Malaysian Mentality

There's been quite a huge uproar recently in Malaysia after reading about the fatal accident which happened last week. For those who didn't hear about it, you can read it here.

Here's a short version:
a) An accident involving two cars and a 3-tonne vegetable lorry
b) An unfortunate female driver was pinned in the wreckage burnt to her death.
c) Passer-bys were unable to help because the flames were too strong
d) One brave man sped off to the nearest petrol kiosk to get a fire extinguisher but was refused by the attendants.

Many Malaysians are bloody effing pissed with those two attendants. I am too. Isn't it time we all grew up and stopped pointing fingers though?

Yes, it is extremely heartbreaking and unfortunate to hear the news of this young lady whom so many wanted to help but couldn't and yet these two who had four extinguishers refused.

And not to make any other people more riled up than they already are, but who is to say that if the guy HAD gotten the extinguisher it could've saved that young woman's life?

Here's my two cents.

Let's recap, but put ourselves in their shoes.

You're a gas attendant working the graveyard shift. Luckily you have a co-worker with you tonight. Not that bad. You spend the night talking and puffing on ciggies to get through the shift. Thoughts run through your mind - especially the stories of other gas attendants who were robbed and or attacked in the wee hours of the morning.

Then all of a sudden, a man drives frantically up towards the kiosk. His tyres screech to a halt. You and your co-worker immediately look up. Your heart skips a beat. Could this be a robber?

The man bangs on the glass window and asks for a fire extinguisher. He says there's a girl trapped in a wrecked car and the car is on fire. This is a life and death situation. The man seems all frantic and antsy.

Now this is the part I (and probably 99% of Malaysians) think what went wrong.

I understand that there were previous cases of robberies at that spot before. So I don't blame them for the caution. I would've told him to call the fire department (as one of them did) too. In fact, I would've gotten details from him AND made the phone call myself.

What I don't understand is, why couldn't they have given him an extinguisher. He's already shown them his IC. Ok fine, that could be fake. He even offered to buy an extinguisher from them.

Now tell me, what kind of robber does that?

I know, that if I were there for a fact, I would have made sure one of us (the gas attendants) held on to ONE fire extinguisher and set it ready while the other, slowly opens the door and passes it out to the frantic man.

I know a lot of you must be thinking "Yeah, right as if you can even remain calm in situations like these,"

You know what?

You can shut your pie hole because I have been through shit like these before and I have remained calm while others didn't.

My house was once broken into. My sister and I were lazing in my room (thank goodness the room door was locked) after a long day and our two housemates had gone out clubbing.

All of a sudden, we heard someone walking around in the hall, and it was a completely different set of foot steps. My sister panicked, and she started to whimper and cry. I gathered anything that I could use as weapons onto the bed just in case the intruders came in.

I managed to call the police, report to them calmly what is going on and that I really need help. And called friends who were living nearby to come over as soon as they could.

The police finally came. My entire house was ransacked. They took away the usual stuff and there were footprints right outside my room door. The police told us we were lucky that they didn't barge in and hurt us. He also commended me on acting calm during the whole thing because it helped them to do their job properly.

Mind you, I was a student at that time living in a foreign country so don't tell me two MEN in their own country cannot act rationally when there is someone in trouble.

My deepest condolences goes out to Florina's family.

May this be a (very expensive) lesson for all Malaysians to learn.