(Example of new and clean looking low cost apartment – picture source: www.tsigm.com)
Not having high education is excusable but not having a simple common sense is not.
Last night, I was invited for a prayer at one of my aunt’s house in Puchong. She is staying in one of the low cost apartments in Puchong along with her 3 children (kind people all of them). My wife, my son and my dad tagged along for the prayers as well. We were reaching the junction from the highway turning into her housing area when I saw an Indian guy (approximately in the early 30s) picking up a girl (I assume she is his relative) on his bike from the taxi stand situated less than 20 meters from the junction. He was wearing a T-shirt and short pants. Both of them were not wearing any helmets. It was made worse by the fact that the guy did not even bother to look at the traffic before turning into the main lane. He came close to grazing a car but it did not make any difference. He just acted as if he was all alone on the road and continued to ride slowly between 2 lanes.
I was right at the back of this guy and since the idiot was riding between the lanes, it was a bit tough to make a clear overtake. After couple of “seconds” of being patient, I just went for it. Dropped the gear to 3rd and pressed on the accelerator and made a quick cut, overtaking the guy by inches. To my surprise, the guy was still riding with his passenger for some distance (without any helmet), completely ignorant of the safety of themselves and other road users. After I have managed to overtake the guy, I stopped at another junction but the guy managed to catch up and stopped in front of me. Once again, he was riding slow and in the middle of the lane when he turned to the junction.
He was riding towards the low cost apartment – the same place that we were heading. We parked our vehicles at almost the same time (mine was flashier than his beat-up “kapchai” of course). The girl went up the staircase (presuming to her house) whilst this guy was hanging with a couple of friends at the car park. When we walked by, all of them were looking at us as if we have wrongfully entered “their territory” and were whispering and laughing among themselves. I looked back at them and the environment seems tense – you know lah how some Indians don’t like other Indians staring back at them (one of the main causes of fight in Indian pubs).
One of them (one young skinny fry) was talking like a gangster, trying to intimidate whoever that was passing by (including us). My thought at that time was to keep my cool and remind myself that I am with my family and this is their “territory” (if I was alone, then it is a different story maybe). We went up the stair case and as I was climbing up, I could not help noticing how cramp the apartment units are. I recall how we used stay in such a place (it was even smaller then) but we managed it just fine.
The majority living in the low cost apartment are Indians (I believe are those resettled from the various rubber estates around Puchong that was closed for development) followed by the Malays and some minority immigrants from Indonesia and Bangladesh. Each of the majority group keep to themselves – had never seen any “muhibbah” signs in the area. Some like the group that I encountered earlier loitering around at the car park, simply asking for trouble. Others are no where to be seen – probably holed up in their units. The playground near the car park is in a very sorry state and highly dangerous for small children. The pathway is dirty and littered with boxes, rubbish and papers.
Is the lack of education is part of the problem? Poverty may be a factor but poverty does not mean one can lose their common sense in their action. Some Indians are indeed on the “wrong side of the road”.
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I know that feeling – it’s all those movies that encourage these ‘small fry’ to ‘berlagak’. I bet you those boys can quote all the dialogue from every Rajni movie there is. Then they swagger about looking hostile. Do you blame the other races for avoiding any ‘muhibbah’ with this lot?
Along with poverty, there is a quiet desperation in the women as the guys drink themselves to death. Money is scarce, education is scarcer so where got time to clean up their environment and fix the broken stuff etc… They exist one day at a time – hand to mouth.
Kate – you are absolutely right. Some of these “small fries” does not know the reality of the outside world. They may look “tough” at their place but they are nobody on the outside.