Another OneMalaysia* Rush-Job?

Published on May 26, 2012 by blackspiderz86 Click to skip to minutes 5:32 to witness this scary accident. We pray that the injured Youths get well soon!

 

To counteract the fallout from the success of the recent Bersih 3.0 rally, the federal government organized a Himpunan Jutaan Belia 2012 (Million (sic) Youth Rally 2012) in Putrajaya (the federal administrative centre with monumental bridges# galore built at a cost of almost US$ 8.1 billion) on May 23-27. We don’t know how many youth actually turned up over the 3 days as the usual “Comical Ali’s” were surpringly mute about this. 

In Haste

As if to better the first night-time event in Formula Onehistory held in that little red dot across the causeway by Malaysian-born Ong Beng Seng, the Ministry of Youth and Sports decided hastily to have a midnight drag race there. 

The organizers did not bother with or were ignorant of the stringent safety protocols and powerful lighting systems that were employed in the Singapore Grand Prix to ensure the safety of not only the racers but equally, indeed more importantly, the safety of the spectators, the “million” youths who are the hope and future of the country, who had  turned up to watch the race. 

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail

And so it happened! One of the competing cars skidded during a trial run and crashed onto a group of the ‘million’ youth lining under the streetlights of the Wadi Ehsan Highway at Precinct 19. The fiasco sent 17 unfortunate spectators in hospital with 4 of them suffering serious injuries.

 Datuk Razlan Razali, chief executive officer of the Motorsports Association of Malaysia (MAM) later confirmed to the Sun Daily that MAM did not sanction the drag race. The organizers did not approach MAM for advice or management of any of the motorsports events held during the rally.

"All the events held there were unsanctioned events; the organisers did not follow any of our safety regulations,” said Datuk Razlan. "Whoever was asked to organise the event did not know fully the details of organising motorsports events, including the need for sanctioning by an official body."

No Insurance Coverage, Watch at Your Own Risk

"A lot of the cost of sanctioning goes to insurance coverage. The price of sanctioning includes third-party insurance. Everyone is covered. More importantly, sanctioning imposes a minimum safety standard which covers the racers, crews and spectators," Datuk Razlan.

* I encountered another “OneMalaysia” at KLIA on May 30, 2012 … the OneMalaysia SkyTrain!

Only one SkyTrain was operating and there was a long wait to get to the other terminal.

Why? Is it because business is so slow at KLIA that the service of the other SkyTrain was stopped to cut cost or is it because the parts of the second unit had been cannibalized to keep One Malaysian Skytrain running?

As one among the unappreciated 10% of Malaysians who pay tax, I hope I am wrong on either count.

At Changi airport there’s a Skytrain every 3 minutes, but it’s in Singapore, that little red dot!

# Klang desparately needs a utilitarian one which can be constructed at a fraction of the cost of one of those ornamental behemoths in Putrajaya. And the federal government did promise Klangites not just one but two bridges back in 2008, see Bernama report, but this was simply pre-election carrots and remains as such!