Of tragedies and knee-jerk reactions

Five in a family drowned and the Water Safety Council is fast-tracked; a teen was killed in a silat demo gone wrong and guidelines came out restricting the use of real weapons during demonstrations by under-18 silat practitioners.

Don't get me wrong, but I do agree that those steps should be taken and they are certainly timely and long overdue.

But what is troubling is that we showed no foresight as a society to pre-empt these tragedies.

Probably a manifestation of the great Malaysian pastime of 'tidak apa'. Kinda like not giving a damn about things.

The same attitude, perhaps, that saw various parking bay elevators out of commission at that much acclaimed jewel of Malaysian air travel, the KLIA.

And indeed, it is a similar malaise affecting our public infrastructure, which sees highways and roofs collapsing.

It is only when things go wrong that we begin to think of what we should do - and then only start implementing mitigating measures.

Kinda late in closing the barn door when the horses have fled, eh?

But late as they may be, the measures thought up are often needed and would improve things for the better, if these are followed through.

However, like our many 'knee-jerks' of before, they often are not. As the Malay saying goes, we are mostly 'hangat-hangat tahi ayam'.

While I have never tested the veracity of whether the temperature of chicken poo evaporates quickly, the saying aptly encapsulates the infamous Malaysian public's short attention span.

And the lack of stamina and will of our authorities to follow through with promised reforms once public ardour over the matter flags.

'Put it to the committee, old boy'

What, need I ask, were the cogent long-term steps taken to improve public transport safety beyond the rhetoric spewed following the distressing Genting bus crash tragedy of 2013?

Nothing of course, but not before the authorities grandly went through the motions of showing proper grief and 'putting it to committee' as per the time-honoured traditions of our once British masters.

So, as expected, the proposed Malaysian Transportation Security Board has come to naught despite the earlier hype.

Indeed, the same problems with public transport safety continue to crop up after all the attention has died down.

This was but one of the 'knee-jerks' in a long line of twerks that is our public and official response to tragedies.

Yes, the knee-jerk nature of Malaysia's response to a tragedy is an all too common theme that many have touched on but the point must and should be driven home again and again - or else all the grief, pain and reform plans in the world will still only lead to nothing.

Maybe we, as a society, should take stock and think hard about what kind of future we want to leave our children and truly take steps to rectify our 'tidak apa' and 'hangat-hangat tahi ayam' mindset.

One can only hope that the measures taken to incorporate and inculcate water safety and prevent accidents during martial arts demonstrations will not just be another knee-jerk and will truly prevent future tragedies.

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HAZLAN ZAKARIA is a member of the Malaysiakini Team.