Hand Signals
I SEE THAT
the traffic roundabout at Bagan Jeremal/Kelawei Road has been done
away with. Is this because the traffic density has reached the prescribed
stage for conversion to traffic lights? An article in the "Spiegel"
by Matthias Schulz tells us that seven cities and regions in Europe are
doing away with traffic lights. The idea is to encourage people to communicate
without traffic signs. Countries include Denmark, England, Belgium,
and Holland. Stop signs and direction signs are nowhere to be seen. There
are neither parking meters nor stopping restrictions. There aren't even
any lines painted on the streets. The many rules, Schulz writes,
strip us of the most important thing: the ability to be considerate. "We're
losing our capacity for socially responsible behaviour," says Dutch
traffic guru Hans Monderman, one of the project's co-founders. "The greater
the number of prescriptions, the more people's sense of personal responsibility
dwindles."
Germany has 648 valid traffic symbols. The inner cities are crowded
with a colourful thicket of metal signs. Don't park over here, watch
out for passing deer over there, make sure you don't skid. The forest of
signs is growing ever denser. Some 20 million traffic signs have already
been set up all over the country. Psychologists have long revealed the senselessness
of such exaggerated regulation. About 70 percent of traffic signs are
ignored by drivers. What's more, says Matthias Schulz, the glut of prohibitions
is tantamount to treating the driver like a child and it also foments
resentment. He may stop in front of the crosswalk, but that only makes
him feel justified in preventing pedestrians from crossing the street
on every other occasion. Every traffic light baits him with the promise
of making it over the crossing while the light is still yellow.
The new traffic model's advocates believe the only way out of
this vicious circle is to give drivers more liberty and encourage them
to take responsibility for themselves. They demand streets like those
during the Middle Ages, when horse-drawn chariots, handcarts and people
scurried about in a completely unregulated fashion. The new model's proponents
envision today's drivers and pedestrians blending into a colourful and
peaceful traffic stream.
"Unsafe is safe" was the motto of a conference where proponents
of the new roadside philosophy met in Frankfurt in mid-October.
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The plans derive inspiration and motivation
from a large-scale experiment in the town of Drachten, Netherlands
, which has 45,000 inhabitants. There, cars have already been driving
over red natural stone for years. Cyclists dutifully raise their arm
when they want to make a turn, and drivers communicate by hand signs,
nods and waving.
"More than half of our signs have already been scrapped,"
says traffic planner Koop Kerkstra. "Only two out of our original 18
traffic light crossings are left, and we've converted them to roundabouts."
Now traffic is regulated by only two rules in Drachten: "Yield to the right"
and "Get in someone's way and you'll be towed."
The number of accidents has declined dramatically. Experts from
Argentina and the United States have visited Drachten. Even
London has expressed an interest in this new example of automobile
anarchy. And the model is being tested in the British capital's Kensington
neighbourhood.
In Germany there was sceptism. And the comments could well apply
to Penang. "German drivers are used to rules," says Michael Schreckenberg
of Duisburg University, who believes the new vision of drivers
and pedestrians interacting in a cozy, relaxed way will work, at best,
only for small towns. Will it work in Penang?. I am optimistic.
To judge by past performance whenever traffic lights have failed our drivers
on the whole have behaved very well.
No City
Some have asked why there was no city day celebration for Penang.
This typical of the "captive mind" that the late Prof Syed Hussein Alatas
lamented. It still dreams of the day when the British Queen declared
George Town a city 50 years ago on a January 5th. But do we
have a city anymore? Years ago, in 1974, the municipal administration
merged with the rural district council with the result that the municipal
council (the MPPP) is in fact running the whole island of Penang; the
municipal council of the town is no more.
Being Black
It was disgraceful, that news about US Navy lawyer Wayne
Wright and an ex-Navy serviceman and multi-media engineer Yahweh Passim
Nam. They were handcuffed by immigration people. They couldn't even wait
to see Wright's passport which was in his hotel. The men were held for
24 hours and refused permission to contact the US embassy. Not surprisingly,
the Tourism Minister defended the immigration officers. "Sorry to
say especially there's a lot of Africans, black people, who come to our
country and overstay," he told BBC. "What they did was just trying to clean
up some of these people who've overstayed in our country."
