William, Cynthia, Wuan and I had dinner at one of the Chinese restaurant in SS2 Petaling Jaya last Saturday. It was a noodle house that served lousy tasting bowls of la mian. I will not recommend anyone to patronize this shop. The less than pleasant food went very well with the letdown that Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest flung on us. I do not like movies without an ending, or one with an ending that leads to a sequel. It is a pity that I liked Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl enough to bug the trio into watching it with me.
So, after a meal that I would rather forget, we got back to the car. After I was comfortably seated, William asked for my camera. While we waited in the car, he was outside shooting away with the camera pointed down at the parking lot next to ours. We wondered what it was that caught his attention. I thought it was something in the drain, a large fish perhaps, or an animal carcass.
When he got back into the car and passed the camera to Wuan, he said to me, “Put this in your blog.”
It was much later when I reviewed the images on my laptop that I realized what it was. It was a knocked-down sign for an accessible parking lot with text in three languages: Malay, English and Chinese. The English text read: “You have taken my car park. Please take along my disability.”
Photo by William.
Photo by William.
I have seen that sign in the drain with my own eyes. I have even seen cars parked in lots with similar signs upright, with the drivers unbothered. These days, however, there are less and less of those signs still upright. Outside the MPPJ tower in Petaling Jaya, there are two parking lots meant for handicapped drivers, with the sign clearly marked on the road surface. I have seen non-handicapped drivers park on those lots like the signs did not exist.
Peter:
As long as it is convenient for these inconsiderate people, it does not matter if disabled persons are inconvenienced. Ugly Malaysians at work. What else can we do to educate them?
I have seen one of those signs and guess “who” took up the parking lot designated for the disabled?? A Kompressor! Rich inconsiderate people!!
Peter:
Is there a possibility that the driver of the Kompressor is a wheelchair user?
The best way to educate people who deliberately flung the law is to hurt them where it matters i.e make a hole in their pockets. People will learn from response cost! Good luck.
Peter:
Towing away, clamping the wheels or issuing a summons is a good way to educate but first we need to have the laws in place. Local councils can do more but they are not.
It’s a shame some of these motorists are so insensative! I still see very abled men (young punks esp) making used of parking space dedicated to disabled people. Shameful!
Peter:
This is an attitudinal barrire that we would like to remove. Wheelchair using drivers will have no where to park when those allocated lots are taken by the non-disabled.
I normally remark loudly if the people are there (to my friends) that “Of course, the parking lot is also meant for CIVICALLY disabled people.”
We need to clamp the tyres of these people. If the town councils have time to chase down couples, why don’t they chase down these incosiderate people who are really harming others and collect the fines?
Peter:
It makes us wonder what the priorities of the local councils are huh!
Gosh! What a shame! If a person do that over here, they will get fine from the Council. So far, I haven’t seen the public doing it (much). A ‘friend’ of mine did that, and she thinks it is an action that she can proud of. oh MY!! ‘bee hiao pai seh’–> don’t know how to shy. =(
Peter:
I guess education and upbringing plays a big part in shaping the attitude. Evidently, we have a lot of work to do in this aspect.
Love the sign, and in a way, I love what happened to it. It’s just so typical 🙁
I am not sure that parking fines are the answer. Not by themselves anyway. And even with fines, people aren’t getting tickets nearly often enough. I think it’ll be a while before we see a marked difference, but constant monitoring on the parking lot owner’s part would help. Stygmatising people parking illegally would also help.
To that end, I have created a new site. Caughtya.org (sorry, I hope you don’t think i’m spamming since I just made an entry on monsterblog as well). I refer to your post about the sign here: http://caughtya.org/drive-by/2006/07/parking-signage.html
Cheers!
Peter:
Good work there. We have some concerned Malaysians who have exposed similar thoughtlessness in their sites. Through such campaigns, we are slowly but sure making people realise how important it is not to occupy the accessible parking.
Thanks Peter 🙂
You’re right, every little bit helps 🙂 Of course, I can’t help thinking that if all these similar efforts are done separately, there won’t be as much impact as if they are placed in one location (well, of course, I’m trying to promote caughtya.org…) Anyway, cheers, and thanks for the photo of the sign. 🙂
hullo peter, been quite some time since i’ve last been here. just wanted to say that i love that sign. it’s like, so meaningful. but maybe most people wouldn’t be bothered, because they’d be so thick that they wouldn’t have understood the sarcasm in the first place.
Peter:
I hope you are enjoying college. I was sacarsm all right and I think someone took it personally. 🙂