I witnessed a very disturbing incident today.
Went back to Seremban today on an assignment. Ate beef noodles and Hakka mee in Pasar Seremban. Yummy!
I walked out from the pasar and saw this MPS (Majlis Perbandaran Seremban) truck that stopped in between the building and the bridge, with the MPS crew standing around.
I was heading towards the car park and there was this tall, skinny guy wearing an MPS uniform walking in front of me. Not far away sat a middle-aged Chinese newsvendor, and i saw the MPS guy approach him.
Not looking like anything out of the ordinary, he greeted the vendor casually, it looked like they’re acquaintances.
“Utusan satu!” said the MPS guy. Looked like he wanted a newspaper.
It was then that I saw a flash of uneasiness on the old man’s face. He picked up one Utusan Malaysia and handed it over to the guy.
What transpired next was the most unbelievable thing. I seriously couldn’t believe what my eyes witnessed. So much so, I thought maybe I needed to get my eyes tested.
So what happened was…
The MPS guy then walked away. That’s right, nonchalantly walked away WITHOUT PAYING! He just left. Without even saying a simple thank you, nor paying.
The guy didn’t pay for the damn paper! Did he just conveniently forget about it? Did he do it on purpose? Was the old man too oblivious to notice what had happened? But it was not like he was so busy! I think he’s done that for at least a couple decades (judging from his age), i bet he could tell which newspaper is which with a mere sniff, blindfolded. Then why didn’t he stop that guy? I really didn’t understand.
That scene seriously disturbed me so much that i stood there for 10 seconds trying to analyze what had just possibly happened. Puzzled, then indignant.
I couldn’t stand the way things bothered me anymore, so I walked straight up to the newsvendor.
“Excuse me but do you know that the guy left without paying?” I asked.
“~~~~” He uttered something in vagueness that i couldn’t comprehend at all. But somehow i sensed a little embarrassment from him towards my question.
“Did the guy just leave without paying?” I asked again, firmer this time, more like i’m interrogating him.
“Haihnevermindla.” He replied with a sigh, waved his hand once aimlessly in the air. I reckon it was to cover his awkwardness. Perhaps. Still vague, but i roughly understand what he was trying to say, which instantly, sent shivers down my spine.
Cheesus Crust. He knew the guy didn’t pay, and he allowed it to happen.
“How can?!” I raged. In fact, I almost shouted, how the toot could you let that happen question mark question mark exclamation six six six are you cheesing crazy question mark six six six, but i held myself together. I mean, after all he was the victim right. Kesian him.
“No la, they just kacao with you only. It doesn’t happen often,” he said, looking completely nonplussed and reluctant to carry the conversation on any further.
Suddenly, i didn’t feel angry anymore. I felt sad.
Yeah, so it was just a newspaper and he probably earns like, what, 20 cents from it? (Though now he has lost RM1.20 cuz some babarian “robbed” it from him in broad daylight). He really gave me this feeling that he didn’t want to pursue the matter at all, and that i’m just being a kepoh passerby who should have minded my own business.
But how could i? I know justice is not always just, but should we just tolerate whatever within our toleration limit to live a peaceful life? Why do we display cowardice to disguised authorities and let them have the pleasure to continue exploit/extort/take advantage of us? We know damn well that they don’t have the cheesing right to do such thing but we endure it because we’re scared.
The attitude of 息事宁人。A typical Malaysian response to civilized barbarism. I’m not asking you to beat up the guy who overtakes your car and shows you middle finger therafter on the highway. But i wonder, since when is being a coward the right approach to move on from such a predicament?
Whatever i wrote above still doesn’t illustrate the tulanness of the incident enough. Urgh. Sien.
Maybe i should just mind my own business. Ignorance is bliss. I just hope the guy with no conscience, who robbed a newsvendor, will become a toilet roll in his next life. He can have fun smelling asses and tasting all kinds of shit.
authorities, police, bandaran, kastam, rela, imigresen…..ALL…behave like that!!!! my experience with imigresen and police/rela was… one of my sites was raided many years ago, they came, and proceeded straight to the workers’ quarters. when the authorities left, many of my workers all approached me to borrow money…..reason was, all their money+handphones+ valuables…etc……were taken by the authorities!
