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To Each His Own

I was just catching up with some friends over drinks the other night and the conversation came round to bad driving behaviour on the road.

We were recalling and exchanging our experiences with feisty angst and soon started listing causes of bad driving behaviour.

Taxi drivers, bus drivers, P-platers, teenagers, and all was fine until someone said, “Lady drivers!”

As I happened to be the only female at the table, all eyes turned to me and I could feel the indignation building up within me as I inhaled sharply.

You see, I can’t entirely blame the guy. The stereotype about female drivers being inferior drivers has been around since forever.

Hell, even I am guilty of swearing “It has to be a lady driver!” under my breath when I see a woman holding up traffic or taking five tries to get into a lot.

This argument about men making better drivers than women has been going on forever.

But nothing has been able to resolve this argument in favour of women; despite insurance companies worldwide having evidence that men have more aggressive driving habits than women and are more likely to be involved in accidents.

Think about it, men generally spend more time behind the wheel than women.

So by clocking more driving hours, more mileage on the road and becoming more familiar with the car, you would think that it’s only natural to become better at driving.

I’m sorry; I can’t help but beg to differ.

Taxi drivers spend the most time on the roads but I can’t say that they are the best of drivers.

Besides, spending more time on the road than women and yet having a higher rate of crashing? I wonder who’s more dangerous.

Essentially, men and women have different personality traits that lead to different driving styles.

Men have innate risk-taking tendencies which may result in better control of the car, or have them negated by recklessness due to overconfidence and too much risk.

Women on the other hand, are usually disinterested in cars and their risk-adverse tendencies help to keep them out of trouble.

To me, simple things like not acknowledging acts of courtesy or intentionally not giving way make fine examples of bad driving behaviour.

Let’s not even get to tailgating, reckless overtaking or failing to obey traffic signs.

And both men and women are guilty of such acts. I mean honestly, does putting up a hand to say thank you really require a lot of energy?

If you ask me, I think driving behaviour is unique to each individual, regardless of gender.

A recent study by neuroscientists from University of California, Irvine, concluded that “bad driving may in part be genetically based”.

Results showed that people with a particular gene variant drove more than 20 percent worse than people without it.

Therefore, I feel that the greatest cause of bad driving behaviour is the human factor.

One’s personality, attitude towards driving, as well as respect for other motorists on the road is most crucial.

An outspoken character is more likely to drive aggressively as compared to a timid one. Likewise, adopting and practising good driving habits help to keep the roads safer.

Can I also advise to try and avoid driving if you’re feeling sleepy? This small act of consideration may just save lives.

One driver’s behaviour is responsible for the other driver’s behaviour as their actions directly affect and impact each other on the roads.

Let me give you a scenario:

This car was annoying me as he zipped in and out behind me, trying to overtake. Finally he ends up on the lane next to me and tries to get into my lane ahead of me.

Because of how he irritated me earlier, I intentionally refuse to let this car in, so I follow the car in front of me very closely. Alas, a brief moment of negligence caused me to rear-end the car in front of me.

Very simply, one thing leads to another and we are all part of a web of intricate driving relationships when we are on the roads.

And that’s the beauty of driving – How each driver silently communicates with each other as they move in mutual co-operation.

Before I go, I just have one favour to ask.

When you drive, make sure you are not guilty of committing the same act before you make a wild accusation that it must be a woman behind that bad driving.
Not one to hanker after the latest handbag from Chanel or the newest lipstick colour from Bobbi Brown, Cheryl Tay instead spends her time checking out the hottest cars and keeping up with motorsports like Formula 1.  The best way to express this automotive passion of hers is through words, as reflected through her writings (www.cheryltay.wordpress.com). Said to ‘have fuel in her blood’ and ‘a mind of nothing but cars and motorsports’, the 23-year-old freelance motoring writer hopes to share this passion with more like-minded people and also reach out to the female motoring audience so as to increase awareness of the significant share of voice that females have in today’s automotive world. 

“Anyone who drives in Singapore, even for one day, will inevitably shake his head more in sadness than in frustration at the reckless antics on our roads. One foreign driver was sufficiently peeved to write to the newspaper here. Why, he asked, with such beautiful road infrastructure yet our drivers drive like manics?

Young drivers in their souped-up Subaru, Lancer and Honda turn our expressways and roads into race tracks. They even dare to race along Orchard Road. These people think they’re Formula 1 material, inspired by watching too many episodes of F1 on TV no doubt. They fool themselves really. It’s the alertness and evasive actions that other law-abiding drivers take that enable these hotheads to repeat their craziness on yet another day.

