KUALA LUMPUR – A pothole situation in Banting has been immediately addressed – to netizens’ surprise – after Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin hit one, fell off his bicycle, got injured, and talked about it on Twitter.
Uploading photos of a bruised face and the pothole, Khairy captioned his tweet: “Pothole, ditch, KJ. 2020 keeps giving.”
Potholes have long been seen as a bane on Malaysian roads, and usually remain in place for a long time before they are fixed.
While the Rembau MP was confirmed to have only suffered minor injuries, the Public Works Department (JKR) responded to Khairy’s tweet swiftly.
“JKR Kuala Langat apologises for the incident that befell you. We will take immediate action on the issue and we pray for your speedy recovery,” JKR tweeted in its reply.
JKR Kuala Langat memohon maaf ke atas kejadian yang menimpa YB. Menteri dan akan mengambil tindakan segera ke atas isu berkenaan dan mendoakan YB cepat sembuh.
— JkrKualaLangat (@JkrKualaLangat) December 27, 2020
The response by JKR, however, resulted in a flood of cynical comments on social media.
“After reading this tweet, I hope more ministers fall down rolling on all spoilt roads in Malaysia, especially in Sabah/Sarawak,” @odengerrard tweeted.
“Who remembers last year when a school student died in a crash in Kuala Langat? I did not see an apology by JKR to the family for failing to set up a speed bump,” said @ajipkasa.
“If a minister is involved, they react quickly. If it’s the average Joe, they will wait for him to die first, and when they fix it, they don’t do it sincerely,” said @Nikfaez_.
At the time of writing, Khairy’s tweet has received around 2,400 retweets and 5,700 likes. Meanwhile, JKR Kuala Langat’s apology tweet only received 1,600 retweets and a little over 300 likes.
As can be seen by the netizens’ tweets, potholes are not only a cumbersome problem for Malaysians, but a dangerous one.
In May last year, a motorcyclist lost control of his machine after hitting a pothole, which resulted in the death of his wife, who was the pillion rider, in Petaling Jaya.
The perennial pothole issue has even resulted in citizens taking matters into their own hands, like efforts by Lando Zawawi (Azlan Sani Zawawi).
Since 2011, Lando and his group, called the Ikatan Silaturahim Brotherhood, have been voluntarily filling potholes wherever they find them.
The Vibes has made attempts to contact Khairy, Infrastructure Development Minister Datuk Fadillah Yusoff and JKR Kuala Langat for comments, and is currently awaiting their responses. – The Vibes, December 28, 2020
