Malaysia Boleh! Malaysia Boleh!,  we often cry out in jubilation. But what are the ‘boleh’ that we can do?

We are not in the World Cup in South Africa, we were not in the last Olympic soccer, in Formula 1 we performed dismally and even in regional football we hardly make an impact. Yes maybe Nicol only, but then that is only 1 Malaysian. What about the rest of us. Remember a decade or two ago when some competing countries came for the Merdeka Football Tourney, many of their players (from a couple of countries)  played barefoot. Malaysians were standing proud thinking that we are more advanced than them as none of our players were barefooted. But that is not the yardstick for development, yes, but we did laugh at them didn’t we. Today we cannot even manage a draw with them in a match.

This startling figure was the outcome of a study carried out by G.D.Jacobs and Amy Aeron-Thomas. Whether the outcome of the study is accurate I am not about to argue but from newspaper reports on accidents on our roads I believe that there is some if not some inclination towards that study results.

Some countries that came close to us were South Korea with 27 deaths per 100,000 population, the United States with 16, Japan 11, India 6 and China 6.

When GOD created man HE gave us two legs to travel and to ensure we do not jeopardise our other body parts he limited the speed our legs can carry us. GOD also gave us brains. BRAINS TO THINK. If we are to travel faster than GOD had intended us to, GOD will want us to use our brains to find ways to protect us in case of a mishap. If HE had not wanted us to think than HE would have given us organs like wings, gills or shell and no brains. HE did not give us wings so we human can see and study birds and come out with plans on how to fly. He did not give us wings so we can study the fishes and come out with plans on how to stay underwater.

BUT do we use our brains when we drive or ride a bike? Sadly most of the time, we do not. We take driving a car and riding a motorcycle for granted. Take the keys push the starter button, put in gear and off we go. Never for a moment to stop and think what if this or what if that happen.

We don’t wear proper attire, we don’t buckle up or tighten our helmets or sometimes we don’t even put on a helmet because we only need to go to the neighbourhood shop a kilo away. We don’t check the conditions of our tyres brakes,lights,wipers.

We don’t care if we are sleepy or not, work starts at 8 so you must rush. Don’t care if the brakes are a little bit off, having to punch card on time seemed more important. So the things we neglect go on and on. There are a thousand and one things that we purposely ignore and these are things that seemed minor but the consequence is heavy. i.e your life.

So it comes to no surprise that our accident rate per 100,000 populations is the highest in the world. So how do we go about correcting the figures?  3 ways;

Obviously we cannot do anything with 1 and 3 but we can do much to item 2.

In 3 or 4 months the Raya season will see many on the balek kampong rush. It is opportune that all media start educating potential balik kampong crowds on road safety. Don’t let Ops Sikap figures give us another fright.