No one to blame but ourselves if we say nothing at all

You know the feeling. You have been standing in the queue at a government department for the past hour. There are several counters, but only two are open to service the public.

Behind the counter, the staff are milling around and merrily chatting away. They are blind to the 50 people waiting patiently on the other side.

Your car is currently parked in a metered bay and you pray that you will not receive a ticket. You would hate to lose your place in the queue if you were to leave to feed the meter, so, you grit your teeth and hope for the best.

The doors to the department open, and an officious looking man enters. He marches to the counter, drops some names, and is attended to immediately.

Instead of admonishing this man, the rest in the queue, including the man who should have had his business seen to first, simply shrug their shoulders and quietly fume.

What does this tell you about the people who are waiting? What does this tell you about the attitude of the customer service employees?

Last week, a 20-year-old vocational college graduate, Nur Farahanis Ezatty Adli, masqueraded as a dentist and treated people with dental health problems on the cheap.

Ironically, her false credentials were unmasked when she made a police report about two of her patients who didn’t settle their bills with her. Her arrogance made her blind to the fact that she was breaking the law by operating a bogus dental clinic.

Nur was lucky. None of her patients suffered complications, unlike the son-in-law of the Deputy Prime Minister, who died whilst his wisdom tooth was being extracted.

Fined RM70,000, Nur was grateful that this was settled by an activist organisation. What message is the court sending out, by imposing a paltry sentence onto the bogus dentist? She had learned her trade from YouTube. If someone had died or been disfigured, she would have had no insurance to protect herself. Her patients were at risk too.

What message was the NGO sending, when they came to Nur’s defence? What does it say about us, when the majority of dental associations and dentists just shrug their shoulders and refuse to demand a higher sentence for this criminal act? Would you have kept quiet if your child had died in her clinic? What does our silence say about us?

This week, the former Road Transport Department (RTD) deputy director-general, Yusoff Ayob, 58, was fined the maximum of RM2,000 for driving along the emergency lane of Lingkaran Putrajaya. He committed the offence in October last year.

He was a senior person in the RTD and should have been jailed. What sort of message does this send to others, when the deputy DG was given the equivalent of a rap on the knuckles for breaking the law? RM2,000 is kacang-putih to Yusoff. He pays the fine, and that is the end of the matter.

He should have been more severely punished to show others that crime does not pay. He could have had points added to his driving licence. He could have been forced to do community service. None of these options were adopted. Others learn from our behaviour, so, what does it say about us?

Would we have reacted only if our parent had suffered a heart attack and died, because Yusoff’s car prevented an ambulance from driving down the emergency lane? Would we have been silent if our house had burned down, because a fire engine was delayed, as Yusoff’s car was blocking its route?

We lack the moral courage to mobilise ourselves, and with one voice, warn the authorities and the courts, that the period of leniency must end.

We do not stand up for our rights, and the politicians are able to ride roughshod over us, because we are spineless.

Mariam Mokhtar is an FMT columnist.