IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. – PART I:
OF JUVENILE RECKLESSNESS, INNOCENCE, DELIQUENCY AND LAWLESSNESS…WHICH RESULT IN A SHORT STRING OF EVENTS LEADING TO AN UNFORTUNATE END IN ‘ONE NIGHT IN SHAHALAM’.
By Mansor Puteh
(Note: I find the comments made by certain psychologists and psychiatrists on why Malaysian motorists like to jump the traffic lights to be too vague and stupid. This is a minor issue which is that the offending motorists are taking advantage of poor enforcement and punishment.
They should have foreseen such problems few decades ago and said so and convinced the government to do something so that they could not happen.
But now it’s too late. They can only look at what has happened in retrospect and then create some intelligent excuses on why such problems happened.
Maybe it’s not too late; they can still offer suggestions to the government on how to curb traffic delinquencies, but do they know how? I doubt it.
It’s got nothing to do with a person’s personality traits, as the same person will behave better if they know the punishment for making such traffic offenses is debilitating as in Singapura.
Its how much society and the authorities ‘allow’ anyone to do is what makes some to do it, and the social and cultural influences one can get through the popular medium of the cinema, television and music.
So one can also blame the media for creating confusion amongst the young in the country.
Maybe the psychologists and psychiatrists are too old to be able to understand the thinking of the young today. And they are not just a group of young people; they are differences between the young Melayu and the others whose problems need to be addressed differently.
The government of Singapura had long ago foreseen actions by their motorists so they immediately introduced stringent laws to curb unruly behaviors of their motorists.
There is a larger problem which has to be addressed so this tiny issue can be solved.
They sound too bookish and too general like they are not referring to anyone.
I can easily rubbish them, especially since their views were solicited and not given to them as they see fit.
The reasons they gave are not smart at all; they are not case specific. They are not good for anyone to ponder on the issue.
There are other more intelligent answers that one can give to analyze this problem. And it’s nothing to do with the personality disorders the motorists have. The real answer is that our lawmakers have been sleeping and enforcement too lacking, so one can commit traffic offenses and only rarely one can be charged for them.
Who amongst these types and the others, will want to propose that traffic offenders must be reclassified as criminals? Because their actions can often cause the death of innocent people, if they are drivers who are involved in accidents?
Someone driving without a license and is underage, can therefore, be classified as a criminal.)
‘IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT’ – AN OLD BLACK-AND-WHITE HOLLYWOOD FILM STARS CLARK GABLE AND CLAUDETTE CORBET AND DIRECTED BY FRANK CAPRA IN 1934, HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS A CLASSIC – TO THE AMERICANS. IT WENT ON TO WIN A STRING OF THE COVETED OSCARS.
I SAW THIS FILM IN THE FIRST SEMESTER FOR THE HISTORY OF MOTION PICTURES, PART I AT THE UNIVERSITY AND GIVEN BY NOTED AMERICAN FILM CRITIC, ANDREW SARRIS.
‘IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT’ IS A ROMANTIC COMEDY.
‘One Night in Shahalam’ isn’t. It’s a tragedy for some, but not for the others especially those who are in the ‘who-cares’ segment of the society.
The American film has so far been quite forgotten; because time has taken its toll.
The real-life Malaysian version would soon be forgotten too as for the other equally tragic and avoidable tragedies – unfortunately, even by those same lawyers who handled the cases previously.
What happened in ‘One Night in Shahalam’ recently can also be said to be a classic, but one of confusion – but of a different kind – of which the plot is reminiscent of many earlier Hollywood films of the Sixties.
It was when many of their young tried to grow older faster than necessary, of underage boys and also girls have their destiny in their grips, all became confused by the politics of the time and the rejection of social values and dumping of the mores and even religions; when churches that had stood for centuries were left vacant until one by one they were turned to discotheques or hotels.
They gave Hollywood many stories which were gripping with some which ended in tragedy.
So Hollywood film stars became their new gods and goddesses.
Unfortunately, in old Hollywood films dealing with criminals and delinquents, there was this last part of the film called the denouement. But over the years, directors neglected to have it.
What is the denouement in the ‘One Night in Shahalam’?
A bit of the Sixties Hollywood happened in Malaysia, in the ‘One Night in Shahalam’ fairly recently, but not to the extent that happened to the youth in America who went way too far, because their society and parents allowed them to do so, since their hold on religion, too, was weak.
In Malaysia, this didn’t happen. But occasionally traces of it do, such as in the carefree attitude of the young, especially from the middle class Melayu where the young can get easy access to some old Proton Sagas to take a ride of fancy by sneaking out late at night for their dice with danger.
