If there’s anything that’s to be said about Malaysians in general and KLites in particular, it’s that particularly odd inability to understand the word ‘QUEUE‘.
It doesn’t matter, not really, that some of those poor unfortunately souls (like yours truly) who have been stuck waiting at the platform at the train station for the past 20 minutes and have already seen 4 trains pass by. Some, well mostly young, immaculately dressed ladies and middle-aged ‘executive-looking’ ladies, feel inclined to turn a blind eye to most people queuing up. For all they care, we’re just organisms blocking the direct route to the train as it rolls up to the platform.
When it comes to crunch time, no one, and I really do mean NO ONE, come hell or high water (or in this case, old pakciks and pregnant moms), stands in the way of these people. They are really, really good at taking positions to bypass everyone else who feels the ‘incomprehensible’ need to queue up. I mean, in my line of work, I’ve seen how reporters, photographers and cameramen take positions and it’s not pretty. But these people, they are better than the pros. It’s like watching poetry in motion when you watch these people slip in through the queues and effectively taking up places meant for people who are actually stupid enough to stand in one. And not to mention the shoving and pushing.
Sometimes I think I’d rather be an ant. Ever seen an ant cut queue or pushing other ants away to get to the front?
But then again, I’m digressing. How to survive Kuala Lumpur really when you have to take public transport? You’ll just have to go with the flow, I guess. The flow, meaning which the fella who’s being pushed by the fella behind who’s being pushed by the other fella behind him/her…
For what it’s worth, it’s always fun to see the bemused expressions of tourists (especially the Westerners…most of the others… are just as good in the art shoving and queue cutting as any local here) .
2 Comments
June 10, 2007 at 2:13 pm
lol…very true
Sadly its already a culture.
by the way,i went to your Chinese blog before coming here.You write well!
June 10, 2007 at 3:59 pm
hey, thanks. glad you like my stuff.
i know how malaysians can be really ugly malaysians. but it is sometimes really fun to observe. haha.. call me sadistic if you want.