Bright spark or dimwit action?

Don't you think these are breath-taking sights? Photos from our mainstream media. The heart of Kuala Lumpur. All jammed up with vehicles because some bright spark or dimwit in our Police department got the brilliant idea to block off all roads to Parliament House on Monday (14 Jul 2008).

It was fun for the Police but obviously, not funny, lah, for the thousands of motorists who were caught for some four or five hours in this traffic snarl. Someone should have known better than to play around with the Rakyat. It can only lead to no good. Who's going to pay for the lost hours? Who's going to pay for the opportunity cost? The Rakyat, of course. The businesses, of course. And the government? They are still defending the decision but nobody seems to buy their excuses any longer.

Yesterday morning, there was a lively phone-in session over the RedFM radio station. Listeners were asked to imagine a school where teachers were jealously guardng their precious pot of coffee. In an attempt to prevent a few roudy students from bumping into them and spilling their coffee, the teachers asked the prefects to enforce a rule where all the students - innocent and not-so-innocent - were forced to slow down and walk slooowly.

The allusion to the road closure and traffic jam was all too obvious. You can guess the responses of those who called or text-messaged the station. No prize for that. So the people were indignant that they were all made to suffer through the traffic jam while the authorities chased after imaginary threats.

Oh yes, what about the headmaster? Not surprisingly, nobody cared much about the headmaster...what he was up to or where he was.