The person must have been driving a while to be able to go out so late and so confidently. Where and who taught him how to drive and whose car did he use to do it? Why didn’t his cousin stop him from driving without a license? He is also a contributing factor that led to the unfortunate incident.
Why didn’t he say so in his press conference, how they had been negligent all along.
Unfortunately, most Melayu parents did not have much experience or education in the American Cinema or Hollywood to know plots which were used then which are now trite.
So no wonder, they have become party to new ones which are repeated in Malaysia some which end in tragedy, which not many will want to share with them.
Many Malaysians really do no care if someone who is underage were to drive into his personal disaster.
If he did not care for his personal safety and the possible agony his parents and family could face with his recklessness, then, why should anyone want to feel sorry for what he had done to all of them?
Alas, it is tragedy which many other Melayu and Malaysians have now begun to accept to be less tragic, but quite ‘entertaining’, much like watching old Hollywood films of the Sixties.
‘It’s not that we do not care; it’s just that we have problems of our own to look after. You can cry a river, but who’d hazard a chance to walk in my shoes?’
It provides valuable lessons for many to learn from. But do they care to look at what happened on that ‘one night in Shahalam’ this way?
And not having a strong cinema awareness base, Malaysians do not understand life as we should.
This is what the country gets if the government does not care to develop the cinema truly and properly leaving it to those who are not trained.
Lessons from the world of make belief of the cinema can shape the country’s destiny that gives us valuable lessons.
So lessons not learnt, are lessons that will be repeated. They appear in many forms; one of which is the excesses of youthful exuberance which unfortunately is being expressed in their exposure to poor quality Melayu films that dwell on them in the silliest way.
Are there valuable and important lessons from the night out for a juvenile that the others like him, their parents and the lawmakers and the police as well as lawyers can learn from?
Do they want to institute new laws that restrict the nocturnal activities of the juvenile after seeing what has happened to one or two of them?
When a leader of a political party got killed when a lorry laden with overload wood hit him when he drove into them, the politicians immediately took actions to introduce new laws to force lorry owners have special extensions to their lorries so the extra load could be covered by a fake back.
Unfortunately, none of the underage child of such personalities had been killed by driving late and without a license that caused him to be shot in the head, or else, his father would have by now instituted some forms of law to curb underage children from driving, at night or even in the day.
But how on earth can they do this without they themselves having to bear the consequences?
Even if their children were caught driving late at night and without a valid driving license, they still have a host of alibis and excuses to absolve themselves of all blame.
By Mansor Puteh
(Note: I find the comments made by certain psychologists and psychiatrists on why Malaysian motorists like to jump the traffic lights to be too vague and stupid. This is a minor issue which is that the offending motorists are taking advantage of poor enforcement and punishment.
They should have foreseen such problems few decades ago and said so and convinced the government to do something so that they could not happen.
But now it’s too late. They can only look at what has happened in retrospect and then create some intelligent excuses on why such problems happened.
Maybe it’s not too late; they can still offer suggestions to the government on how to curb traffic delinquencies, but do they know how? I doubt it.
It’s got nothing to do with a person’s personality traits, as the same person will behave better if they know the punishment for making such traffic offenses is debilitating as in Singapura.
Its how much society and the authorities ‘allow’ anyone to do is what makes some to do it, and the social and cultural influences one can get through the popular medium of the cinema, television and music.
So one can also blame the media for creating confusion amongst the young in the country.
Maybe the psychologists and psychiatrists are too old to be able to understand the thinking of the young today. And they are not just a group of young people; they are differences between the young Melayu and the others whose problems need to be addressed differently.
The government of Singapura had long ago foreseen actions by their motorists so they immediately introduced stringent laws to curb unruly behaviors of their motorists.
There is a larger problem which has to be addressed so this tiny issue can be solved.
They sound too bookish and too general like they are not referring to anyone.
I can easily rubbish them, especially since their views were solicited and not given to them as they see fit.
The reasons they gave are not smart at all; they are not case specific. They are not good for anyone to ponder on the issue.
There are other more intelligent answers that one can give to analyze this problem. And it’s nothing to do with the personality disorders the motorists have. The real answer is that our lawmakers have been sleeping and enforcement too lacking, so one can commit traffic offenses and only rarely one can be charged for them.
Who amongst these types and the others, will want to propose that traffic offenders must be reclassified as criminals? Because their actions can often cause the death of innocent people, if they are drivers who are involved in accidents?
Someone driving without a license and is underage, can therefore, be classified as a criminal.)
