I refer to the article Continuing carnage on our carriageways by your columnist M Bakri Musa.

After many years of observing how we Malaysians are fighting this problem, I've come to the sad conclusion that we have failed miserably. There is almost a reluctance by the enforcement agencies to punish law breakers, and even the few who get caught, they somehow manage to negotiate to be let off.

I smile when during each festival there is a huge effort to have this and that "operasi". Why do we have to have the ubiquitous "operasi"? Traffic enforcement should be a 24/7 thing, without fanfare and official launches.

We suffer from a syndrome where everything must be accompanied by a ceremony. For example, whilst other countries sent their rescue teams to Pakistan immediately after the recent earthquake, our team had to have a sending-off ceremony by non other than our prime minister himself!

And true to form (we have always emphasised form over substance) there will be the usual launches by VIPs just before the 'balik kampung' exodus and many officials will come down to accompany their bosses to officiate and pose for the TV cameras.

One thing I must say though is that we are not without ambition. A few years ago a high-level committee chaired by the PM had the target to reduce road accidents by 30%. Of course, the committee has not been heard of since.

Just last week yet another official admitted that the chances of getting caught by traffic policemen is 20% and the target is to increase this to 90%. How this is to be achieved is not stated.

Perhaps we need a few teams to travel to various countries for a series of "study tours" (preferably during spring or summer) and when they come back, they can prepare a "working paper" and form "committees" to study the proposals and then maybe in a few years' time we can have a policy.

In the meanwhile the carnage on our roads will continue.