Miscellaneous notes to myself: bus ride, book, police, stolen cars, etc

Bus ride from Kuala Lumpur
Last month as I was travelling back by bus from Kuala Lumpur, I couldn't help but notice that the Sri Maju bus was travelling by a convoluted route to Bukit Mertajam. Instead of leaving the highway at the Bukit Tambun interchange, it left only at the Juru (Autocity) interchange. This was a slightly longer route as the bus needed to loop back almost in the opposite direction.

The bus departed Pudu Raya at about 5.15pm and at about 7pm, it swung into Ipoh to drop off some passengers. That actually delayed my arrival time by about an hour. Anyway, I did notice that the bus passed the Bukit Merah interchange at 9.25pm, Nibong Tebal interchange at 9.45pm, Bukit Tambun interchange at 9.53pm, the Juru toll at 9.56pm, Juru interchange at 10.03pm, arrived at the Bukit Tengah traffic lights at 10.05pm and the Summit traffic lights in Bukit Mertajam at 10.14pm.

All in, a boring journey of five hours. Luckily, for the part where there was still daylight, I could finish reading that book by Neil Khor and Khoo Kay Peng, "Non-Sectarian politics in Malaysia: the case of Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia." I was commenting to my wife just the other day that this book - which certain people in the Gerakan tried to prevent from being launched - gave me more than an insight into the Gerakan party. It was a nut-shell history of modern Penang itself, from the pre-1969 to the post-2008 period. A must read for every Anak Pulau Pinang.

Text exchanges with Colin
On the by-election day in Permatang Pauh, one of my chess kakis in Kuala Lumpur was asking me about the weather. I knew what he meant so I texted back to him that "it was a jam-packed carnival mood with prospects of good news tonight."

Then he asked whether it was true that the whole place was filled with policemen, especially the Chinese areas. Since I had returned not too long ago from my voting station in Seberang Jaya and having driven past Jalan Permatang Pauh, I could truthfully tell him that the whole area was "practically raining with them, but especially more in the Malay areas." Actually, I felt quite safe. Imagine: for a constituency with about 60,000 registered voters, we had about 6,000 policemen. That's one policeman for every 10 voters. Who wouldn't feel safe? Well guarded? Made me feel almost like a vee-ai-pee.

Colin: Shit! No wonder my car got stolen in KL. They keep pulling out the cops to put them elsewhere.

When did that happen, I asked him. Actually, four months ago, he replied. Aiyah...that doesn't coincide with the by-election in Permatang Pauh, does it? Anyway, he told me that the police were "very helpful." I don't know whether that was said with a hint of sarcasm because he continued: "They could tell me that the Myvi was the most popular, five to six cases a day for that police station, etc. I didn't bother to ask whether the case could be solved. In fact, of the eight friends I see most here, two have been robbed. Including me, that's a 33 percent hit rate!" Malaysia boleh! Colin lives somewhere in Puchong.