When I first saw the video of the crash at the Bukit Kajang Toll Plaza, my immediate thought was: that could have been me. I could have been the one waiting in line at the toll when a lorry, hurtling at high speed, lost control and ploughed into a row of cars before smashing into the booth.
It was a terror inspiring thought. Nothing induces horror as much as the sight of immense suffering and carnage, that is accompanied by the view that it could easily be you on the receiving end.
A 12-month-old baby died that day.
The death of the child, not only cruel by itself, was added in cruelty by the fact that his parents had waited a decade for a child. Barely a year into their newfound joy however, he was taken away from them in the most devastating way imaginable. His mother, shattered by grief, was reportedly inconsolable. Even her husband, it seems, could not reach into the depth of her grief to grant her even a morsel of consolation.
And yet, in the face of such profound loss and horror, the response from Transport Minister Anthony Loke has been jarringly out of tune.
Systemic Questions, Not Cheap Deflections
The official narrative as to the cause of the crash is that the lorry’s brakes failed. But how could that be? The vehicle had passed PUSPAKOM inspection and was serviced just in April.
Then came the disturbing revelation about the driver. He had prior criminal records, including drug-related offences, and even jumped out of the vehicle before the impact. It was as if he was given the responsibility of driving a heavy vehicle that can easily turn into a killing machine if handled by incompetent hands, without having the slightest idea as to what to do when you find the brakes in your vehicle failing.
This is not an isolated case. Recall the tragic crash in Perak where nine Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel were killed. The lorry driver involved also had six criminal records, including for drugs.
Why is there a recurring pattern of heavy vehicle drivers with criminal pasts, drug histories, or both? One answer is that ex-offenders, unable to secure most other forms of employment, end up in these jobs. Driving lorries might be a job that is grueling, poorly paid, and shunned by others. To make ends meet, drivers may have to work punishing hours, speeding between destinations. Some may even resort to drugs to stay awake. If this be the case, heaven only knows what happens when they are scheduled to drive a poorly maintained heavy vehicle, at a time when they cannot get their hands on any drugs or the effects of the drugs wear off.
This raises difficult but essential questions:
- Are companies exploiting desperate workers by cutting corners on pay, rest hours, and vehicle maintenance?
- Why is enforcement so lax, when these vehicles can wreak mass devastation in seconds?
- And why does Malaysia tolerate a situation where compliance with safety codes among lorry operators is just four per cent, according to MIROS?
These are matters firmly within the Transport Minister’s domain. Yet Anthony Loke chose not to highlight them.
The Baby Seat Remark
Instead, at a press conference, he announced that the baby who died was not in a child seat in the car.
“This is not about blaming the parents,” he said as if the only thing he had in his heart was concern and good intentions, “but a reminder to everyone.”
But in reality, the effect was exactly that: a grieving mother, who lost her only child after a decade of waiting, was made to feel implicitly responsible for her baby’s death.
The timing was heartless. Could Loke not have waited? Why not approach the mother after a few months, and ask her if she was willing to advocate for the importance of using a child seat in cars - that way, perhaps the mother could not have only used the advocacy to grieve in a more positive manner - she could have perhaps campaigned for child seats to be more widely applied by Malaysians as a way to cope with her loss - her advocacy itself - coming from a very personal and painful place - might have been much more persuasive in convincing parents to adopt a child seat for the toddlers, than the thoughtless remark of a government minister, who like the proverbial man who “can see the germ across the sea, but not the elephant right before his eyes,” chose to see the shortcomings of a grieving mother rather than the glaring flaws of his own ministry, when the mother was a vulnerable and painful place.
Netizens Push Back
Malaysians were quick to notice and point out how Anthony chose to be blind to his own fault and the fault of his ministry, while amplifying that of the mother.
- “Shifting the blame,” wrote Ronnie Gaffor. “Looking at how the accident happened, the toddler would not have survived even in a car seat.”