HEY, TEXT ME 012 668470, we exchange doogiie info.
That’s sad. It really is. How one person can rob an a man of what? 20cents? Shun him out of society! GRR!
hyaaa xxx
What will happen if the old man didn’t give him the newspaper? Shut his stall? Why should he be afraid if he got permit/license to open stall there?
uniform = license
uniform guy = licensed to rob
the newsvendor might be afraid that the stupid civil servant will report him, coz he doesnt have any license for his stall.
this happen every day and every where in bolehland…
That’s the sad fact of life living in malaysia. they (the government etc etc) thinks they can get away at anything.
Reading stuff like this makes me wanna leave Malaysia forever and go migrate somewhere else.
sad enough to say, I agree with yy…
But, exploiting innocent (not to mention old and helpless) citizens like that?! How can?!
hmph!
*Kesian also that newsvendor~*
p/s: hopefully legal actions would be taken against those authorities who exploit citizens like that…
soon he’d be asking for the green packet…hari raya u no…
good on ya for writing in out, cheesie… oh well, more often than not, authorities are not only upholding the LAW, THEY’RE THE LAW…
tulan la …..mps also one of the tulan goverment servants la….. lose trust and confidence with this government ppl already…cheap skate….
maybe the old man is scared ler.. simple la.. just like when we take driving test.. if u dun bribe them, they’ll fail u for no reason.. so if he didn’t give in to that officer, maybe they’ll find something to charge him on, and in the end, it’s their word against his.. so why all the problem – it’s better to say ntg in the first place.. it’s sad I noe.. but, i mean who can blame him.. he’s just merely protecting his own benefit.. better lose 1.20 than more..
and even with the what is it call, anti rasuah thing going on.. rmbr how this student dobed a cop in and when he wasn’t found guilty (doesn’t mean he didn’t accept it right? maybe just lack of evidence to prosecute him), he went all anal and wanted to sue the student for defamation.. i mean man, where’s the protection right?.. sighs.. whatever la.. so used to it already
sheon: kesian them. 🙁 did you borrow? so many of them wor!
Chelsia: What kind of info? 😀
jenchu: If only we could! 🙁
saManThaArRh….x: haih. lol what’s with the long nick?
js: He just didn’t want to worsen things, i guess, cuz they can always come back and “kacao” him again. It’s like paying “protection fee” to gangsters, i guess?
yy: haha good one.
pooi: that’s what i thought too. but he’s been there forever. Well then again he could have been “bribing” forever too. I don’t know for sure.
Ofriend: Yea tell me about it.
coffeejunkie: I’m not surprised that 80% of my friends have thoughts like yours. There’s so much to ponder about if you really wanna do it. And it’s always convenient to think that the grass is greener on the other side. Then again, it might just be seld-deceptive prep talk we repeat everyday to convince ourselves that everything is not that bad. lol.
eve: there’s always this hope. but where and when is it?
joe: lol. ya hor, i reckon maybe bad mood cuz he starved for a few hours d.
chris: so true, i dont wanna know la. Ignorance is bliss wtf. *repeats to self 100x times*
clement: ooomph, calm down!
s0hp0h: Yes that’s why it’s like a vicious cycle. There’s leeway for them as there is for us. It’s a mutual thing. It’s so convenient to just opt for the easy way out. There’re actually a lot of people who prefer the way things are now. You eat my shit and my back gets scratched, and we’re both happy. *shrugs*
i i i i i i i i i i i !!!!!!*sigh*
might be a bit too dangerous to do that, but if i were you and under that kind of situation, i would have clarify matters with the vendor and rushed to question the mps guy. could have sparred you from your tu lan ness. i really wonder what would the mps guy reply.
other things aside, i really enjoy reading your entries=)
LOL… this man who rob should be thrown to jail!!
That’s ridicules!! GRRRR!!
Feel sorry for that old man =(
huh! for real ar!!!!
I’m a sban-kia too!!
But yet i aso didn’t realise such things happen..
very TMD T_____________________________T
OMG! That is sooo…..
