COMMENT | Look, I’m a parent, and I have to admit that I do manja (dote) my kids every now and then. It’s the Malaysian concept of spoiling our kids rotten.

We manja them by letting them stay up past midnight to watch a movie, we buy them smartphones and tablets, and, apparently, we now also hand them the car keys before they’ve even figured out how to drive.

But here’s the thing about being manja though. When it happens behind the wheel of a heavy piece of metal with wheels and an engine inside, it stops being affection and love and becomes plain stupidity and parental neglect.

You must have read the headlines by now, right?

Let’s start with...