Road safety contest

Its balik kampung season again, this time for Chinese new year. The highways and byeways will be jammed with vehicles, big and small, leaving the big cities for little hometowns and villages. In their eagerness, in their haste to be with family, many drivers tend to be careless and forget about traffic rules. 55 deaths by road accidents have been reported since Ops Sikap XII was launched on Sunday. The death toll may go up further if drivers don't change their attitude on the roads. Think of your family and loved ones waiting for you. A few days back, the Road Safety department thought it had a brilliant idea to keep the roads safe and creating awareness among the public. It launched a public contest called 'Snap,Send and Win' to snap photos of traffic violators caught in the act. Cash prizes were being offered. In other words they want you to waste your precious time and go out and look for traffic offenders and record it in pictures then send to them for action. Risk your own life and limb for a few ringgit. Tranport minister Chan Kong Choy was not amused and directed the department to scrap the contest immediately due to possible abuse by certain quarters. The department should start planning some other strategies or get road safety consultants from other countries to help educate our road users and road designers.

MyKad lucky draw

On Tuesday, home affairs minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad announced that the 'Jom tukar dan menang' lucky draw for MyKad (new IC) applicants be withdrawn. He said it was silly (actually he said rubbish) to reward people for doing what they are supposed to do. That's the problem with Malaysians ,if you want them to do something, offer something in return. Which is bloody unfair to law abiding citizens like me and you. The former minister (now natural resources and environment minister) Azmi Khalid said he will give a written statement soon on why the lucky draw was held. The third draw supposed to be held in November 2005, was postponed indefinitely, because the NRD announced a RM10 fine for late collection of their MyKad. The contest was overtaken by events, such as the Cabinet reshuffle in February 2006 and the minister Azmi had no intention to stop the contest. He left it to the discretion of the incoming minister Radzi. In Kangar, Perlis CM Shahidan Kassim asked minister Radzi not to be harsh. If he is not in favor of the previous minister's actions, just issue a statement to scrap the contest. Don't call it stupid or rubbish. Why, Datuk Radzi, after all you, Datuk Azmi and Datuk Shahidan are state brothers from Perlis. UPDATE : Datuk Azmi admitted that he had postponed the lucky draw and forgot to update his successor Datuk Radzi. His ministry officials had forgotten too. This minister must be having more pleasant things on his mind,other than just his job. (He just got married at that time to a hot tv personality.)