All over again!

It is amazing how 2 issues has been the bane of Malaysian societies since the time of my father. The amazement stems from the fact that Malaysians in general have not learned from their past mistakes and continue to adhere to their erroneous ways without guilt or remorse

1. Ragging

The issues of university students subjected to bullying is again coming to fore. During my brief time at a public university, I was also subjected to these inhumane treatments from my seniors. We were insulted, discriminated, tortured mentally and physically all because they thought ‘it would create a better sense of camaraderie’ between the juniors and the seniors. How they intended to achieve this through bullying was beyond my comprehension.

However, the saddest thing is about how people keep justifying the merits of ragging. I keep following the issue as comments keep pouring into the columns of the national dailies. It is quite appalling that some people continue to be adamant in suggesting that it is the whistleblowers that are at fault for failing to accept these methods. They regard the victims of these bullies as failing to keep with tradition and too arrogant to accept such ‘norms’.
My argument is simple. Those who advocate ragging should be subject to some mental evaluation. It is quite obvious that bullies are people who need to put down others to feel at ease with them. I can’t understand how the victim can be at fault. University is the time of learning and discovering one’s self. But the imminent existence of ragging in our culture means this experience is tainted. It must be stopped.

If this is tradition, then I say it is a tradition we must do without!

2. Road bullies

Another issue dominating our newspapers is the constant reports about people subjected to offensive behaviour by other road users. I for one have seen many cases myself. Since I came back from the UK, I realized that there’s a stark difference in attitude among the road users in the UK and in Malaysia. I’m not blindly glorifying a foreign nation. If I had a choice, I would prefer complimenting my own country. But, faults must be acknowledged so that it can be remedied.

We have to admit our road users are just so uncivilized at times. I was fetching my sister from school today. The state government just installed traffic lights close to the gates of the school. The road is narrow and there is no room for any speeding vehicles. However, it was almost a common sight to see cars speeding along and even running red lights. The traffic lights seem to fail all purpose. I can only fear for the students who try to cause these roads as it must be a REAL hazard!

My girlfriend recently expressed her fear for flying…looks like I have to call her and express my fear for crossing a road in Malaysia.

The Papers

So many interesting stuff is reported in the daily newspapers these days that you can be forgiven in mistaking them for tabloids. Some of the more sensational/controversial issues are as follows:

1. If you read the preceding post, you will know that we recently had an issue where a man was hoarding dogs. 'Every action brings a reaction' or so does the saying goes. To this action, the local authorities' reaction was to force their way into the man's property and to shoot his dogs. Well, everyone agrees that the owner of these dogs was going a bit too far with his liking for dogs, however, does the local authority really need to go about shooting people's pets in their own compound without exploring other avenues of redress? Hmm... Fishtail brought up quite a dramatic but ironic analogy. If a person's own neighbour is a nuisance can he be shot? The answer is RIGHTLY NO. BUT, that nuisance can be and should be abated either through some form of injunction (restrain) or fine to the perpetrator. It seems the only reason the authorities were so trigger happy was because it involved animals rather then human beings. In that case, we can see the relevance of this dismissive attitude towards animal welfare when we read about cases where people shoot other human beings when the victim of this shooting is mistaken for an animal. If you think something is moving in the bush, it must be a PIG...SHOOT IT. If you see something moving among the trees....SHOOT IT..It must be a MONKEY. Well, perhaps the shooters were not that wrong. They did shoot an animal afterall!

2. Another interesting issue brewing is the longstanding fiasco between an MP and the Customs and Excise Department (CE). CE claims that the MP asked them to 'close one eye' to a logging transaction. In return, the MP retaliates by saying that the CE has problems with confiscated vehicles by alleging that he was not given a MERCEDES for purchase. To this answer, the CE mitigates that although the MP was NOT given a car with a model of his description, he was still offered another Benz nonetheless. EVERYTHING SOLVED??

-->HANG ON...WAIT A MINUTE....ARE WE FOOLS HERE? WHY IN THE WORLD DOES THE MP DESERVE TO BE OFFERED A BENZ IN THE FIRST PLACE? IS HE GIVEN THIS OFFER FOR HIS SERVICE TO COMMUNITY?

-->INTERESTINLY, THE CE SEEMS SO HAPPY TO OFFER HIM ANOTHER BENZ AS THOUGH IT WAS HIS BIRTHRIGHT AS AN MP.

Damn, I don't want to be a lawyer anymore. Let's all be an MP.

3. The World Cup brought much joy to some fans (mainly Italian) and much agony (the rest of the world) to others. However, while we were treated to the sublime skills of Zinedine Zidane (Zizou) for the last time, the final will probably be remembered for Zizou's ferocious headbutt and Materazzi groaning on the floor then Zizou's exquisite penalty chip.Zizou allege that Materazzi is the villain by insulting his mother and his sister. At this moment, it is being speculated that Zizou was called a 'terrorist' while his mother and/or sister was referred to as a 'whore'. So who is the bigger villain? Zizou who headbutted and physically injured the rather bad guy looking Materazzi or Materazzi himself who was the agent provocateur of the fracas? While I agree that Zizou was correctly sent off (although he really should have done better with controlling his volatile temper), I feel Materazzi should not escape unpunished. If you walk on the street and someone spits at you, how will you react? If someone insults your family, how will you react? I remember not so long ago a law student getting killed because he got involved in a fight with people who teased his girlfriend! Of course, the person who responds is not entirely innocent but then the percent who is the cause of the problem must be punished as well or he will forever be out to instigate some new problem!

A need for a proportionate response

I was shocked and saddened to read about the local authorities in Negeri Sembilan taking the drastic action of killing a person’s dogs in his own house. The newspapers reported that the person’s neighbours had complained that the dogs were a nuisance because they were noisy. The man owned 25 dogs and kept them all at his house. It was of course a staggering number of dogs and one could imagine the noise that they had caused. The local authorities surely could not have allowed this to continue unabated.

Sure, I agree that the man could have applied some common sense and realise that keeping such a large number of dogs at his house was a nuisance. He could have restrained himself and be contended with 2 or 3 dogs to keep him company. After the killing of his pets, he said he was depressed because these dogs were his best friends. I can relate with what he feels right now as I just lost a dog myself. However, keeping a large number of dogs at one place is not only unreasonable as it is a nuisance to his neighbours but he should also consider the detriment to the dogs itself who probably do not have much space to roam about and the possible health issues to himself as he will face a tough time keeping his house clean. He was wrong and he should have been punished BUT not like this.

The man was overzealous by keeping such a large amount of dogs but is it really proportionate that the local authorities just end up forcing themselves into a person’s house and then shooting a man’s pet dogs at broad daylight? Even if the dogs were to be culled surely there was a more humane way then killing them by shooting them to death? I was a bit sad that the local authorities were so trigger happy. I thought the whole matter was blown out of proportion. The man could have been fined and the dogs confiscated away from him and sent to the SPCA or some other animal shelter home. I do not think killing the dogs at a person’s own home is proportionate to the man’s supposed ‘crime’.

IF the local authorities had shown more self restrain perhaps the whole issue could have been solved in a more amicable way. I maybe wrong but violence should never be the answer to a solution. The one who is punished is not the owner of the pets but the dogs who had died. They were described by the authorities as being fierce and thus the authorities had no choice but to shoot them. The dogs probably thought that the shooters were trespassing their owner’s land and they will do anything to protect their owner from harm. They probably died feeling contented that they had protected their beloved owner, little did they know that their death could have so easily been avoided!