The present approach to law enforcement with regards to the Mat Rempit reminds me of a story when I was little boy in 1957. There was this classmate of mine who lost his father. Being the only child he was brought up by his mother who was a teacher in the same school.

They had a difficult life but after sometime after things returned to normal. But one day, on his way back from school, this boy took an apple from one of the fruit stalls. At home, his mother asked him about the apple and he told the truth. His mother told him that the next day he should go to the shop and pay for the apple.

His mother thought that that was the end of the story. A few months later, she noticed that every day, her son brought home new items and when asked, he said that he paid for them. Unbeknown to his mother, this boy did not pay for the apple and all the other items he brought home. I took it upon myself to tell his mother what her son was doing. At first she was angry with me and told me that it is a sin to tell lies. But later on I found out that she knew what was happening but turned a blind eye so as no to offend her fatherless son.

Matters came to a head when one day, a shop owner caught the boy taking money from the Milo tin in which the day's collection was kept. The shop owner called the police and the boy was taken into custody. The shop owner complained that this boy had all along been taking items from his shop without paying. But when he took his cash he had no alternative but to report to the police. The boy's mother pleaded but the shop owner refused to withdraw the report.

A hearing was held in chambers and it was decided that he would be sent to a reform school in Kuala Lumpur. Before passing the decision, the magistrate asked the boy if he had anything to say. He said that he wanted to speak to his mother adding that he would like to whisper his message to her. As the mother brought her left ear close to the boy, he bit it and the left the poor lady bleeding. The magistrate asked the boy why he did that. The boy replied that for it was for not teaching him that it was wrong to steal. On that note he went on a three-months stint to a reform school in Kuala Lumpur.

Moral of the story is that a stitch in time saves nine.