The strange thing about driving is that road hogs seem to hoose the very day when you’re in a hurry. Hugging the outermost lane, and a stubborn refusal to give way to faster vehicles are the mindset of such drivers who think driving at 90 kph give them the right to stick to the lane. Not only do they endanger themselves but other road users as well as frustrated drivers overtake them on the left. It’s both pride and sheer ignorance on display here.

Perhaps, the most annoying thing is rampant queue-jumping. After you have taken the right lane and been in the queue for ten minutes or so, along comes a car that squeezes into the small space in front of you. It’s at this critical moment when you have murderous intentions!

Sadly, reckless, dangerous, rude and inconsiderate driving have become the culture in Singapore. This is largely due to the lack of effective enforcement of traffic rules. In my view only strict policing and a zero tolerance towards errant driving can eradicate the menace, and make our roads and expressways safe for all road users.

If on any day, I can drive without any aggravation from other drivers I’ll feel blessed. To prevent my blood pressure from escalating, I’ve adopted the strategy of overlooking three instances of atrocious driving before I get worked up.

Singapore drivers can drive you up the wall. It’s a free-for-all on our roads is the inescapable conclusion. Am I alone in feeling this way?”

Roger Poh is a freelance writer, specialising in travel writing. He has been driving for more than 30 years in both Singapore and Malaysia. He travels quite frequently, as a backpacker, for his travel stories. A fitness fanatic, you find him in the gym on most days. A prolific contributor to the local newspapers’ letters page until the advent of blogging. Read his writing at http://footlooseinasia.blogspot.com/ and http://rogerpoh.wordpress.com/

The Minister-In-Charge of Muslim Affairs, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, was visibly shaken following the death of yet another Malay child from alleged abuse. He noted that there have been five such cases in recent years involving the father or stepfather, or boyfriend of the mothers of children who died. The Minister saw the incidents as a sign of deeper sociological problem within the Malay community and called for greater urgency in tackling longstanding issues faced by the community.

The call by Dr Yaacob to better-off Malays to be more involved in issues plaguing the community is encouraging. However, what I feel needs to be understood are their perceptions towards less successful Malays. There are amongst them those who believe that unsuccessful Malays are to be blamed for their plight, arguing that mindset problem is a primary cause of their failure. They believe that the Malays in lower socioeconomic stratum need to change their attitude if they harbour hopes of breaking away from the vicious cycle of socioeconomic lag.

There are also those who believe that intervening in the predicament of poorer Malays could result in their developing a crutch mentality, which would be detrimental to their socio-economic progress, citing the failure of Malaysia’s New Economic Policy (NEP), an affirmative action programme aimed at bolstering the socioeconomic position of the Bumiputeras in that country. This somewhat presumes that, if the NEP model fails, then all other intervention models aimed at helping a community make progress within the larger society would likewise fail.

There is a need to understand how severe the divide between well-to-do Malays and the less successful ones is. The prevalence of intra-community discrimination, if widespread, could be a significant impediment to flow of resources that is vital for those of lower socio-economic status to improve their lot (the flow of resources in this case is resources devoted by wealthier Malays to the cause of poorer Malays). In fact, it could even result in increased socioeconomic disparity.

In the absence of empathy for Malays from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, the call on the Malay/Muslim elite to make it their mission to solve community’s problems cannot be realistically achieved. Hence, any effort to address the sociological problems of the Malay community should not only target those from the lower socioeconomic backgrounds but also the elites. Misconceptions about the Malays of lower socioeconomic status need to be clarified.

Policy decisions to address the plight of less educated, low-income Malays should involve the subjects they are targeting instead of being products of top-down approach. Avenues must be opened up for them to communicate or air their grievances and their views needs to be taken seriously. The conventional mode of communicating views, such as online forums and online feedback forms are a tad too sophisticated for those who are not internet savvy. Some do not even own computers or have internet access. Many do not have the capacity to write to the press. Some organisations allow the public to call to offer feedback but they ought to ensure that their telephone numbers and services are adequately publicised. Responses to feedbacks should be prompt. If the duration to respond is too long, it would only succeed in creating the impression that their feedback is not valued, hence discouraging them from sharing their views in the future. Feedback channels are also helpful in the sense that it would go some extent in easing the frustration of the aggrieved, hence preventing them from venting it in undesirable ways. Measures must be undertaken to ensure as much as possible that no cries for help go unheard.

The task of tackling the Malay community’s longstanding issues is an enormous one. The socioeconomic outlook for the Malays has not exactly been rosy. Over a period of 25 years between 1980 and 2005, the average household income gap between the Malays and other major ethnic groups has widened noticeably.

