Whose idea is 'Bangun KL' really?

 

If there are any ministers that we can’t really find fault with or even criticise too seriously, I would have to say it is Hannah Yeoh.

As a senior politician now, I have always seen her as someone who has a rational head on those shoulders, not too “gila glamour” (publicity seeking) and also practical in her policies.

I supported her even when she was youth and sports minister, and she was criticised by some quarters in Malaysia for her actions at the Paris Olympics when she took a photo with badminton world champion from Thailand, Kunlavut Vitidsarn, after he beat Lee Zii Jia in the men’s singles semi-finals.

I thought it was just good sportsmanship. Also, what’s the problem if she admires someone who is really good at his sport?

If I were to meet basketball players Yuki Kawamura or Jeremy Lin, I would definitely want to talk to them and take a picture with them, and you can bet that I’m going to post it all over my social media.

In all fairness, Yeo also spoke to Lee after the loss and she was at the Olympics supporting all of our local athletes. What she did is a good lesson for Malaysians to learn when it comes to respect, and in accepting a fair loss in a dignified manner.

Hannah Yeoh with badminton player Kunlavut Vitidsarn

So, I’m going to do something that I haven’t done before, and that is to give a little criticism to Yeoh. I hope she takes it in her stride and try to see where I’m coming from, and also to realise I’m not a hater, but just a concerned citizen who just so happens to have a platform to write about things.

‘Bangun KL’

Recently, Yeoh, in her capacity as federal territories minister, launched the “Bangun KL” initiative, a move to encourage commuters in the city to leave earlier in the mornings so as to reduce traffic congestion.

As an incentive, Zus Coffee will give discounts to those who purchase drinks in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya via their app.

I think the intention of wanting to reduce traffic congestion is a noble idea. It was also an intention many federal territories ministers before her had.

Around the world, urban planners and thinkers have tried long and hard to solve this very problem. And yet, nowhere around the world can they actually eliminate the problem.

Even though it is a tough problem to solve, I think it is still society’s responsibility to continue to think of ways to eliminate, or at least reduce in any way they can.

Expanding roads, building more roads, creating a systematic public transportation system, implementing higher tolls, etc, it has all been tried.

However, and I’m going to say it now after beating around the bush for about half a dozen paragraphs, this suggestion of Yeoh’s of asking everyone working in KL and Putrajaya to wake up earlier and leave for work earlier to reduce traffic jams is a little bit insensitive and simplistic.

People already waking up early

Go to anyone who works in the city and ask them what time they leave for work every day, and I will bet my bottom ringgit that that a majority of them are going to say that they leave really early in the morning, even before the sun comes up, depending on where they live in the Klang Valley.

I am lucky that I don’t necessarily have to always drive into the city for work, but whenever I do have to go in the mornings, say for example I have a meeting in KL at 9am, I would leave my house, which is in the vicinity of Shah Alam - at 6:30am or 7am just so that I can make it in time for my meeting.

Where I live, if you leave the house at 6:15am, the road leading out towards the highway would already be jammed and it would probably take you between 20 and 30 minutes to just hit the highway.

I hear from friends and family who live in other places around the Klang Valley that it is pretty much the same where they are.

So, if Yeoh’s suggestion is to be taken seriously by everyone, we would have to leave our houses before 6am daily.

But what time then do we have to wake up? What about if we have to send our kids to school or drop our spouses off at their workplace too? Does it mean we would have to wake up at 4:30am?

And if this were so, then what about coming back from work? There would be traffic then too. So, do we start an initiative where everyone leaves home early?

Or is it a better idea for us to leave for home late? Then what time would we get home? Will it be really late and how then are we going to wake up at 4:30am the next day?

We need better strategies

Do I have a solution? I have to admit that I do not. If anything, in my mind, the best two solutions today is to have a more systematic work from home strategy and to have a much better, more reliable and wider reaching public transportation. Personally, I think these are quite doable.

But that’s just me because long term solutions are what I think will really help instead of short term and knee jerk ones. However, I understand that thinking of long-term solutions takes, well, a long time and also it takes a lot of research and effort. So maybe it is coming.

I do hope that Yeoh and her team can sit down and really think it through. Maybe they have (like I said, it might be coming) and this is just the initial step to a wider plan.

If that is so, then the announcement as if it is the one and only genius idea is a bit out of place. Yeoh is one of the better ones, so we also expect better. - Mkini

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ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and academic. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.