it with my mom over the phone, the deal is, when class starts at 3pm I’m supposed to be at the bus stop as soon as 2.40 as busses comes around 2.45pm ( Go to hell with the RapidKL 15mins interval ‘Tempatan’ routes statement, they indeed come every 45+ mins ). My mom said that if that happens, then leave the apartment as early as possible. Probably 2.30, so, I’ll be doing exposed to radiant heat and staring at strings of big-sunshade wearing college girls which indeed have ugly eyes.

Doing architecture, every minute is very vital. The trouble and hustle of writing a 2’’x7’’ name tag on six days and six night’s model really worth taking . Without a tag on your hard-to-made model simply means a refusal to grade the model, not even look. Every minutes is tried as hard as possible to not to be wasted on hasty unproductive things, thus, making the act of walking down to the bus stop 30minutes early as virtually unviable solution.

Yet, with an intention of precise timing, I did reach the bus stop before my 3minutes before my forwarded clock strike 2.45pm. The estimation of time which the bus should have/will appear. Shockingly, as I arrived at the bus stop, I notice there was only a person there. Perhaps he wanted to go to the college too, as the way he casually dressed, does not look like he is going to drop by KL. I was becoming increasingly nervous as I approached the little stop with a person underneath it.

As my clock strikes 2.45pm, I stood still for another 4 minutes before proceeding to ask the only breathing person that exist there besides me “ Where is the bus? “ (Inappropriate question which that person too has got to ask), then he started explaining that he misses that last bus which arrived on 2.30pm. Yup, he is the first victim and I’m a poor man to join him in the statistics. Quickly I did a brief calculation in my brain which forwarded 45minutes from the previous bus passes and it will definitely arrive no sooner than 3.15pm. Yes, 15 minutes of doing nothing. Adding the ‘sweetness’ would be a sight of architecture student carrying boxes no smaller than a CPU casing ( ATX precisely ). Sitting, waiting and wishing upon the scorching heat of sun for the RapidKL busses to arrive early.

Still doubtful, my late attendance is obviously noted by the lecturers, but the nightmares of Rapid drivers going for some coffee breaks and perks has flooded my thoughts with possibility of waiting the bus as long as 3:45PM, Worst 4pm. Completing the 1-Hour cycle of nothing but bus-waiting. It would be unwise to walk back and climb up to the 11th floor of my apartment with the huge boxes I'm carrying.

This kind of situation, being retold to mom through the marvel of cellular network reaching hundred kilometers away to Sg.Petani is being treated with such a saddening explanation. I’am regarded as putting/shifting/transferring the blame on RapidKL instead of disciplining myself.

Who can tolerate this type of inefficiency and incompetency in Malaysia? Pak Lah who is vying to become and would mostly be nominated for ‘Bapa Pembangunan Insan’ through his cliché of Cemerlang, Gemilang dan Terbilang has made something contradictory? What has become of his word to improvise the public transportation system? Perhaps the lackluster of today Malaysia can be blamed on Tun Mahathir exhausting national reserves on megaprojects. The failure to eradicate corruption and ‘yes-man’ syndrome was blamed on Tun Mahathir whom planted the seeds of corruption and cronyism in the government, perhaps, in his 5th year at helm, Pak Lah can blame Tun Mahathir for triggering rapid urbanization and industrialization which reduces the hectares of rubber plantation vital for making tires of public transportation buses. Ironically, the nature of blaming 'legacy' problems fits the requirement for our current PM to step down and be replaced with someone really competitive like Muhyiddin Yassin, Rais Yatim or mostly Najib Tun Razak.

Do not forget the recent hike in petrol prices may have a very big impact on students like me. Indeed, I never drove any car yet at the moment, which means I heavily relied on busses and taxies to get to my college which is situated a little less than 4kilometres from my apartment. The case of unreliable busses leaves me with no option but to cling onto another alternative which is the taxis. Probably, it is too early to tell whether they are increasing the non-metered flat-priced journey fare, but it seems they will do it. The chain effect of fuel hike will see the immediate increased price of daily goods. They, the drivers, had to do something to earn extras in compensating with their rising cost of living, which means increasing the current fare. The victim: us, students.

