MAY 8 — The recent brawl outside a mosque in Johor after Friday prayers was an unfortunate event that was simply waiting to occur. When the video went viral on social media, most Malaysians displayed great empathy at the frustration of dealing with congestion caused by double and triple parking outside of mosques every Friday.
Double-parking causes a bottleneck effect which then results in congestion. As soon as Friday prayers ends, the road finally clears up… until Friday comes around again and the same problem reoccurs. It seems to be a perennial problem, considering that Muslim men will continue going for Friday prayers and Malaysians will continue driving cars. Is there a solution?
Before suggesting a solution, we must first identify the root of the problem. The main reason for congestion anywhere really, is due to inefficient or absent public transportation. Our rail services are unfortunately not the most reliable as they are inaccessible and ironically, inconvenient. Driving private vehicles often is the fastest way to reach a desired destination — this includes going to the nearest mosque for Friday prayers.
The sheer volume of Malaysians driving cars eventually results in insufficient parking spaces, thus forcing drivers to parks their cars on the roadside, double sometimes even triple parking. Mosque vicinities during Friday prayers are no exception to this problem.
One way to reduce the number of cars on the road is to provide efficient and reliable public transportation — in fact, this is not a novel nor revolutionary idea. The objective should be to eliminate the necessity to drive privately owned cars to Friday prayers. This can be achieved by providing shuttle services to transport people from their office to the nearest mosque for Friday prayers.
Surely state or religious authorities can procure the necessary funding to provide this free shuttle service. After all, if JAIS can produce a spying app, ‘Hotline JAIS’ surely they can attempt to provide a service that could actually benefit society.
Having a shuttle service for Friday prayers could not only potentially reduce congestion, it also complies with the Islamic teaching of respecting the environment as we can help reduce carbon footprint by using fewer cars.
As a Muslim myself, I believe that displaying devotion to Allah means that one must do good to fellow human beings too. It is paradoxical to show devotion to Allah at Friday prayers while concurrently causing distress to others who are not at Friday prayers. Malaysian Muslims need to be more holistic in the pursuit of spirituality by respecting our society and the environment.
I am fully aware of how this plan could possibly provide undesired results — such as, state religious authorities monitoring Friday prayer attendance through the shuttle service. However, it is good to remain hopeful.
The violence that occurred outside the mosque in Johor was a wake up call for Malaysian Muslims to be more considerate when parking their cars for Friday prayers. Most importantly, it was also a wake up call to our politicians about the alarming increase in number of privately owned vehicles and the abysmal state of public transportation.
If our politicians are really serious about Malaysia becoming a developed nation, then serious steps must be taken towards reducing congestion, because as the former mayor of Bogota, Gustavo Petro aptly puts it, “a developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation.”
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