That unfeeling statement is typical of how this colonial minded
country thinks. All Chinese women entering the country are prostitutes
posing as tourists, all Indians are out of job road sweepers coming in
for an illegitimate purpose, all black people are beneath contempt.
There is no need to be polite, QED.
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I once met an Indian millionaire who told me of his being questioned
for hours before being allowed to enter the country. He said his holidays
were always in France but he diverted, persuaded by a friend to visit
this country instead. Never again!
Simply not done
I was shocked to see the photo of the PM which appeared in the
PAS newspaper Harakah, one hand grabbing the bare shoulder of Michele
Yeoh and the other waving to someone in the distance. I wouldn't
have done that to any woman, however close the friendship. Besides,
the husband might have taken a swipe at me. How times have changed!
Harakah was wrong in thinking that the photo exposed a
decadent Western practice. No, even in the decadent West, it simply isn't
done.
Musicians
At Dewan Sri. young musicians, aged 11 to 19, of the German Philharmonic
String Orchestra played pieces from Bela Bartok's Rumanian folk dances
to Johann Strauss's Wine, Women and Song with a zestful enthusiasm. I wished
that Maestro Woon would coax his equally young players along the same
path chosen by this German orchestra instead of aiming too high; they
would shine as did this German group. Their sparkling performance
of selections from West Side Story some months ago was a revelation.
Korean teachers Seo-Kyung Na Myunghee Han
Jung On Park played pianos at the USM. Park and Na gave a striking performance
of Stravinsky's difficult "Petrouchka." Two things about this concert.
Students were sparing in their applause and I wondered if this was
a sign of regimentation. The second thing was that we had only
to wait 15 minutes for the late arrival of VIPs. Are things improving
down there?
Two or three weeks later Carlyn Morenus, professor of Piano Keyboard
Area Co-ordinator of Illinois State University. played in the same
hall. That the piano sounded a different instrument at her hands was
a tribute to her technique. Her playing of Copland's Piano Variations
was formidable. But the lamentable thing was that we had to wait 28
minutes for the VIPs. Why the university finds it difficult to copy
the punctuality of our governors at concert baffles me unless it is explained
by the practice of VIPism, the cult of cultivating the importance of being
important.
Stupid
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad made an interesting disclosure
recently. "The Cabinet is not made up of experts," he said. "They
are made up of politicians, and some politicians like myself can be
very stupid. What happens when you have an agreement is that the officers
make the agreement and the agreement is sent to the Cabinet and usually
the small print is not there."
"Cabinet merely passes on the basis of principle. They do not
really study the implication of some passages in the agreement," he said,
to quote news website "Malaysiakini," when asked about news
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reports that road
toll agreements may have been too biassed in favour of the toll operators.
And the Tun gave another example. "I give you an example of
the things that can happen when you leave it to the officers and the
Cabinet doesn't study it very well. We made an agreement to purchase
a battleship. In the agreement, it says that if there is a delay, then
the company would compensate the government.
"But if the delay is more than six months, then the company would
not need to compensate the government. And the delay was more than two
years."
We wonder what happened to the government lawyers. Tun's amusing
confession suggests that they, Attorney-General's department down,
had simply not been asked to advise.
Destruction
I am sorry to see that the old Malay school building in Hutton
Lane has been pulled down. There is a lot of talk about preserving our
heritage but this is one more example demonstrating that it is all just
talk. I fear for the truly ancient Mesjid Tarik Ayer along Burma
Road whose name itself speaks history. Nobody ever talks about preserving
it and no tourists are brought to see it.
Georgetown
The signs at the Registration Department show "Georgetown"
as the name of this town. But the department's courteous
service tempts us to forgive them.#
K L Chai
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