Thought of the day

I thank whatever gods may be / For my unconquerable soul. / I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul. ~William Ernest Henley, Invictus

Government's promises are like the Ringgit, they depreciate with time.



Thursday, January 22, 2009

Speechless

I am utterly speechless when I had to commute from Puduraya to Sri Petaling via STAR LRT on a recent trip to KL. The route to the station is a long passageway, almost hidden behind Pudu's terminal bus station. Without someone experienced to lead the way, I would have had a hard time locating the entrance. Upon reaching the station, I was baffled by the inferiorly decorated interior of the LRT station. It was as if I were in one of India's bus terminal. Walls not painted, pipings unconcealed, dimmed without proper lightings.



The railway supporting structure forms part of the roof for the lobby. When the train approaches, you could hear loud howling from miles away and the screeching sound of the train braking, not to mention the tremor you can unmistakingly feel by touching the pillar of the structure. Flabbergasted!

When I mentioned it was dimly lit, I was obviously wrong. There was no lighting at all! Here's a picture of the escalator with and without flash. Notice the ugly cement pillar beside the escalator? Energy saving natural lighting? I really hope that this is not an act of being GREEN.


Unlike in Singapore or Hong Kong, where the announcements are pre-recorded, recited in clear and soothing feminine voice, and played accordingly; STAR LRT prefers the captain to make the announcements at each station - in mumbles - as if he is Jay Chow. The same Sungai Besi stop can be pronounced as "Sung.. Bes" and repeated as "...Ngai ...Si" in the lowest desibel that human ears can pick up. I wonder what happens when the captain has a sore throat or a thumb-size oral ulcer.

This is my first (and probably the last) time traveling with STAR and I would say that the standard is really nothing compared to our neighbour. How could the rakyat tolerate with this third world facility? Despite it being a privatised project, how could the government condone the impact of this sub-standard facility towards our tourism and belittle the people's rights to enjoy better infrastructure? Now I totally understand why Selangor falls into the hand of the Oppositions. With this lackadasical attitude in governing a nation, Barisan Nasional stands to lose more. Johor may be next.

6 comments:

Wilson said...

lol ... another great trademark of our beloved bolehland ....

Unknown said...

haha.. not all liek that la.. some stations are not bad one also... but dont compare to sg. or hk la

Anonymous said...

hahahahaha yeah. same thing happened to me when i last visited our beloved kl. the entrance is nowhere to be found. and why cant we compare? just admit it and improve?! if we shldnt compare with hk/sg, then who shld we compare with? pakistan? self delusional.

CY

Gnu said...

wilson: damn classic. and it's only through the ride i realized that there are still many rural place in Selangor.

junfei: actually we can do much better, but don't know why things always turned out to be so "kao kei". Maybe it's the Malaysian culture gua...lol.

cy: sabar-sabar...change is in the air. Slow, but it's changing. The people are changing. After 308 and several by-elections, I felt that the people has a say in things now. Just that if BN continues to turn a deaf ear, then they will reap what they sow.

Gnu said...

jun fei: share share blog la, lai la, don't be shy la. guai la, i buy sweet for you la...

Unknown said...

sung.. wahahha.. u buy me sweet first... then only i consider ur suggestion :p
sweet delivery from sg...wah!!! so romantic!!