- “Insensitive remark,” said Mick Lkl. “Even if true, wrong timing.”
- “There is a time and place for everything,” added Suraj Menon. “Now is not the time.”
Others asked the more pertinent question: why was the lorry even in the rightmost lane at the toll plaza when heavy vehicles are required to use the left?
The point that everybody is making is not whether child seats matter — they do. The point is whether a minister should be prioritising the failures of grieving parents, or the failures of the system he is responsible for fixing.
Playing the Martyr
Even though so many people could clearly see and had pointed out the regrettable nature of his statement, Anthony however, seems to be of the opinion that we are all just imagining things.
That actually, there was absolutely nothing wrong with anything he said.
That is why, Instead of recognizing the backlash, Loke decided to doubled down. “You can criticise me, you can condemn me, but please don’t forget the importance of child seats,” he said and conveniently cast himself as a martyr, who is willing to be scolded and vilified by everyone for the noble purpose of saving children’s life.
I suppose in Anthony's mind, either he is a saint who is capable of forgiving and loving even those who has crucified him, or he is an emperor, who has the powers to trump the truth – when an inconvenient truth is spoken to him, all he has to do is insist to the contrary, and the truth can be replaced by whatever it is that the emperor wants it to be.
What he did not only reminded me of the Malay saying: “bodoh tak boleh di ajar, pandai tidak boleh di ikut”.=, I also found it supremely disingenuous, because it was rather plain to me that what he was really doing was deflecting.
I suppose it is much more convenient for the ministry and the government if the right questions — about lorry inspections, about enforcement, about compliance, about driver welfare — is not discussed by the public.
If the right questions were asked, then the failures of the Transport Ministry might be laid bare. Rather than have that, maybe it would be far easier to preach about child seats and look like a high and mighty authority figure, instead of confronting entrenched problems in the freight and logistics industry, and humbly acknowledge your own shortcomings and failures.
A Bigger Picture
MIROS has confirmed that child seat usage remains abysmally low at just 30%, despite being mandatory since 2020. At the same time, their data shows that only 31.9% of commercial operators follow basic road safety codes — with lorries at the rock bottom of compliance.
So yes, child seats are important. But so too is ensuring that lorries don’t barrel down highways with faulty brakes, driven by exhausted men with patchy records, under the nose of regulators too willing to look away.
Every week in Malaysia, on average, eight children die in road accidents. That is a staggering number. But countless adults also die in crashes caused by heavy vehicles. Both problems require urgent attention. Both demand systemic reform.
And yet, once again, our political leadership has shown a penchant for the superficial soundbite over the hard, unglamorous work of policy and enforcement.
The Truth Cannot Be Hidden
Ultimately, the issue comes down to sincerity.
I personally feel that the truth can not only be arrived at through analysis, it can also be realised through experience. Of the two, I even believe that it is the latter that is the superior way of discerning the truth.
Analytically speaking, I am sure that the government and the ministry has 101 ways to justify everything that they say and do. If their analysis is true, I am sure everything that they say will tally with our experience of reality.
If not however, they can continue to analytically dissect and insist to us about how it is we that is ignorant and unrefined to not be able to see that the emperor is wearing the most beautiful garb in the world, while all we will see is a proud, vain and stark naked emperor.
If Anthony Loke truly cares about the lives of children, Malaysians will eventually recognise it, even if his delivery is clumsy. But if his words are merely a shield to avoid scrutiny, then all that will happen is that he will be remembered as just another politician playing the same old tired political game.
As the old saying goes: “The sun, the moon, and the truth cannot be hidden forever.”
In time, the truth will show whether Anthony Loke’s comments were those of a leader genuinely committed to the wellbeing and safety of the people, or that of just another dime-a-dozen tone deaf politician, who is so used to playing the political blame game, that rather than take responsibility for a tragedy that could have been avoided if they did their jobs better, will choose to blame a grieving mother just to protect their image and reputation.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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