MELAKA – Although the trishaws they man are colourful, the riders are less enthusiastic about the Melaka polls that will end this Saturday.
“BN, PN, Harapan (Barisan Nasional, Perikatan Nasional, Pakatan Harapan) – none of them care about us, why should we care about them?” said a trishaw rider known as Kaizan.
“When we work, we make money. When we don’t work, we don’t make money.”
Kaizan is 55 years old and usually has his trishaw at the foot of Melaka’s historic St Paul’s hill.
Almost entirely dependent on tourists, the imposition of the movement control order (MCO) in March last year dealt a huge blow to the historic city’s trishaw business.
He said he had just resumed riding his beca after close to two years of unemployment.
When he was without income, Kaizan said he relied heavily on food baskets from NGOs and the government only gave trishaw riders a one-off payment of RM500 earlier this year.
Let me ask you, if I give you RM500 and a bag of rice, can you survive for a whole year?”
He said he will probably abstain from voting in Saturday’s polls, partially due to his distaste for political “frogs”.
“They jump to this party, they jump to that party. All they want is power, they don’t care about the rakyat. As for beca riders, even worse.”
Tired of politicking
Meanwhile, Azman, a trishaw rider of almost 10 years, shared about his experience of contracting Covid-19 earlier this year.
“It was very bad. My whole family, all 30 of us, got it.”
He went on to express his disappointment at local politicians who he claims did not offer any assistance during his family’s hard times.
“They didn’t even call us,” Azman said, adding that he and his family had to rely on support from NGOs in the form of food baskets.
Azman said despite being ignored by politicians during his family’s illness, he was contacted by a campaigner earlier this month, shortly after the Melaka polls were announced.
“When we were sick, they ignored us, but when it comes to the election, I don’t know how, but they got my number and sent me a message.”
Keeping an eye on case numbers
A sentiment shared by all the trishaw riders interviewed by The Vibes was concern over rising Covid-19 case numbers.
Yusof Hashim, 28, told us that he has noticed an uptick in traffic in the city in the past few days. He said this is likely due to the upcoming state election.
“We see them and we see their cars, they come from outstation. They do support the economy, but what else do they bring?”
When asked how he feels about the rising cases, Yusof said: “I’m worried. It all feels very chaotic. If it (rising cases) happens again and we have another MCO, it will be difficult.”
Malaysia logged a two-week high of 6,517 Covid-19 cases on November 12 and the infectivity rate currently stands at 1.04 nationwide.
During the first phase of the MCO, Yusof kept himself afloat by working as a food delivery rider, something many trishaw riders did.
“I’m lucky I have a motorbike. Some of them don’t have bikes. If there’s another MCO, what can they do?” – The Vibes, November 16, 2021