‘IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT’ – AN OLD BLACK-AND-WHITE HOLLYWOOD FILM STARS CLARK GABLE AND CLAUDETTE CORBET AND DIRECTED BY FRANK CAPRA IN 1934, HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS A CLASSIC – TO THE AMERICANS. IT WENT ON TO WIN A STRING OF THE COVETED OSCARS.
I SAW THIS FILM IN THE FIRST SEMESTER FOR THE HISTORY OF MOTION PICTURES, PART I AT THE UNIVERSITY AND GIVEN BY NOTED AMERICAN FILM CRITIC, ANDREW SARRIS.
‘IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT’ IS A ROMANTIC COMEDY.
‘One Night in Shahalam’ isn’t. It’s a tragedy for some, but not for the others especially those who are in the ‘who-cares’ segment of the society.
The American film has so far been quite forgotten; because time has taken its toll.
The real-life Malaysian version would soon be forgotten too as for the other equally tragic and avoidable tragedies – unfortunately, even by those same lawyers who handled the cases previously.
What happened in ‘One Night in Shahalam’ recently can also be said to be a classic, but one of confusion – but of a different kind – of which the plot is reminiscent of many earlier Hollywood films of the Sixties.
It was when many of their young tried to grow older faster than necessary, of underage boys and also girls have their destiny in their grips, all became confused by the politics of the time and the rejection of social values and dumping of the mores and even religions; when churches that had stood for centuries were left vacant until one by one they were turned to discotheques or hotels.
They gave Hollywood many stories which were gripping with some which ended in tragedy.
So Hollywood film stars became their new gods and goddesses.
Unfortunately, in old Hollywood films dealing with criminals and delinquents, there was this last part of the film called the denouement. But over the years, directors neglected to have it.
What is the denouement in the ‘One Night in Shahalam’?
A bit of the Sixties Hollywood happened in Malaysia, in the ‘One Night in Shahalam’ fairly recently, but not to the extent that happened to the youth in America who went way too far, because their society and parents allowed them to do so, since their hold on religion, too, was weak.
In Malaysia, this didn’t happen. But occasionally traces of it do, such as in the carefree attitude of the young, especially from the middle class Melayu where the young can get easy access to some old Proton Sagas to take a ride of fancy by sneaking out late at night for their dice with danger.
The person must have been driving a while to be able to go out so late and so confidently. Where and who taught him how to drive and whose car did he use to do it? Why didn’t his cousin stop him from driving without a license? He is also a contributing factor that led to the unfortunate incident.
Why didn’t he say so in his press conference, how they had been negligent all along.
Unfortunately, most Melayu parents did not have much experience or education in the American Cinema or Hollywood to know plots which were used then which are now trite.
So no wonder, they have become party to new ones which are repeated in Malaysia some which end in tragedy, which not many will want to share with them.
Many Malaysians really do no care if someone who is underage were to drive into his personal disaster.
If he did not care for his personal safety and the possible agony his parents and family could face with his recklessness, then, why should anyone want to feel sorry for what he had done to all of them?
Alas, it is tragedy which many other Melayu and Malaysians have now begun to accept to be less tragic, but quite ‘entertaining’, much like watching old Hollywood films of the Sixties.
‘It’s not that we do not care; it’s just that we have problems of our own to look after. You can cry a river, but who’d hazard a chance to walk in my shoes?’
It provides valuable lessons for many to learn from. But do they care to look at what happened on that ‘one night in Shahalam’ this way?
And not having a strong cinema awareness base, Malaysians do not understand life as we should.
This is what the country gets if the government does not care to develop the cinema truly and properly leaving it to those who are not trained.
Lessons from the world of make belief of the cinema can shape the country’s destiny that gives us valuable lessons.
So lessons not learnt, are lessons that will be repeated. They appear in many forms; one of which is the excesses of youthful exuberance which unfortunately is being expressed in their exposure to poor quality Melayu films that dwell on them in the silliest way.
Are there valuable and important lessons from the night out for a juvenile that the others like him, their parents and the lawmakers and the police as well as lawyers can learn from?
Do they want to institute new laws that restrict the nocturnal activities of the juvenile after seeing what has happened to one or two of them?
When a leader of a political party got killed when a lorry laden with overload wood hit him when he drove into them, the politicians immediately took actions to introduce new laws to force lorry owners have special extensions to their lorries so the extra load could be covered by a fake back.
Unfortunately, none of the underage child of such personalities had been killed by driving late and without a license that caused him to be shot in the head, or else, his father would have by now instituted some forms of law to curb underage children from driving, at night or even in the day.
But how on earth can they do this without they themselves having to bear the consequences?
Even if their children were caught driving late at night and without a valid driving license, they still have a host of alibis and excuses to absolve themselves of all blame.
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