‘What happens a minute before 8am?’goes the impossibly-accurate lead to The Straits Times’ daily photo feature. The national broadsheet’s 7.59 moment distils a moment of peace from the peak hour hustle, and would have done very well to capture the audacious nonchalance of the cabbie at Bukit Timah.
He had held up half-a-dozen cars by stopping brazenly along the busy double yellow lined-road for a pickup; his tranquility contrasted their consternation. Bussing by, my knee jerk reaction was one of weary exclamation – upset at the anti-social act yet too numbed to be outraged.
But the crowded bus, in forcing me to stand, was a blessing-in-disguise. By cutting my much-cherished morning nap time, it granted me opportunity for an early epiphany: the much-reviled taxi driver is a businessman like any other – and should be tolerated as we do any profit-oriented capitalist.
Getting off my moral high horse, I noted that while he may have inconvenienced six other road users, it was for only five seconds. In truth, many other businessmen/businesses exact far worse public disruption. Witness the insurance agent selling an unnecessary policy, or a DBS ‘Relationship Manager’ touting an over-risked bond. These businesspeople – ostensibly acclaimed for insuring life and promoting wealth respectively – are now persona non grata in a society fed-up with their reckless greed. Is the cabbie such a baddie any more?
Maybe not, but surely he can sidle into the nearest small road? But not pulling up at the feet of the flailing hailer might see a next cab claiming the lazy passenger. Stopping as he does is his version of efficiency maximisation – the golden mantra of any successful business. To insist other road users come before his own survival is charmingly populist, but we should remember a society is the sum of its parts. To deprive the everyman of his wage for the utopic operation of the masses hints at an insidious cancer; at its worst, tyranny of the majority.
True, taxi drivers' array of crass habits cause more accidents than any other road user. But for any smaller offence, their profit-first maxim is understandable in the light of similar tactics in any other business sphere. Their arena, unavoidably, is on the road – while they could be better, they really aren’t doing much worse.
What should happen a minute before 8 am? More respect and understanding – from both cabbies and their detractors. And long may it continue into the day.
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1 comment:
I just found your blog, and can I say, as your little sister, how proud I am to see the grace, courage and profundity of your writing (it's been a while since I've read you). Awesome stuff bro! That news article on your Hong Lim demonstration is infuriating - one wonders, given your escapade with the ST, how any of these Bullsh.. journalists can make claims to objectivity when they write nonsense like this. "They did not have to go so far as to stage a demonstration?" I suppose that by their standards, protest in Singapore would entail smiling, kissing Su Guaning's ars, and telling him sweetly to pretty please allow the article to be published.
Keep writing - I look forward to more!
(p.s. my blog is on the way of being back - check it out in a few days time: www.charmainechua.com/blog)
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