My Wish List for Malaysia (ongoing)

Reduce third-world mentality

We don't need kiasu attitudes like I-must-get-ahead-of-you-in-that-traffic-lane. We cannot be indifferent to our fellow people and excuse it as the Asian trait of shyness or segan when we don't help the old lady across the street or ignore a potential crime-in-progress. We have to quit being so petty, like the Education Ministry when it issued a directive to Penang schools to refrain from inviting non-BN VIPs to school events. (The Penang government smartly countered by removing teachers' obligations to attend state functions. Separation of education and politics - yay!).


Restore faith in the police

Gosh, wouldn't it be nice to be able to trust the police again? New slogans and badges won't cut it anymore... haven't they learned anything from the last elections? People don't want form over function. We want things to work as they should! We don't want the smirks and smart comments from police officers when we go to make a simple police report. We don't want to be told we are at the wrong police station or be given the run-around by police personnel who are too eager to pass the buck. And we don't want to hear anymore about police who refuse to respond to a burglar alarm at a resident because it occurred in the middle of the night!

Badawi said 2 days ago that the IPCMC (Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commissions) will be brought up in Parliament soon... but will it be the IPCMC developed 3 years ago, or the derivative SCC (Special Commission of Complaints) that gets tabled?


Improve road safety regulations

Statistics from 1996 indicate Malaysia has the highest rate of road accident fatalities WORLDWIDE. In a country where the government has their hands in everything and anything, there is so much more that can be done to keep our people safer on the roads. Tell all car manufacturers to abide by higher safety standards, like making airbags compulsory. No more making cars out of Milo tins (Proton, you listening?). Ban motorcycles from highways (I know, there'll be a massive revolt on this one). If you have to carry children on motorbikes, they must be wearing a proper-sized helmet (not 2 sizes fits all), in bright clothing, no more than 2 people on a bike, and travel at no more than 20 km/h. No more babies on laps in the car! Such a shame that only medium-income-and-above families can afford carseats priced at RM250 and up. Educate parents that this is one of the most important purchases to make. If they can't buy new, find one used.


Next: Limit awarding of Datuk-ships and such