Someone posted a photo on the popular social networking website, Facebook, showing a bus terminal where the seats for the passengers were being turned into a vendor’s stall. He plaintively asked, “Hello (name of the town) council, what are you doing about this hijacking of the passengers’ space?” (Well, words to that effect.) This elicited a storm of exchanges and the various views can be succinctly summed up as such – “This is not legal but where is the enforcement?”
PARKING SPIKE: An interesting way to encourage motorist to obey ‘no entry’ sign.
Indeed, we are not short of rules and laws here in Malaysia, but when it comes to enforcement, hmm . . . that’s another matter. It reminds me of an experience in a rather modest restaurant. My friend ordered something that was billed as “sizzling steak”. It came on a hotplate. However, it took my friend a while to locate the steak. It was wafer thin and buried beneath a generous pile of sizzling onion. He appropriately asked, “I can see the sizzle but where is the steak?”
Let’s stick to the theme of hijacking space for a while. There is a place in Kuching where the shop owner fenced up the ‘5-foot way’ outside his place and neatly turned it into an extension of his business premises. I also know of a few spots where the shops ‘overflowed’ their merchandise onto the public place but unlike the afore-mentioned establishment that blatantly lays claim on public property, these shops have the decency of being reticent and bashful about their infringements.
Of course, there is nothing bashful or reticent about those motor vehicle repair shops that brazenly transform the public walkway into their private workshops. On top of that they even have the gall to convert the parking lots outside their shops into their own repair yards. Not to be outdone, a number of shopkeepers in the city also permanently “reserved” the parking bays in front of their places, using chairs as their ‘marks’. It is most frustrating for the motorists, burning fossil fuel cruising around looking for parking spaces, to see so many bays being declared unavailable by the presence of those confounded furniture.
It is a puzzle to me that the authorities are apparently unaware of these illegal activities. Yes, I am sure there are rules and regulations (if not laws) relating to the use of public spaces. If you are unconvinced, try leaving your car in the parking bay without a parking ticket. I wonder if the council collects a season rental from these permanent tenants. Or they are getting away with it because the authorities are “selective” in apply the law.
Granted that sometimes (some would say “most of the time”) it is just a question of the enforcers being not diligent enough. Such is the case at the airports where people would just park their cars at the loading/unloading areas (making it difficult for departing and arriving travellers) banking on the chance that the traffic officers may be sleeping on their job. Being not a gambling person I have been able to resist that temptation until one day two months ago. It is the first and last time for me. Ironically, I had a legitimate (almost legitimate) reason for parking at the space marked with the logo of ‘handicapped’.
I was picking up a wheelchair bound visitor from Australia. I was at the arrival hall just for a few minutes but as luck would have it, it was a few minutes too long.
As I was helping my handicapped friend onto my car I saw a summon ticket on my windscreen. I spotted a uniformed person with a telltale ticket pad in his hands. I went up to him and asked if he could ‘unticket’ me, pointing to my friend in the wheelchair as a way of appeal. He was almost apologetic but explained to me that I did not display a ‘handicapped’ sign on my car. Yes, it was my fault – mea culpa, mea culpa. Anyway he said he was not the one who issued the ticket. It was one of his colleagues who have since left the scene. Rat, Just my luck! My pocket was lightened by RM150 for my recklessness.
Anyway I am digressing. Let’s go back to the matter of ‘steak and sizzle’. Sometime ago it was announced that passengers in the back seats must wear seat belts. I understand there is a hefty fine if one were caught not complying. One day my friend Tan was sitting in the back seat. Tan is as stubborn as they come. He is what we label as ‘ti kee’, (‘iron teeth’ in Hokkien) meaning “provocatively obstinate”. Well that’s my take on the translation but don’t ask me the origin of the term. I just can’t fathom it out.
“Tan, please buckle up at the back,” I said.
“Why should I? Anyway it is uncomfortable,” he retorted.
“It’s the law.”
“Law? Nah! Look at all those children at the back seats of the cars. They are not even sitting down, let alone wearing seatbelts.”
It was end of class time and we were just passing by a school. The road was choked with cars of parents picking up their kids. True enough, many children were cavorting in the backseats and none of them were buckled up.
The rub was; there was a policeman present, directing traffic.
Of course, there are good reasons for all the rules and restrictions – they are for the protection of citizens’ rights and the safety of the individuals.
Unfortunately, many of us have the proclivity to believe that rules and restrictions are applicable to others but not to ourselves.
Many would not be willing to inconvenient themselves in obeying the laws unless they are made to pay for their non-compliance.
The enforcement agencies are there to make sure that we do comply with the laws. Unfortunately, whether by circumstance or by negligence, that is not always the case.
Last week I saw an interesting sight in a car park in Los Angeles. To encourage (putting it euphemistically) motorists to obey the “no entry” sign the authority installed a barrier known as ‘parking spikes’. It is a row of nasty looking spikes that will retract if a car approaches from the right direction but come at them in the wrong direction . . . the damage can be considerable.
This device seems to acknowledge that firstly, most people would not willingly obey the law – they have to be threatened with the big stick into submission. Secondly, it is also the acceptance that enforcement agents cannot be at all places and at all times.
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