I have raised in the past about ‘abuse’ of status by some VIPS, but apparently either the VIPs are not literate or do not understand, and if if they do understand, do not want to take heed due to their arrogance/assumption that they are either above the law or exempted from the law.

The case of reservation of areas for VIPs and other facilities/perks reminds me of the time when the country was under the British and there was a sign outside the then Selangor Club that allegedly said that ‘Native are not allowed’. This discrimination was law in other British colonies such as India where there were notices that allegedly said ‘Natives and dogs not allowed’.

In South Africa locals were barred from entering certain areas or use facilities based on their color and referred to as Apartheid, and in the US similar discrimination was practiced based on former slaves who were mostly of dark colour. All these discrimination disappeared when the British colonies achieved independence and the US under the late president John F Kennedy made discrimination a crime and laws were passed against it.

Unfortunately the culture of apartheid has continued in a new form and one of the forms is the ‘VIP’ culture. Another method is when public funded facilities are reserved for ‘members’ while others are barred. It may be noted that many clubs were said to be purchased with taxpayers’ funds as the land was acquired by the federal government to be used for ‘recreational facilities for Kuala Lumpur’.

Is this not another form of ‘apartheid’ where public funded facilities are reserved for exclusive use of a group of individuals having some form of status. I am not referring to privately funded clubs which may be commercial in nature and are thus fully entitled to open their membership to anyone who is willing to pay the charges imposed.

It is about time for the VIPs to come down to level of the ordinary rakyat and experience the hardships faced by them instead of abusing/misusing their VIP status.

But will they listen or change their habits especially those who may have earned their ‘VIP’ status with the use of their wealth to become ‘very influential persons’?

I doubt it, just like there is little change in the management of public funds as shown in the continuing cases reported in the Auditor-General’s Reports and suspected financial mismanagement is repeated year after year after year for the past over-thirty years.

This is common in many countries around the world, so why should the local VIPs be any different?