A few days ago as I returned home on a beautiful bright and dry evening, my neighbours, an elderly Indian couple, waylaid me and said, “There’s been an accident.” Then I saw a Malay youth, wearing a helmet, standing in their driveway, bleeding from torn flesh on his arms and through his jeans.

My extremely kind and devout Catholic neighbours helped the victim to tend to his wounds, called his office for help to send him for medical treatment, gave him a drink, and kept the damaged bike overnight for him.

Apparently this guy had not noticed the road hump and took a nasty flight. By his own admission, he was looking at a map on his hand held gadget while riding his motorcycle - biasa buat macam ini - and had not noticed the hump.

Admittedly, the road, Jalan 12/12 in Petaling Jaya, was resurfaced a couple of weeks back and the hump has not been repainted ever since. Most noticeably to residents of the road is that the road was in good condition and not in need of any repairs prior to the resurfacing job, after which the road surface is in an evidently worse condition.

This episode is very interesting because it defines what it is to be Malaysian.

We are Malaysians because we are colour-blind.

We are Malaysians because we serve God and not religion.

We are Malaysians because we keep our eyes on hand-held gadgets while riding a motorcycle.

We are Malaysians because we leave our job half done.

We are Malaysians because we do something which need not be done because others are paying for it.

We are Malaysians because we don’t give a darn how our contractors do their jobs.