So, macam mana sekarang? (So, how now?)
Many of us will be familiar with the above question. It has been cropping up for a very long time.
If you have never heard of it, it can mean three things: You are too young; you have never broken any traffic rules; or you have broken traffic rules but never been caught.
Maybe nowadays things have become more subtle because of how social media works and it is easy to land in hot water.
“Playing safe” doesn’t make it okay. It was never okay and will never be.
By now, it’s obvious what I am getting at. I’ll spell it out clearly anyway – soliciting bribes and worse, people succumbing to it to get off the hook easily is wrong!
I won’t deny having been an accomplice to the crime a couple of times. Some years ago, however, I vowed to stop looking for the easy way out by giving ‘duit kopi’.
While that might hurt my pocket more, I realised it was the right thing to do. It’s like a social responsibility where we do our part to fight corruption at our own level.
The easiest way, of course, would be to not break traffic rules, so I make concerted efforts to be law-abiding at all times. Even then, things can go wrong sometimes.
Of course, avoiding traffic summonses is just one example. More goes on elsewhere but as always, there’s no evidence because the “giver” prefers the convenience of “settle sekarang murah” (cheaper to settle now).
We can talk on Facebook until the cows come home about corruption among our politicians and government officers. But what do we do besides that to have a positive impact in fighting the menace?
The answer is simple. Just don’t be a party to it. We have to be the change we want to see.
So, macam mana sekarang?
