D.U.K.A.L.A.R.A. A Tragedy

The Accident

What I have been worrying all these while happened at last. It was at KM50 Gerik-Jeli Highway as I was negotiating a corner in the rain. I was doing around 60km/h as it was quite a sharp turn when suddenly I lost control of the car. The backside of the car slid so I instinctively pressed the brake. The slide continued drift-like which turned the car towards where I was coming from and ended in the drain. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic for I was with my wife and three children.

Quickly I turned my head towards the passenger seat. My wife was shocked as she was asleep with my youngest child on her lap. She recited the Almighty's name over and over again. Then I saw my two other children at the back of the car, crying. They seemed okay and I sighed, relieved. I also saw the condition of the car - the engine was still running, the windscreen was still intact, but the window at the backside of the car was cracked. 

As we were coming into terms about what had just happened, there was a knock on my door. I rolled the window down and saw a man asking if we were okay. Then he ordered us to quickly come out of the car because the place was quite dangerous as there could be other cars crashing into us.

We grabbed everything we could think of: handbag, phones and laptop bag. As we were walking towards a restaurant on the other side of the road, my wife informed me that her phone was missing. After I seated them on the chairs, I dashed towards the car again to search for it. It was a failed attempt as it was quite dark already. I took a bag which was at the back of the car, searched for my wife's apartment parking card and returned to the restaurant.

The man, who we later knew as the restaurant owner, was worried as I had been quite a while inside the car. He said there was once a double crash happened at the very same place. The first victims barely got out into a safe place when another crash happened. His restaurant also got rammed into many times, so as his Iswara car parked in front of it. He and his mother were quite helpful to us during the ordeal. He called his friend who tows cars and his mother made us some drinks. Then we chatted while waiting for the towing truck to arrive.

When the towing truck arrived, I faced a dilemma whether to tow the car to Tanah Merah, or to the workshop in Taiping as suggested by the towing truck driver. After some time pondering upon the pro and contra of the possibilities, I finally decided on placing the car at his workshop. It was a panel of Takaful Malaysia, so I should not worry to much.

Before we towed the car out of the drain, I searched for my wife's phone once again. I found it under the passenger seat and put it inside my pocket. We took around 15 minutes to finally get the car on the truck. I was sad to see the condition of the car, but I could not do anything anymore except from wishing that I could drive it again soon. 

We said goodbyes and thanked the owner of the restaurant and his mother before riding the towing truck towards Gerik police station to report the accident. It was an uncomfortable hour-and-a-half ride as all the six of us including the driver sat inside the truck as the car was too dangerous to sit in.

The report was smooth and the policeman in-charge was friendly. The truck driver took us to a hotel which he already called on our way to the police station. After taking the rest of the things from the car, we checked into the hotel to rest.

The next day, I bought some clothes at the morning market before buying roti canai for breakfast. At 9.30, my wife's friend who was teaching in Gerik came to help us. She and her family brought us to their home while waiting for our bus ride which was scheduled at noon.

We finally arrived at Tanah Merah at 6 in the evening.


D.U.K.A.L.A.R.A.

It was a matter of time before we finally involved in an accident. We travelled from Kelantan to Penang and vice versa a lot of times since 2013. We could not help it as we are teaching in two different states. My wife's application for a transfer to Kelantan is not approved yet, so we are still living separate lives. This is what the government dubbed 'DUKALARA'.

Personally, I am not against government's transfer system. I know it is hard to actually find the right balance between the demands, but if done correctly, you might find the way. However, everybody must follow the system, notwithstanding you are a known personality or a boy next door. When there is a queue, you enter the queue, not cutting it by using any means possible. This will take somebody else's rights and for me, it is really intolerable.