That Thing About Malaysian Traffic Police

Yeah, so I was driving down the usual road home after a drink with my friends (which I ended up speeding at around 120-130, poking another red Kelisa that just won't let go) when I ended up at the end of the MRR2 bridge and the start of the MRR2 heading to Batu Caves, when I saw a BIG road block ahead. I slowed down and was hoping for it to be crime police (courteously letting the red Kelisa from earlier to be ahead of me now).

So whoppee... I see lots of white shirts at the block and got flagged to the side. I stopped by the road and was greeted by a traffic police officer quite nicely, and so the conversation begun.

Officer: Lesen memandu...

Me: (Took out my driving license and passed it to the gentleman)

Officer: Kerja apa?

Me: Boss, saya masih study

Officer: Kenapa speeding? You tau you speeding?

Me: Lewat ma..

Officer: Ha... Saya perlu bagi you saman ah. 300 ratus ringgit tau. Bukan murah.

Me: ... hmmmm.... Bagi lo..

Officer: Bukan murah tau... 300 ratus...

Me: Bukan 100? Saya ingat 100.. (testing waters)

Officer: 100? Mana ada begitu murah? Sekarang parking illegal pun 70!

Me: Oh..

Officer: You mau saman ah? (pause) Atau mau tolong?

Me: Berapa you mau? (testing again)

Officer: Berapa you ada?

Me: (looked into my wallet) Saya ada 15 saje... Takda duit la

Officer: (gave me back my license) Tak pa la, tak pa la..

Me: So you mau 15 ah?

Officer: Tak pa la, saya tolong you la.. Pergi pergi..

Me: (he seemed to have forgotten about the fine...come on... what do you expect me to do?)

So I left. That was how it went, as accurate as I could remember. My only reasoning for him letting me go without a fine is that he's not suppose to be there in the first place!

I didn't exactly offer him a bribe, I was more than ready to accept the fine, but in the end, when I looked like I couldn't give him enough to buy him that Ferrari when he's retired, he lost interest in me and just asked me to leave. Shouldn't he be giving me a fine if this whole road block was official? I still regret not seeing if he had those "Saya-Anti-Rasuah" badges on. That would be just hilarious.

I'm not complaining that I got off scott-free, but seriously, what in the world are policemen doing in the middle of the night blocking off roads and asking for bribes?

So have we gotten anywhere since 4 years ago? I guess not.

Another interesting story about our best friends in white

PDRM's blog