Well there r alot of cases like this before. Injustice here and there esp those with authority and uniforms who love taking advantage over people like u n i.
Public servants in Malaysia sucks,especially those policemen!ALL THEY WANT IS MONEY,THEY R USELESS!
Every CNY, the MPMBB guys who come to my neighbourhood for trash collections will kinda extort ang pows and oranges from the residents. There was a year when my neighbour was away on holidays and couldn’t hand in her annual ‘offerings’, her garbage was left to rot for an entire week! This IS indeed disturbing.
Superior thinking demosntreatd above. Thanks!
i live in seremban for more than 20 years and i do see these regularly…
not only perbandaran people, police, bomba, rela etc….
they just come and take like their father own that place…
i can say not only seremban, but t he whole malaysia is like that…
i once worked for the Majlis Perbandaran Seremban and i see more abuse of power by them…
this is the malaysia have become today
All this suckas everywhere… hate them too.
cheesie, ignorance is not bliss all the time. that man might have done the same thing to the old man for the past months/years. helping him out is doing a good deed.
Ops Sikap starting soon. 🙂
From my own idea, and observation yes people with authority in Malaysia(not all but mostly.) exploits their power. They took it for granted. They always want from the least to the most. Yet we as tax payers who pays indirectly gave them paychecks can do anything about it. The newspaper vendor probably does not have license to put up a stand there that is why they can exploit him. Just take notice of this, we as tax payers pay their paychecks but we do mistakes as well. They as tax-relieved authorities only will target people who does mistakes (e.g. Speeding, dvd peddling, driving under the influence.).
If we were to put ourselves into less hot soup, no way these authorities can extort from us. Is’nt that right? Not going to say that we always feed them or whatever but my own observation tells me that if you had done nothing wrong, they have nothing to extort from you ladies and gentlemen. This would be my gentle advice as I personally had gone through shit with them before and yes, they feed on our forgivable mistakes by cannibalising into our pockets.
Just last week my friend got blocked for driving under the influence but he was under the limit and yet the police wanted to take him for ‘further check-up’. Thank goodness my friend was smart to say “Saya tahu saya tak buat apa2 salah, saya balik rumah skrg.” and drove off. He was still legal under the eyes of the law so what can the cops retaliate towards him? Nothing. Not even extortion can be done.
Another warning. Raya coming you guys get the picture. Sorry, I guess I typed too much. This issue always makes me dissapointed with our own country. Konon we are progressing.
Ohh, outrageous!!
Malaysia BOLEH!!!!! Buat apa pun BOLEH!!!
Our society is (sad to say) turned into victims of ‘robbers’
Evry other agency is like that…
But then…. i think its just how our culture is…
U can say..its the MPS fault..but its also the vendor’s fault..
One for robbing and the other for allowing…
If we do not stop it, no one can…
But then… its also very susah to deal in this situation..
Easier said than done…
If the vendor disallows, later kena blacklist…
N the MPS ppl will come ‘cari pasal’ with him..
Sigh….. our society has close its eyes to justice!!
N allow this in broad daylight!!
its sad… i feel your pain. i think everyone should do something rather than not bothering to. by reporting the incident, it would at least let their bosses know what is going on.
sad sad sad… it is so sad to see how malaysia has become. sigh~~
>>; he wouldnt even pay 20 cents? woah. and to do it in that guy’s face. that is so unbelieveable!
btw, love the cheesus christ xD and and the copycheesed i just noticed on the bottom of the blog.
cant afford to lend them 🙁 ….coz i didnt have much also back then….just doing internship with rm400-500 allowance. 🙁
what we can do is …. try changing this mentality/practice by changing the way the government run malaysia…… bapa borek, anak rintik. so..i am hoping that my single vote in the upcoming election…will make a difference for malaysia .
Hmmm. Maybe it’s some form of bumiputra?
?!!! ugh, government’s pets. or however u choose to interpret it. ugh!?!!!!
We should encourage more young people to go out to the streets and witness what life is all about living in the ‘real’ world. Sadly, society has become more self-centered these days. It’s time our new generation ‘wake up’ and ‘straighten up’ in caring for our own future.
