Taxi and Visit Malaysia Year

I came across the news in The Star today, where traders and taxi drivers lamented their losses due to the mass peace parade on 10 Nov.

The most striking paragraph was this:

Taxi operator Leong Aw said taxi drivers lost much business because of the illegal gathering, saying it drove tourists away when they saw thousands of demonstrators in the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

“The Government is promoting Visit Malaysia 2007 which will help us make money, especially during this festive season. Such a gathering is not part of the Malaysian culture,” he said.

Well, the other day after attending the Annual Metabolic and IEM course in Grand Season hotel, KL, a few of us decided to go from GS hotel to Petaling street. It was a little heavy traffice that day (well, tell me what day KL is not having traffic jam, anyway), and 4 taxis refused to take us there -- then there was finally one taxi driver who offered to take us there, but we gotta pay RM30!!

After boarding his taxi, we told him that taxis should use meter instead of acting like illegal cabs, and furthermore it's Visit Malaysia Year 2007, taxis should lead good examples to abide by the laws and regulations of the country. And to our shock, the taxi driver replied," Well, the officers are lazy and they won't come and catch us taxi drivers, coz we are united. Furthermore, even if we get caught, our boss will settle it."

He paused a while, and then added," And looking at you few guys, (I) don't think you are from those agencies, so why should I be worried. It's jam here, and if you don't want me to take you there, you can always get off the cab and walk there yourself!"

WTF, damn bloody cocky and arrogant.

That's why when I read about the mass parade which caused losses to those taxi drivers -- I have two words for those (not all of them though) taxi drivers who have been so arrogant -- "padan muka"!