By Sam Trailerman
So let me get this straight. This is Malaysia in 2026.
On one side, you have us the common man. Paying road tax, paying toll, paying SST, paying for parking that costs more than our lunch, stuck in MRR2 at 4.40pm with a truck on our left, a Myvi on our right, and two kids in the back seat fighting over who gets the last Twisties.
On the other side, you have them His Most Esteemed, Most Important, Most Cannot-Be-Late-For-Tea VVIP. And his bodyguard on a big bike with a siren that can wake the dead in Padang Jawa.
That lady on Threads, novawhisper88 with 9.8K likes, not because she can write well, but because every single one of us has LIVED it. MRR2, peak hour. The police escort comes screaming behind you, honking like you just stole his kampung land. He wants you to disappear. Teleport. What does he expect her to do? Drive INTO the lorry beside her? Do a Fast & Furious drift into the divider so that Yang Berhormat can go home 30 seconds faster to cut his birthday cake?
She said she had kids in the car. That line hit hard. Because for us, our kids' lives are our whole world. For them, our kids are just traffic cones that are too slow to move out of the way. She moved when it was safe. But safe is not in their dictionary. Fast is.
And then the second act the policeman comes BESIDE her car, points his bloody finger at her face like she just robbed a bank. A mother, with kids. Intimidated on a public highway. For what crime? For not risking her children's lives for a VVIP whose name we don't even know and frankly, don't care.
Now combine that with my own KLIA story. Fresh off paying RM18 parking, still figuring out how to exit the boom gate without scraping your rim, you can't just emergency brake right after the gate. But no. The convoy must not be delayed! So you get shouted at. Your car gets knocked. At the airport. Where tourists are watching us and thinking, wow, Malaysia so efficient at bullying its own taxpayers.
Bro, we are not against police escorts. We love them when it's a real emergency. Ambulance? Bro, we will move onto the pavement. Bomba? Take my lane, take my house. But when it's some Datuk Seri who is late for a meeting to discuss why the people are angry sorry lah, my children's safety comes first.
Let's be honest about what this whole VVIP escort culture is. It's not about security. It's about ego. It's the cheapest way to feel like a king in a democracy. You don't need to build anything, you don't need to serve anyone, you just need a white Hilux in front, two bikes with sirens, and suddenly you are Moses parting the Red Sea of traffic. Everyone must stop. Everyone must wait. Everyone must worship. For what? So you can reach your destination 5 minutes earlier and still do nothing?
The police, our PDRM we respect you. When you are catching criminals, standing in the rain, controlling floods, we salute you. But abang polis trafik, your job is to protect lives, not to protect some VVIP's inflated ego and his tight schedule. When you intimidate a mother into making a dangerous lane change, whose life are you protecting?
They tell us, obey the law. No phone while driving. Wear seatbelt. Don't speed. We obey. We pay our saman. But the law seems to have a VIP lane too. No road tax needed for arrogance.
The road doesn't belong to your father, right? But sometimes it really feels like it does. It belongs to the man in the black Alphard with the tinted windows who has never sat in traffic in his life because for him, traffic is something that happens to other people.
We, the common people, we just want to get home. To our families. Alive. Without being screamed at by a man in uniform because we didn't kill ourselves fast enough to give way.
So dear VVIPs, next time your escort is about to point his finger at a mother, remind him respect is earned, not sirened.
Nganasegaran (tapessam@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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