Stop For Them!

Just the other day over the table sipping our chinese tea, someone highlighted the incident of the Australian exchange student who got knocked down by a vehicle outside Monash Sunway Campus. Apparently that girl was chasing the bus or something and she ran out to the zebra crossing but the car didn't stop or something like that. Thank God she didn't die (or else Monash's School of Science will be in great trouble) but she had some blood clot in her brain. So surgery and blah blah blah. Now still in ICU i think.

I'm not very sure of the actual version of this incident but the key point here is, we drivers should all stop when someone wants to cross the road at the zebra crossing.

Cannot be denied that it's Malaysian's culture to not stop at zebra crossings. I vividly remember my trip with the HCA guys to Singapore, there was once when Ronnie and I wanted to cross the road, so we stopped at the zebra crossing 'cause we saw cars but they stopped for us immediately. I also realise that the rest of the Singaporeans just cross without looking at zebra crossings because the drivers there WILL stop their vehicle for us. Unlike Malaysia, if Ronnie and I did that here, we would have been knocked down by something long ago. Yes, that bad.

And when Liangyi and gang (Singaporeans) came for a 3-months exchange program in UM, they actually stopped at the zebra crossing for sooooooooo long in their campus but no car seems to stop for them. So they came and asked me why.

Someone told me that its the culture here, an unchangable bad habit that's etched deeply in our roots, our culture, the Malaysian culture to not stop for them.

Well, I beg to differ.

I think its more of the mentality and its something that we can train. We're in control of our actions, not entirely depending on the mentality (or the culture like said). Someone also brought up that its more dangerous to stop our car just in case the car behind us speeds and our sudden braking for the pedestrian crossings would cause an accident. This is true till a certain extend but I guess, the world will not change if nobody do their part.

We just need to set an example, one by one and things would happen. Things won't change overnight but it takes effort. Let's say now I encourage some of you (say 2 of you) to practise this way (stop for the pedestrian) , the two of you will make some changes and tell another 2 and that 2 will tell another 2. That's like 1 become 2, 2 become 4, 4 become 8 and so on. An exponentially increasing chain reaction!

When there's a need for change of mindset, effort will be required too. Nothing will be done if nobody does it. It has to start somewhere! It can start with US (as in kita, and not Amerika Syarikat)!

Come on people, lets do this together!