BEATING the lights is merely a glaring epitome of the state of our society as regards the fifth pillar of the Rukun Negara, ie Courtesy and Morality.

Two agencies are responsible for the creation of a courteous and morally good society. These are the education system and the law enforcement agencies. The duties of the first can be likened to the sowing of good seeds and nurturing them to maturity and that of the second to keeping the matured trees in good trim and preventing them from being taken over by parasites or overwhelmed by undergrowth.

Before Merdeka and just after, character building of schoolchildren was considered an important matter and it was carried out by every teacher. Any disregard of school rules or good behaviour was dealt with immediately. The rot set in when changes to the pre-Merdeka system of child character development were made without any good basis. Character development can never be achieved in the “formal” manner of making it an examination subject. It is neither about acquiring knowledge nor of skills. It is about how one behaves in different situations.

What we see on the roads is what the schooling system has allowed the children to acquire. They are but bad habits allowed to be practiced by the schoolchildren for years so much so they have become die-hard habits in the grown-up children we see driving on the roads. 

Where the enforcement agencies are concerned, it is their lackadaisical manner of enforcing the laws that “gives face” to people and emboldens them to pay scant respect to rules. I believe political considerations play a big role in the enforcement of laws in Malaysia. The battle for votes is a big determinant of the character building of our society for the real value of enforcement is not in the ringgit to be collected in the form of penalties but the educational value of such action in character development.      

Ravinder Singh
Penang