Off The Cuff - Why promote Mat Rempit culture?
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- Last Updated on Sunday, 11 September 2016 19:19
THE RESPONSE to a proposal by the Federal Territories minister to set up a night track around the Kuala Lumpur city centre for Mat Rempit, the "daredevils" or illegal speedster motorcyclists, to race has come fast and furious.
It was a resounding "No" by some 92% of those polled online by a newspaper and if you are wondering where the other 8% who like the idea came from, your guess is as good as mine, they must be from the Mat Rempit themselves.
In the first place, our already over-worked traffic cops are hard-pressed to handle the Mat Rempit.
And from my travels around the world on assignments as a reporter for over three decades, I can safely say that the Mat Rempit culture is virtually an exclusive Malaysian phenomenon.
I've seen more motorcycles on the road in densely populated cities like Jakarta and Hanoi but nothing beats what we can find in Kuala Lumpur, with regular illegal midnight races on some roads despite so many riders already being dealt with under the law.
In Hanoi , for instance, the most striking thing about their motorcyclists is that they are disciplined and comply with the speed limit.
When I asked Vietnamese journalist friends the reason for this, the answer was insightful: "Most of them are the sole breadwinners in the family. They don't want to get killed on the roads!"
But here, apart from illegal racing, where else on Earth can you see motorcyclists blatantly beating the red lights even in broad daylight.
If we ask our "always in a hurry" motorcyclists why: the answer will be, to borrow the name of a nasi kandar restaurant chain, "line clear."
Yes, they may think so, but they are missing the point. They might not think much of their own safety but what about other road-users?
And much more importantly, it's their utter disregard for the law that's the whole issue.
It's for this matter that if I talk to foreign diplomats in Kuala Lumpur, many would tell me that their biggest fear of living in the city is not being mugged but to be run down by a motorcyclist while crossing the road.
Mat Rempit culture is an addiction and like all addictions, it's a very tough nut to crack and the best we can hope for is that there'll be fewer and fewer of these mostly young boys jumping on the bandwagon.
We have bodies dealing with road safety which don't exist in most countries like the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros), a dedicated Road Safety Department set up in 2005 and a non-governmental organisation like the National Road Safety Council.
Despite all this, we have one of the highest rates of road accidents per capita and it naturally follows one of the highest road deaths in the world.
It boils down to the fact that we have far too many motorcycle deaths that I have alluded to a few times over the past few years in this column and which I have no hesitation to repeat given this proposal to "legalise" Mat Rempit races at certain hours right smack in the city centre.
Every year, over 4,000 motorcyclists and their pillion riders – mostly young Malaysians – lose their lives and they make up over 65% of the total number of road fatalities or some 6,500 on the average.
Of course speed is not the only reason for motorcycle accidents but studies by Miros concluded that if riders keep to a speed limit of 60kph, chances of them getting killed in road crashes can be reduced by as much as 80%. Yet we don't impose such a speed limit despite such studies.
Studies also show that if there are dedicated motorcycle lanes where the two-wheelers don't come into contact with other vehicles, road deaths among them can be cut by a massive 83%!
We still do not have dedicated motorcycle lanes along most of our roads and highways. The best example of such lanes are the ones along the Federal Highway from Petaling Jaya to Klang, perhaps the country's busiest freeway.
While Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor means well with his idea, there's the real possibility of it getting out of hand thus making it even more difficult for the traffic police to tackle the menace.
In other words, teenagers who are not into Mat Rempit culture would be attracted by a such a race and swell their numbers.
And when they are not in such a "legalised" race, they would race on the roads just to get their "high".
It might also promote further the Mat Rempit culture when we should go all out to crack down on it like what is being done for other illegal activities.
Also, the small motorcycles, popularly known as kapcais, are not built by the manufacturers to be racing machines.
There's so much merit and validity in the comments from people who are dead opposed to the proposal and it's fair to say that the most worried people are the police and the parents who have children using motorcycles and who are in constant fear over their safety.
Titiwangsa Member of Parliament Datuk Johari Ghani said such racing threatened public security and endangered the lives of the public because Mat Rempit were not professional riders.
Besides, insurance companies won't cover such an activity.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said he would discuss the proposal with the minister.
Let's us all hope that this proposal won't see the light of day or, in this case, night.