Less than a week after our Prime Minister (Happy Belated Birthday, sir!) called our Mass Rapid Transit network “better than London, New York, or Hong Kong,” Facebook user Najmuddin Abdullah has chronicled our quick demise into far less creative, 80s New York subway territory. That is to say, damages and vandalism proving time and time again that here in Malaysia, we just can’t have nice things.
Please, just give us back those third-world buses that chugged along Jalan Ampang, with handwritten destinations on A4 in the front window, expulsing exhaust fumes on par with those of a PRC coal factory. It’s all we can handle until we learn some manners, and how to behave with public property.
Scratches along benches and walls, damages in handicapped toilets – nothing is above the ire of our public, eager to ride the MRT cheaply, but also wreck the sh*t out of it while we’re at it.
A lonely broomstick and spotlight on the rooftop of the central Bukit Bintang station? Why not! Two incongruous, inanimate objects cluttering the landscape. Show visitors and residents alike, hey – now here is a mature and responsible public. Sigh.
MyRapid KL employees told Najmuddin that Merdeka Square Station, synonymous with the country’s independence, was another popular vandalism spot. Nothing says FREEDOM! like trashing the place.
In short, our country is currently experiencing the mental equivalent of not bothering to wash dishes since they will only get dirty again. It’s time we grow up.
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