Rain rain go away, unless you can wash away the bad elements

While rain brings good tidings to some at some parts of the world. But to the people at Johor, it is not quite so; especially to those who stayed around Kota Tinggi and low lands of Johor. The rainy season marks the start of "rain"phobia. Johor has joined the northern states of Kelantan and Trengganu as the flood-prone areas of Malaysia.

2006, the worst ever flood hit Johor - many people were displaced from their homes, crops were destroyed and many businesses suffered great looses. Those who daily shuttle / driving to work at Pasir Gudang were not spared from misery.

My memory still can recalled the bad experience of getting stuck in a traffic jam for 6 hours, as when the Pasir Gudang "so-called" highway was closed due to flooding, after continuous downpour. As the traffic eased a little, it took me another painstaking an hour just to move from the spot where I was stuck to make a u turn, which is 200m away, to head back home.

Now, here comes the rain again. According to the meteorological department, there will be heavy downpours starting from 5.12.07 with intermittent heavy showers. Everyone is on an alert and worry when it rains. I am afraid that I am one of the worrying souls.

On the 5.12.07, the God was kind to me. I manage to leave the office on time and reached my gym at Permas Jaya in 45 minutes, which normally takes only 20 minutes if the traffic is smooth. Not bad considering there were some minor floods along the Taman Rinting stretch of Pasir Gudang "so-called" highway.

However, not on today, 7.12.07 Friday.

The downpour during late afternoon and earlier this evening was really heavy. I tried to leave my office as soon as my conference call to UK ended. The time was 6.30pm and supposedly had a movie appointment with my friends.

As soon as I drove out of Jalan Tembaga toward the "so-called" highway, I saw a long traffic queueing up from the junction joining to the "so-called" highway, all the way to the traffic lights where I made the right turn. So, I was left with little options but return to my office, and cancel my movie appointment with my friends.

Bad LUCK.... Bad Timing...

No, it is not Bad Luck entirely... Partly, this is due to poor town planning of the town planner, developers and the maha tuan-tuan tanah. Of course, to make things worse, these maha tuan-tuan tanah do not seem to understand the meaning of preventive actions and progressive improvements.

It is most ironic that the same group of people who adopt the attitude of leaving things "Naturally" (i.e. being ignorant) will blame the Nature itself when it hits and turns against them; blaming the Almighty for not blessing enough. Despite the evidents of their incompetency and irresponsibility are apparent, more than often, they tactically manage (through misinformation) to turn them as an action of fate and keep pretending that all people are blinds and stupid.

If they could see and learn.
The "so-called" highway only comes with 2 lanes with bad drainage system and it is the only way in and out of Pasir Gudang Industrial Area and Johor port. All these despite of growing businesses, increasing economical activity, traffic and population growth at Pasir Gudang industrial park and Johor port.

Secondly, poor road maintenance. It appears that these maha tuan-tuan tanah only "show" their concerns when General Election is coming, which otherwise seemed please and content with the idea that the road users should endure the inconvenience and sufferings of bad road condition. Perhaps, these maha tuan-tuan tanah enjoy to marvel the "natural" ability of the highway to transform from 2 lanes into 1 lane trunk road during heavy downpour. Perhaps, to them, it is a natural part and puzzle of life that commoners should waste energy (which is money) and time (which is money too) on traffic jams while the higher end people - the maha tuan-tuan tanah enjoy a hassle free life, due to their perceived entitlement.

Aiya...shameful to these shameless maha tuan-tuan tanah. I think there must a public law to force these maha tuan-tuan tanah, whom some carries the title of People Representative, to visit the Rakyat, stay with the Rakyat and "meronda" at the designated area on monthly basis; so to ensure they understand and keep updating their understandings and relevance of the living conditions of the Rakyat, whom they represent.

Singapore, a country who achieve Independence later than us, but long become a developed nation compared to Malaysia is our closest neighbor; whose transportation & road system can be set as benchmark for Johor. However, these maha tuan-tuan tanah fail to learn and only like to compare with the countries that are in poorer state than Malaysia.

Instead of learning from the closest neighbor and cheaper too (due to close vicinity), these tuan-tuan tanah preferred spending thousands of taxpayers money just to send some senior civil servants to cities like Shanghai to learn about town planning...and of all we know, Shanghai is not the best city choice for city / town planning...

Aiya...Headache.