Society Is Not To Blame For Basikal Lajak Tragedy

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“Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.”
- Dorothy Day
It is difficult to make the case that society is to blame for the basikal lajak tragedy because as citizens of this country, we do not participate in society as equals.
The political system is predicated on race. Economic, social and legal policies are predicated on race and the non-Malays are constantly told to be grateful for their citizenship.
I suppose we are a society in the definitional sense but beyond that, a certain segment of this society really does not have much say on how policy is formed to ameliorate problems faced as a collective.
To do otherwise would invite accusations of trespassing and meddling in majority issues.
Lawyer Siti Kasim asked: "Why don't our government build parks where these kids can go and play to their heart's desire? Just like in some countries, they have skateboarding parks for them to play.”
The answer is simple. Millions of ringgit are funnelled into the religious bureaucracy to ensure a certain kind of Islamic narrative is dominant. The same narrative defines the Malay community as besieged by negative influences of the non-Malay communities.
We see this in the thinking of the then Terengganu police chief who claimed: "In Terengganu, 97 percent of the population are Malays and they still respect older people in their villages. They respect the village chief, imam and bilal. Such way of life is an advantage that can prevent gangsterism-related crimes."
This is also why during the Seafield temple riots, veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin said this: “I am sorry to say, it is a bit difficult to understand how so many police personnel with state of the art equipment... did not see even one among the many Indian people who were there not committing any wrongdoings. It couldn't have been so dark (gelap) when so many vehicles were burned?
“So if it is true that police in the 21st century cannot see rioters because it was dark, I suggest the Home Ministry request an allocation from the Finance Ministry to purchase torchlights for police personnel.”
Think about the Low Yat plaza riots where Malay youths rioted and the Chinese community was scapegoated and low and behold Low Yat 2 was birthed into existence.
This is what current prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in 2015 about Low Yat 2: "Our target is 100 percent Malay traders. (But) there has never been a supplier from the Malays, so we will give some leeway."
Ismail Sabri Yaakob during the launch of Low Yat 2 in 2015All this because a group of Malay kids started a riot. Are we going to blame society too? This is the reason why racial politics is so divisive. How can the minorities look at this except through a racial lens?
Are the parents to blame?
Whenever any kind of violence is brought upon the Malay community by non-Malays, everyone tenses up because even if it is an accident, we know that the issue will be portrayed as a racial issue.
And whenever violence is brought upon the non-Malay community by the Malay community, false equivalencies are the talking points of the day.
Are the parents to blame? How could they have known where their kids are? Well, tell that to the million Malaysian parents from diverse economic backgrounds and who have problems of their own, who do know where their kids are?
Should the parents be charged? My reasoning is this, they have already paid the ultimate price for their neglect – knowingly or unknowingly – so what can the state do to punish them further. If this is not a wake-up call for parents around the country, I do not know what is.
Are the kids to be blamed? Of course, they contributed to this tragedy. Do not for one minute think that these kids did not know what they were doing was dangerous. The danger was the point.
It is a tragedy that some of them died to learn this point but this is what happens when you engage in dangerous behaviour.
Bicycle tragedy in JohorThe reality is that those kids who perished in the Johor bicycle tragedy were out looking for thrills, and in their minds they were invulnerable.
Isn’t it always like that when you are very young? You think that nothing can hurt you or at the very least, it will happen to someone else.
Anyone who has driven when these basikal lajak kids are around will tell you how dangerous it is. They will tell you how these kids sometimes barely have control of their bikes.
They will tell you of the fear they have of a kid falling down in front of their car and the fear of losing control of their vehicle.
And they will tell you how these kids have no concern for their behaviour but more importantly, any concern for the people driving around them. There are no victims here, only volunteers.
Sam Ke Ting has to live with the fact that the kids are dead. She certainly did not go out that day thinking that today was the day that she would run over kids who were engaging in dangerous behaviour.
So when it comes to blaming “society”, I have to wonder, whose society are we talking about here?
The one where everybody participates as equals (which does not exist) or the one where the majority has the most control but where problems are not faced, they are deflected? - Mkini
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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