By CC Pung, Justice of Peace
Tokoh Wartawan Sabah and FT Labuan
Just thinking ….
if a child from a poor family believes that he will, inevitably, continue to be poor, he’s likely to adopt an attitude and make choices that will, inevitably, keep him poor.
Right?
The problem is that the inevitability is a product of the subconscious.
A child, poor or not, probably can’t grasp ‘inevitability’.
His environment gradually shapes his thinking, influences his actions, and forms that devilish ‘heck, I’m gonna be poor anyway …’ conclusion in his being.
What’s the cure? I don’t know.
Makes me think of ‘Mat Rempit’, the infamous Malaysian product of daredevil, noisy motorcycle mobs who (there’s no official data) are mostly young, low-incime Malay boys and girls in cities and towns.
They are numerous and have been a phenomenon for decades that they have spawned their own subculture involving illegal racing, prostitution, illicit drugs (consumption and trafficking) and many other undesirable activities.
I have not gotten around to reading up any research seeking to understand the birth and growth of the rempit culture and its relationship, if any, to the proliferation of the ‘basikal lajak’.
The new phenomenon, also popular with Malay children, involves younger children with modified bicycles racing on public roads.
Why?
Why the longevity?
Should the government be responsible?
Afterall the Malays are the majority of the population.
What’s the long term impact of having generation of young people growing up in a less than productive sub culture.
I have a feeling that it has to do with families who fell through the cracks and somehow, subconsciously, feel the inevitability of their circumstance.
Rempit represents the rebelliousness, hopelessness anti establishment mindsets that are the products of ‘inevitability’.
A reckless motorcyclist swept past my car ( stuck in a queue) on the left, torn off a side view mirror, and sped off.
Mat Rempit has arrived in Sabah from Malaya.
This is my second experience.
The first was at a traffic light where, at green, one such cyclist almost pulled off a mirror, too.
They are irritants, and destructive ones, too.
Malaysia ia a Malay dominant society.
That’s a given.
The government and all its institutions have been pontificating for decades about helping the dominant community.
The Mat Rempit and ‘basikal lajak’ make me wonder: what happened?
Editor: The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of talantang.com