Talk is cheap. Ignorance is even cheaper…. Take action, take charge.
oh maaannnnn…, my blood is boiling just reading about it! That is horrible!! I guess ignorance really is bliss :/
and the government is wondering why we don’t support our own country sometimes. malaysia tak boleh lah!!
sometimes, ignorance is really a bliss.
this is so sad
you know even if you report
no action will be taken
dont no why, suddenly i feel like singing this song ~*music pls*~ ~ ~negaraku.. tanah tumpahnya darah ku…rakyat hidup …bersatu dan maju…..
That’s one small example of what goes on everyday in Malaysia.
There was this one incident where the house of a close friend of mine was robbed. So she and her parents came back, found the house trashed, and called the police (obviously). So here these three policemen are asking questions, going through the house. My friend follows the head policeman through the house as he’s taking a look, and watches him nonchalantly pick up a small purse that had been knocked over onto the floor near a chairleg, and POCKET it. She didn’t say anything.
The ironic thing is, they knew that the small purse contained a gold crucifix. I wonder what Mr Policeman did when he took it home and opened it expecting money.
It happens everywhere. The authorities can kacau mamak stalls, food courts, cybercafe, anything. If u don’t wan to kena kacau, just let them take what they want. This has crept into our culture.
That happened probably because the old man was selling newspaper by the roadside illegally. By right, the MPS guy could have given him a fine for doing that. I can understand where the newspaper seller is coming from. I pity him for not being able to make a living without these guys coming to always provoke him every now and then.
The MPS guy probably thought it was a good idea to blackmail him and in exchange for not “disturbing” him, the newspaper seller would then give him a free copy of the utusan when he came by. Sad case, but it’s a common scene here. Sigh.
haiya, me fr seremban too, i know this old man, he been selling for more then 10yrs, he certainly has license, n so do the other vendors ~ nasi lemak, 豆浆，fruits…all of them are licensed, the problem is the area is not authorized to sell things, so its a mutual understanding between them, 你给我好处我闭一只眼； but every now and then they still hv to take action, so thats the time you’ll see” 走鬼”, exactly like what u see in hongkong movies, if u r too slow to get away, all your belongings would be confiscated…
*sigh* so pity for the old man.. he don’t earn much yet he has to pay with his own money to cover up the loss.. It feel bad when we couldn’t do anything.. =(
bo bian lah, “if you can’t beat them, join them” 😉
should have taken a video and put it up on youtube.
normally, i wouldn`t be leaving a comment, but i think you have a point about this daylight robbery. i personally think this chinese guy is just trying to avoid having a confrontation with the officers because he knows if he was to confront them, he would lose more than just a profit of 20 cents.
this happens everywhere in this country and it`s a sad but true fact that a huge number of these uniformed officers tend to bully their way thru.
one thing, however, had this newsvendor be say, malay, i think things would have been different…before you call me a racist, you can`t deny the fact there has never been racial equality in this country. it`s a peaceful country because most malaysians have the “close-one-eye” attitude.
bad, you think? let`s hope one day, we`ll stop living in this type of fear.
Samantha just got her 3rd vaccination. We went to the farm today and she had a nice time playing with fren’s doggies and the sheeps and baby lambs. Have you made sure that Cheddie get her ear’s hair pull out? otherwise it will get overgrown and when the ears sweat, it will block her ears and other problem might be ear mites infestation. Also get the hairs around her eyes trimmed occasionally cos maltese hair eyes grow into them. They can be painful and creates lots of “watering” yellowish thingee which is bad for them. Ta.
There’s no human rights at all here! so sad….
I din’t know government officials in Malaysia that corrupted one ah – until Raya wanna come can go extort ang pow – sorta defeats the purpose of being a muslim.
It’s happening all around us.
I used to own a workshop and everyweek the mp’s will come by to fix thier cars for free. If i charge them for the job they’ll just come back the next day and attempt to take away my license to operate. Saying that i didn’t follow the proper regulations to operate or its dangerous to work in my place cause of the placement of machines and shit…