Ahmed Hadi, a Briton, thinks Malaysia is a “hell hole”.
Why?
Because he had a 7 ringgit dispute with a parking barrier.
Ahmed’s travail started when he parked his car in a parking lot for 10 minutes in parking lot in Penang on December 7.
Now we don’t know why Ahmed chose to park his car only for 10 minutes, but we do know that he must have chosen to park his car in a high-class parking lot, because he was charged RM 7 for it.
If I was charged RM 7 for parking for 10 minutes, I would shake the dust off my feet and vow never to return to that place again, but the parking charges is not what troubled Ahmed.
According to, he had no problem paying the parking fees – his problem was that the parking’s lot machine did not want to accept his money.
Despite trying two cards, all his attempts to make his payment were rejected, and though he pressed the help button on the machine and spoke to the parking lot officials for another 10 minutes, he still found himself stuck in the parking lot with no help forthcoming.
This mind you, happened in a place that charged RM 7 for 10 minutes of parking. At that rate, it should be only the VIP’s in Malaysia that likely used that parking lot, but despite being in a parking lot that served the rich, no one came to serve Ahmed, although he had asked for help and waited for more than 10 minutes.
Tired of waiting and not wanting to be stuck in a “hell hole”, Ahmad decided to take matters into his own hands and raised the barrier himself to exit the parking lot, which led to damages.
Ahmed however, doesn’t think that any of this is his fault.
“There was no other way out (of the parking lot). It was quite annoying and ridiculous. I was gentle with the barrier but it just caved in like paper,” he reportedly said, to indicate that so far, everything from the parking lot to the parking lot payment machine to the parking lot attendants to his payment cards to the parking lot barrier that were the problem, but not gentle Ahmed.
Despite being such a gentle soul, and despite being involved in a rather petty issue that involved 7 ringgit, Ahmed to his horror, found himself thrown into a jail, where police officers were threatening to beat him up.
If the rest of us were involved in the same problem as Ahmed, it is highly unlikely it would have involved the police, and even if it involved the police, the police would have most likely resolved the matter on site and advised everybody involved to stay out of trouble and return back to their respective wife and kids, but when it came to Ahmed, his passport was confiscated and he was thrown in jail with 50 people sharing a single toilet.
If you do the maths, people must be shitting at least twice every hour for 24 hours a day in such a jail cell, but according to Ahmed, this is what happened to him.
We don’t know how long did Ahmed queue in order to empty his bowels and bladder in this jail cell , but what we do know is that Ahmed was finally released, with the aid of a lawyer who had negotiated a settlement with the owners of the parking lot.
Ahmed is probably the only person in the history of Malaysia that required a lawyer’s service to settle an issue that originated from a problem involving 7 ringgit, but if you think getting a lawyer would be enough to settle Ahmed’s problem, you would be wrong.
Despite getting a lawyer to settle his 7-ringgit problem, Ahmed is claiming that the Malaysian court is still holding on to his passport which was confiscated as part of his bail terms, despite the incident happening 8 weeks ago.
Hearing Ahmed’s testimony, I am shocked by the duty consciousness of our authorities, because they seem to be so exacting in the dispensation of their duty, that they are refusing to let a foreigner go back to his country, until every i is dotted and t crossed, in the matter involving his 7 ringgit parking dispute.
After going through so much problem for the past two months over his 7-ringgit parking lot issue, who can blame Ahmed if he thinks that Malaysia is a hell on earth.
If you have to go through so much difficulties for a 7-ringgit parking problem in Malaysia, Imagine what might happen to you if you have a 10 ringgit parking problem – for all you know, the crazy Malaysians might have your head on a pike and display it outside the gates of KLIA, to warn all visitors about the hell that they can go through if they don’t settle their parking dues.
Chastened, by the hell of an experience he had in Malaysia, Ahmed has become much more appreciative of his home country Britain, to the point that he has rescinded his desire to migrate out of Britain and resettle in Malaysia.
“We think Britain is broken, but this makes you realise how good we have it. This country is a rip-off, and you’re not free,” Ahmed would advise his fellow Britons, if they ever were considering leaving Britain and head to a country like Malaysia.
Well, to Ahmed’s new found revelation, I will speak for all Malaysians and say that, yes, we agree with him – he should never leave Britain to come to Malaysia.
Other than that, on a personal basis, I would also like to advise Ahmed to look in the mirror and ask himself what he sees.
If he finds Britain broken when he was in Britain, and Malaysia broken when he is in Malaysia, maybe it is not Britain or Malaysia that is broken, dear Ahmed.
Maybe it is just you – maybe it is just you that is damaging every place that you go.
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