The bus strike
04 December 2016
The vast majority of the people of this country condemned – we use
the word deliberately – to use our public transport system would have
surely heaved a massive sight of relief that Friday’s bus strike is
over. It is ironical that strikers, be they doctors or bus drivers,
hold to ransom ordinary people who depend on their services to win
their various demands whether they are reasonable or not. There is no
word other than ‘abominable’ to describe this country’s public
transport system. Buses are too few and infrequent. They are
overcrowded during peak hours with hapless passengers packed like
sardines into the proverbial tin. The bus drivers are a law unto
themselves, careering down the roads with their hands almost
permanently on their deafening air horns to bully other road users out
of their way as they race each other to the next bus stop to pick up
passengers. Crowded road conditions are of little concern to these
madmen; overtaking on the wrong side is not uncommon and other road
rules are paid scant attention. Making a buck is the name of the game
and to hell with the safety of other road users.
The
railway does take some pressure off the buses as far as public
transport is concerned. But the train service cannot be described as
adequate or satisfactory. Overcrowded commuter trains amply testify to
this. Let us also not forget that when the bus strike loomed, railway
men too tried to extract the last possible ounce of advantage by
threatening a strike of their own. The less said about three-wheeler
drivers the better. While they do provide an essential service to those
who do not own vehicles as well as a convenience for many who do who’d
rather not wrestle with traffic and parking, they too are a menace on
the road weaving in and out of traffic, darting across the path of
other vehicles with inches to spare and engaging in all manner of
devilry that we are all familiar with. Many of the meters they are
supposed to be equipped with are rigged or too often claimed to be not
working. Ripping off passengers on fares is far too common. It is a
never-ending struggle for those who must use public transport to get to
work with the ever-present road congestion adding to their travails.
There is very little prospect of light at the end of the tunnel in the
short or even medium term. The only solace is that motorbikes have
become options for many more people today than they were a couple of
decades ago.
At the time of writing we do not know on what
terms the bus strike had been settled but it looks as though the
concerned authorities have back-pedaled at least to some degree. If the
bus drivers conform to road rules, they have no reason to fear
enhanced fines. But we must say in fairness that bus owners often
demand so many trips a day or some minimum collection and drivers
cannot crawl in traffic and meet rapacious revenue targets. Also, it is
not only they and three-wheeler drivers who are undisciplined road
users. There are many other motorists including some swanking about in
high-end Benzes, BMWs and SUVs of sundry makes, who also break road
rules and call various police high-ups of their cell phones when they
are detected. How many motorists can, cross their hearts, and swear
that they have never taken the wheel after a drink, crashed a red
light, not stopped for a pedestrian at a zebra crossing or been guilty
of some offence not conducive to road discipline? Very few in any at
all we would wager. The reality is that whether we drive a bus or
three-wheeler or not, we are far from a disciplined society.
Thankful
as we are that the strike is over, it is appropriate to raise the
question why the concerned authorities, if they were willing to give
way on at least some of the demands of the arm twisting by strikers, did
not do so before the strike began? That at least would have saved
public transport users of Friday’s inconvenience. It must of course be
granted that give and take will always be part of any negotiating
process and various compulsions would have applied on both sides. The
wellbeing of ordinary people must necessarily dominate the government’s
approach while the bus operators will have the money they are losing
foremost on their minds. Let us hope that that the safety aspects of
the enhanced fines have not been compromised. Questions have been asked
why these were part of the budget proposals if they were not imposed
for revenue reasons. Traffic fines, we would think, should be part of
amendments to the Motor Traffic Ordinance rather than the budget. Also,
as cogently argued by Dr. A.C. Visvalingam, President of the Citizens
Movement for Good Governance (CIMOGG) last Sunday, there is no sense in
slapping huge fines/penalties on technical offences but serious
offences like drunken or dangerous driving etc. cannot be countenanced.
Getting
a decent public transport system for this country is long overdue.
Obviously this cannot be achieved in the short term and is unlikely
even in the medium term. So the suffering public will have to make do
with what is on offer, wrinkles and all. The buccaneers driving buses
and three-wheelers dangerously will continue to be in business come
hell or high water with three-wheeler drivers, particularly, commanding
political influence commensurate with their large number. We suspect
that private bus drivers draw more attention from traffic police than
their counterparts in the SLTB who get their salaries paid without
collection targets and have no compulsion to get to the next bus stop
first. That is perhaps why state-employed bus drivers didn’t seem
overly worried about enhanced traffic fines. Or is it that they don’t
get copped? We are aware that a lot of lenience is shown to traffic
offenders who are government servants! What happened on Friday endorses
the growing perception in the country that the government caves in
easily to muscle flexing. That can only mean that there will be more of
that as we go into the future.
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