KL Sentral’s cordoned drop-off points great hassle for commuters, symptomatic of VVIP culture

 

ONE set of rules for the privileged; another for the rest of the riff raff.

Many Malaysians are well aware and even accepting of the VVIP culture whereby a select class of politicians, tycoons and individuals with strong “cable” are afforded special privileges and luxuries.

This divisive culture was reflected in a post by Annoyed Malaysian (@annoyedmsian) on X which highlighted drop off/pick up lanes in KL Sentral – touted as Malaysia’s largest transit hub – is cordoned off with traffic cones.

It was claimed that this zone was “reserved” for VVIPs only. Unable to hide his disgust, the self-proclaimed liberal secularist slammed the authorities for allowing this.

The situation is similar at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) whereby it is claimed that such blocking of access creates massive traffic woes.

KL Sentral is meant to service the rakyat – not just VVIPs, the critique of public transport further lamented. The post which has amassed 276.6K views at the time of writing obviously resonated with many ordinary Malaysians who are fed up with this continued thumbing of noses at the rakyat.

The elite commuters were singled out as “VIPs, VVIPs and ministers and their families”.

One commenter stressed that given such transport systems were built with public funds, the rakyat deserve to be served first.

Highlighting that such issues have been a bane at KLIA for many years, he had explicitly asked the Malaysian Airports Holdings Bhd CEO “to turun padang (go to the ground)” to see for himself.

Tagging Transport Minister, Anthony Loke Siew Fook, he further reminded the Madani administration of its pledge to “put the rakyat first”.

It was, however, pointed out by the poster that KLIA was under the purview of the Finance Ministry. However, this mattered not as the problem remains regardless of who is in charge.

Some commenters also highlighted the seeming bias of the cops on duty when sounding their whistles for people to move their cars.

It was observed that it the extra loud and annoying whistles were only for “non-luxury vehicles” – again signifying a different approach when dealing with members of the upper crust who turn up in expensive cars.

Netizen disgust was apparent with comments painting a picture of ordinary citizens being treated poorly in comparison to their VVIP brethren.

Some commenters sarcastically mentioned that this was to prepare visitors for the reality of Kuala Lumpur where congestion and inconvenience rule.

Such a scenario was just more proof of Malaysians’ “slave mentality”.

The recent public anger in Indonesia over government officials perceived to be tone deaf should serve as a lesson to Malaysians. This VVIP culture needs to be halted lest it leads to resentment that boils over.

In the meantime, the consequence is more facilities built at great public expenditure become monuments to inefficiency and endless bureaucracy. 

- focus malaysia