There is always a very cynical solution amongst the less-constructive thinking people who might suggest me to quit studying in Cyberjaya. It may sound deeply rhetoric like “Why study in Cyberjaya when you start to see the costs is unbearable?” or “if you wanted to avoid pricey items and higher cost, then study elsewhere”. I assume this type of rhetoric is rather creating another barrier/problem on top of existing problem. Same goes to the present administration which had been cleverly rhetorical on Malaysian way of life. Instead of moving forward, they urged the rakyat to live more frugal; to the extent of driving less than 100kmph. The speed limit in Malaysia topped at 110kmph

But there is no rhetoric when facing Pak Lah and his league of capable cabinet leaders. The reason I say that is when UMNO and BN is blessed with abundance of economists, entrepreneurs, financial advisers, which knowledge had been garnered from various prestigious and established school of respective matter, yet, the failure to formulate an effective and well-conceived policy has hampered us as rakyats.

These heavily knowledgeable people inside BN/UMNO can make a lot of difference. They may follow the footsteps of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Tun Daim Zainuddin which are regarded as the economy architect of modernized Malaysia during the Mahathir-era. Situation may be different 20 years back then and now, yet it has been a long way which Malaysia economy has been battered with the uncertainties of global economics, and believe me, we have learned a lot. But lessons have been wasted as none of these highly capable economists have debriefed Pak Lah on the cause and effects of actions. Perhaps Pak Lah himself is not interested in overlooking and making checklist to determine the implementation went well or not. I used to hear stories of Tun Mahathir overseeing the Twin Tower construction as if it’s a government building when its just an office spaces and shopping complex. Perhaps for Pak Lah, he is just interested in seeing paperwork reports that is submitted to him every week or so.

I guess, this is what happened to his noble intention to ‘improvise the efficiency of public transport’. The report that arrives on Pak Lah desk says that our public transport is at satisfactory level while the rakyats like me bore the brunt and went through hell of incompetent public transport. The newly established Rapid Penang suffered a huge blow as users and commuters complained about the bus inconsistency ensued with its bus drivers strike on some disagreement with the operators. Who to blame now? Fingers keep crossing here and there. Are the users not disciplined expecting to see busses arriving at their disposal? Or are the drivers were taking too much perks and time off? Or does the operators are doing some mission impossible stuff by pushing their drivers into doing long routes within a ridiculously short time span?

My opinion, neither government nor the opposition, cannot avoid the spiteful decision of increasing fuel price. But, at this dramatic 78cent level is somewhat painful to take, still, there is a logic in making this one-time decision. If the rakyat dragged this matter to the streets of KL into violent prolonged demonstration, worst case scenario, government would lower the hike to 50cent ( to RM2.42 per litre), prior to their lowest option to increase fuel price of 50cents, 78cents and 1ringgit . The best the government can show their lauded ‘concerns’ for the rakyat is to seriously improvise and consolidate the reliability of public transportation. Today, the public transport has become chronically less preferred (for various reason) even the college girls here are seeking boys with their own vehicle as perquisite to date them. This casts a serious doubt over my aim to end single life by October this year.

Yet, there is no need to have highly intellectual intelligentsia think tank persona to revamp the Malaysian public transport system ( perhaps all the intelligentsia were leased to the judiciary reform task, anti-inflation committee and EPU's ), well then, lets just have a highly motivated operation managers that would debrief Pak Lah on a concrete roadmap. Get Pak Lah himself to do a checklist on the progress. Checklist that he himself fill/ticks, strictly no more report prepared by kaki-bodek. It’s the least he can do if had lost checklist counts for his 5 bombastic corridors. Lets make public transportation as a preferred choice. Lets make it convenient and easy . If it happens, then Pak Lah is partially eligible to claim his ‘Bapa Pembangunan Insan’ title.