The increasing income disparity raises questions about the ability of the Malays to cope with rising costs such as those of healthcare and education.

Under the Ability Driven Education paradigm, academics argue that socioeconomic background places students at different starting points. Malay students, given the lower income of their parents, are likely to start at lower starting points. Some may argue that sheer hard work and dedication would help the Malays to forge ahead and that they should take on the challenge. This should ideally be the case. In the real world however, low income constitutes an impediment to progress, which explains why the majority of students who do not do well academically are from households with incomes lower than those of their more successful peers. A handful will overcome obstacles to become successful but their cases cannot be taken as proofs that positive attitude alone can help overcome all barriers to progress. Opportunities are scarce and those ahead of the pack socioeconomically are in a better position to seize them. It is inevitable that the less endowed ones are given a leg up to seize some of the available opportunities. The challenge really is to figure out the sort of intervention strategies that would best help the community. Self-help groups, like Mendaki, have past experiences to learn from. Getting successful Malays to mingle or speak to the struggling ones would be helpful but I doubt if it would have a significant impact on the educational predicament of the Malay community.

The Malays are not just facing challenges in the education arena. The educational attainment of Malay workers has not kept up with that of the resident workforce, leaving a high proportion of Malays in lower skilled occupational categories. While the majority of those in the workforce are in PMET (Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians) positions, the Malays are overrepresented in the production workers, cleaners and labourers category. The challenge that low-skilled Malay workers face is two-pronged. Firstly, they face competition from cheaper foreign labour, whose presence has driven wages down. Secondly, most firms are phasing out low-end jobs, which means less of such jobs will be available in the future. At 39.9% in 2005, the number of Malays in low-skilled positions was not small and it is unlikely that Census of Population 2010 would reveal a drastic change in the occupational distribution of the Malay workforce. The community is staring at the prospects of jobs crisis unless current efforts to upgrade the skills of less educated, low-skilled Malays gain sufficient momentum to beat the loss of jobs in the low-skilled category. It is imperative that greater attention is given to the 7,500 dysfunctional families who lack skills and jobs, of which the Malays are disproportionately represented.

The battle to prevent the emergence of an underclass entails more than just mobilising the community to tackle socioeconomic problems plaguing them. While enlisting the participation of the elites in taking on a greater role in the betterment of the community would help, I am not sure to what extent the move would help to address the complex issues of education and employment facing the community. Mendaki’s two decades of serving the community can be described as a struggle because the Malays still lag socioeconomically. There have been claims by some leaders that the Malay community is doing well but existing data, such as those of from the ministries of education and manpower, have not adequately substantiated this. It is perhaps time for community leaders to take stock of the situation and decide whether the community really has the means to shoulder its socioeconomic burden by itself. There may be a need to call on the government to take on a greater role in addressing social issues facing Singaporeans.

Abdul Shariff Aboo Kassim is currently working as a Research Officer. He has been actively involved in studies on education and economic issues of the Malay/Muslim community.

Recently, in the wake of the announcement of PSLE 2009 results, this label of “neighbourhood” schools has been appearing everyday in the media. Wow! It is the first time neighbourhood schools are producing top PSLE students as if these schools were condemned and destined not to perform.

It appears that it has become a social norm here to put labels on things and people. Such labels usually carry negative connotations. Who actually started this label called “neighbourhood” schools? What do you call the other schools then? Does it mean that students in neighbourhood schools are less smart? Is it the negative consequence of school ranking exercise?

Is there a neighbourhood ITE, junior college or polytechnic? Is there a neighbourhood university? By right, Singapore Management University (SMU) should be better and more prestigious than the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) because the former resides in the City area and the latter is located at the ulu (remote) end of Singapore.

If students in neighbourhood schools are deemed to be poorer and hence less smart than those in the elite schools, then does it also mean that the principals and teachers there are less qualified, less capable and lesser paid? If not, why keep stressing the significance of “neighbourhood”? I think it is time we wake up our ideas and stop putting such non-useful and negative labels on things and people around us. Schools are schools. All schools should be treated the same. In this respect, I think it is time to abolish the school ranking exercise which has been somewhat held as sacred for donkey years.

As I have said in my previous blog, try taking the last 10% of this year’s PSLE cohort and put them in the prestigious Raffles Institution (RI) and watch the results four years later in the O-level examinations! By then, I think RI might become a “neighbourhood” school by this way of labelling!!

Jonathan Ooi is a students’ motivational book author and the Founding Chairman of two Parent Support Groups. He also blogs at eduprenuering.blogspot.com