Has govt given up on rehabilitating Mat Rempits?

Do we need to legalise a social menace just because we have not been able to rein in these illegal street racers who pose a danger to other road users?

COMMENT

By K H Su

Even before the dust over the sudden flip flop of the plan to bring in 1.5 million Bangladeshis has settled, more has just been kicked up by Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor’s shocking announcement that the government is considering allowing the notorious Mat Rempit use of some roads in the Klang Valley for their races.

Interestingly, it was also reported yesterday in FMT (“Is he kidding? Legalising weed won’t work here”) that Deputy Minister Nur Jazlan had defended the government’s stand to disallow the use of marijuana for medical purposes here despite it having been legalised in the US, with the dig that the US has been focusing on legalising several drugs because it has not been able to handle drug abuse issues in the country.

In keeping with the logic trotted out by Nur Jazlan, we would like to ask Ku Nan if we are learning from the US to legalise a social menace, in this instance the Mat Rempit races, because we have not been able to rein it in. So we too have to legalise those mad races just because we can no longer handle these racers?

Lest anyone should rejoice that once Ku Nan’s idea is put in place, the Mat Rempit menace to other road users will come to an end, let’s not lose sight of the other moral issues that will always haunt us.

The Mat Rempit youths are mostly young Malays from dysfunctional family backgrounds. I believe they have suffered from a lack of parental care. They take to races for excitement and many are said to have addiction to drugs and promiscuity. Some are also said to be snatch thieves.

Given their backgrounds I think the government is committing a grave sin by allowing these hyper-active youths to flirt with the high risk of death or permanent disablement on those tracks provided by the government.

Can the government declare, without even a tinge of guilt, that it has done everything possible to rehabilitate these youths who still have so many productive years ahead of them, if properly guided?

The authorities should need no reminders that once the plan goes ahead, more young people may be attracted to those newly-legalised race circuits.

How many more young people will be tempted to swap a proper education or a decent job for the thrills provided on those approved race tracks, to the detriment of their future?

Just wait for the accidents to happen and the grieving relatives will quickly finger the ones responsible for legalising the races! And perhaps the ones who may claim credit for turning a bizarre idea into a reality will have to search their souls every time a fatality occurs.

K H Su is an FMT reader.