Whether you are a frequent patron of Malaysian taxies or not, you are bound to experience the same thing.
I’m not talking about not running on meter or overcharging, which I believe are the tricks of only a handful of irresponsible cab drivers. And every often, they have to resort to these because of livelihood.
What I am trying to say is that Malaysian taxi drivers always seem to be grumbling.
From the moment you board their vehicle, they will start telling you how tough life has been, how unequal society is and how powerless the government is.
A 30-minute ride could rival the most exciting political speeches one has come across anywhere.
Foreign cab drivers will do the same, without doubt, although they pale in intensity compared to their Malaysian counterparts.
I don’t mean to poke fun at our taxi drivers here. As a matter of fact, the stress and dilemma they are going through are largely real and unfeigned.
If anyone has to work in a confined cabin for more than 10 hours a day, and gets stuck in the city’s perennial traffic jams and unbearable heat in addition to utter boredom, how would you expect him to enjoy life if what he takes home can hardly make ends meet?
I must say much of their disgruntlement has been largely derived from the existing system.
PM Najib has called it a kind of “modern slavery.”
In the 1990s when the government put in place the new taxi policy, it has ruled that operating permits would only be issued to a handful of companies and not individuals.
Back then the government said this was to ensure systematic taxi services and better protection for the drivers.
A few companies later monopolised the operating permits. Those keen to drive taxies have to sign agreements with these companies to lease their vehicles.
A big chunk of taxi drivers’ daily revenue drains back to the leasers and they could only reclaim their vehicles after several years.
As a result, they have to be on the road for 12 hours a day and after paying for vehicle rents, fuel and maintenance, take home enough to pay for their basic meals and house mortgages.
You cannot expect top-rated service quality from someone living under tremendous weight of life, thus refusal to take passengers, overcharging and taking you for a ride.
Sure enough such acts can never be justified, but can be sympathised with.
A straitened middle-age cab driver took his life several years ago, leaving behind a paltry RM300 for his aged mother.
Back to the system. These taxi leasing companies are a by-product of the government’s policy. They get their permits from the government itself.
But, does our government vet through these companies before permits are issued? Does the government scrutinise the conditions they have laid out for taxi drivers?
The existing system has fattened a handful of people with the right connections at the expense of the poor cab drivers.Learn to harness your negative emotions to inspire yourself into action
Have you considered how a degree of negative emotion can be good for you? Anger and envy, for instance, can spur you on to greater efforts than were likely in the absence of such emotions. Companies and bosses use this understanding to their advantage, deliberately creating points of rivalry to nurture a competitive edge that encourages employees to contribute their best. So do lovers, teachers, and yes, even parents.
Every lover understands and appreciates the role jealousy can play in fast forwarding a flagging relationship. Faced with a rival and the prospect of losing the lover, the beloved takes steps to cut out competition and firmly establish the tie. Teachers deliberately single out a student to praise and announce as a favourite, thus inspiring envy, competition and a need to excel among others. Parents subtly play off siblings against each other to achieve the desired behaviour among them.
Bosses do the same, by dropping hints of praise for a rival, or throwing two rivals into the same situation, then sitting back to reap the benefits as both employees deal with their negative emotions by working harder and better in an attempt to show each other down.
Literature has always recognised the benefits of the darker emotions. InWuthering Heights, an uneducated and unkempt Heathcliff is so torn by Catherine’s rejection of him as husband material in favour of Edgar that he disappears for a few years and returns rich and a ‘gentleman’. In The Count of Monte Cristo, Dantes wrongfully condemned to life imprisonment, keeps himself going through tough times by the strength of his anger and vengeance. He, too, returns rich, to wreak vengeance on those who wronged him. However, literature also points to the destruction caused by unresolved negative emotion. Heathcliff and Catherine’s unresolved passion for each other leads to destruction of not just their lives but of the others’ around them. Dantes’ revenge has devastating consequences not just for the guilty, but for the innocent too.
Today, expert studies tell us not to avoid negative emotions or leave them unresolved. Ignoring the darker emotions is just a way of postponing the inevitable and denying reality. Researchers hasten to add that uncontrolled negative emotions such as anger, fear, pain or jealousy are destructive, but it is even more harmful to ignore them. Prof George Vaillant, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, reveals after research, “Negative emotions are often crucial for survival…We all feel anger, but individuals who learn how to express their anger while avoiding the explosive and self-destructive consequences of unbridled fury, have achieved something incredibly powerful in terms of overall emotional growth and mental health.”
Psychotherapists encourage us to indulge our full range of emotions because each emotion has something to teach us. Each emotion thus plays a critical role in our progress and mind-body healing process. In fact, in one survey, 55 per cent of the participants said a bout of anger had led to a positive result in office.
Accepting rather than rejecting a negative emotion takes the edge off its destructive power. If you live the emotion, you will be relieved of it and it may even help you. Psychotherapist Greenspan suggests we think of emotions as teachers. “Sorrow teaches us about interconnectedness. Fear is a survival instinct. And anger indicates that something’s wrong that must be made right.” To this I would add –– envy teaches us that we need to better ourselves; disappointment tells us our expectations are unrealistic or that we need to increase our own efforts; frustration tells us we are bored with present circumstances and it’s time for a change. Being stressed means we need to list our priorities; loneliness tells us we need to be connected; guilt tells us we have been unjust to someone or something and need to make amends.
This is how the darker emotions help motivate people to action and allow them to heal. As Leonardo di Caprio says in Inception in praise of the power of negative emotions, “Positive emotion comes from negative emotion all the time. We are all looking for reconciliation, a catharsis.”
Offering tyres and insurance coverage to taxi drivers will not negate such a slave system, which must be done away with at once.MR TAXIDRIVERS RAPIST RAISE ARE YOU TALKING TO THIS TAXIDRIVER OWNER OF THIS BLOG *WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT* The psychological thriller story which follows a mentally unstable street war veteran who works as a night time taxi driver in Kuala LumpurCity where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge to violently lash out, attempting to save …Read more
No comments:
Post a Comment