Six Down And Counting?

Just got back from a four day course in Ipoh. It was quite interesting but that is not what I want to write about. Oh no, what I would like to blog about is something more interesting. It is about another Malaysian malady: they don't fix thing until there is death. If there is a road cutting into the path of a railway track, they won't put up a gate until of course a bus got stuck on the rails and a train smashes into it killing more than 10 people. Of course it would be said that the driver was a drunk or even a junkie, or that the company has very bad maintenance record or that the bus was bought in 1968.

Well talking about 1968, that was the year, we bought some helicopters. It was brand new then. I was only 12 then, but I am 51 now and those choppers or the remaining ones that is are already 39 now. Considering the hours the choppers were used, both as a military transport crafts and also for politicians to use like those choppers belong to their grandfathers, some of them should be gracing some military museums while the others scrapped. Oh no, not in Bolehland. Anyway we have only lost some lives before, not enough to warrant replacement, anyway, I don't think an adequate enough commission has been agreed upon to justify purchasing of new transport choppers and the fact that a certain commission expert is currently HELD up in a very life threatening CASE so the purchase can wait.

When I saw on TV just now about how the remaining 3 bodies were plucked onto a hovering BOMBA helicopter I was moved to tears thinking of the lost to their families and loved ones. It is not only their loved ones and families who lost, the country too lost. The country lost 6 valuable lives. Lives that could have been spared had the people up there been more sensitive to the needs of their personnel. We don't need refurbished used expensive submarines but we sure do need new safe transport crafts for our air-force people. The amount of money spent in training these people vanished with their deaths. The experience they had vanished with the last blink in the radar.

Today's papers reported that the cabinet had agreed to replace the aging machines with new ones. Yeah, tell that to the orphaned children of the deceased, tell that to the grieving parents, spouses and kins. After this I am sure they will feast us with shows of generosity by the arm forces and the government both federal and state. Associations would come forward to adopt the children of the deceased; cheques would be flashed for all to see that there still people who care; the circus would come to town with people clamouring to show that they care with the press playing their part in suppressing any negative news.

In the meantime these old horses would still be used putting at risk the lives of those who step foot on them. This time we should see how many of our dignitaries would dare step onto one while out campaigning in the coming elections. I got this feeling that come this election our air-force helicopter pilots would not be working as hard as the last election coz somehow the demand would strangely drop. Private choppers would be doing a roaring business though.

I wonder when would we be setting our priorities right. I wonder when would all these shit stop.