"Patut la orang kampung tak suka JPJ... Kamu semua ni jahat!"
Those were among the words uttered by my dad to a couple of Road Transport Department (or mostly known as JPJ) officers last Saturday when we were pulled over by them at a roadside near Kuala Ibai, Kuala Terengganu...
Okey, let me start the story with a proper introduction... Here goes...
Last Saturday morning, my dad, my mom, two of my brothers and me were on our way to granny's house at Seberang Takir, Kuala Terengganu... At that time, it was just starting to rain and it was very quiet in the car as my brothers finally got tired of arguing in 'bromance' kind of way and fell asleep... I was about to doze off too but the second I lay my head onto my seat, I heard a honking sound... It was like, "TOOTTTT!! TOTOTTT!!"... You know, the one like police cars make...
I turned my head around and saw a dark blue four wheel drive through the rear window... "Abah, polis... Dia suruh kita berhenti...", I said to my dad...
"Polis??", my brothers were awaken by the honking... Mom then frantically told us to put on our seat belts... Yeah, none of us was wearing our seat belts... "That's it, we're doomed... They're gonna fine us for that...", I thought...
For your information, my dad is a decent driver... Most of the time, he drives at 80 km/h and he always stop at red lights... Besides, mom's always there to remind him of the speed... However, one thing he dislikes is wearing seat belts...
Dad stopped the car at the side of the road behind a black parked car and the blue four wheel drive parked in front of it... From the logo at the side of the vehicle, I could guess that they're not the police but they're JPJ officers instead...
Two officers got out and one of them went to my dad... He asked for dad's driving license and IC and went to the other officer... It started to rain heavily so they took shelter under a wooden shed that was a few metres away from our car and asked dad to join them...
From far, I could see that one of the officers was writing something on a small book while the other one was talking to dad... A minute later, dad returned to the car and asked all of us, "Kita ada langgar lampu merah ke?? Mereka cakap kita langgar lampu merah, betul ke??"... He seemed upset...
Mom answered in a confused and surprised tone, "Lampu merah?? Mana ada!"
Dad went back to the officers and the mood changed rapidly... Dad started to argue with those officers but as I was about to go to them to find out what's going on, dad came back to the car with a ticket in his hand...
"Mereka cakap kita langgar lampu merah dekat Chendering tadi! Mana ada! Masa kita jalan tu, lampu tu dah hijau la..."
We're fined RM300 for running a red light... Dad was furious and so was mom... They kept on expressing their dissatisfaction while we kids sat quietly at the back...
Dad told us that at first he tried to be nice with them as he thought they were going to fine us because we're not wearing seat belts but when those officers wrongly accusing us of running a red light, no more mister nice guy... All hell broke loose when he saw the ticket being written...
"Encik, saya tak pernah langgar merah... Kalau Encik nak saman saya sebab saya tak pakai tali pinggang keledar, saya akan terima dan redha sebab itu memang salah saya... Tapi kalau Encik nak saman sebab langgar lampu, saya memang akan marah la!", dad narrated what he said to those officers...
One of them who dad assumed as the superior insisted that we ran a red light...
"Encik salah kereta ni... Saya tahu Encik mesti taknak malu dengan anak - anak buah tapi kalau dah tersilap tu, mengaku je la... Jangan la aniaya orang macam ni..."
When the ticket was finally handed over, dad no longer held back...
"Kenapa bersungguh sungguh sangat nak saman ni?? Hari ni tak dapat saman orang lain lagi ke?? Saya yang pertama Encik saman?? Lapar sangat nak saman orang ni..."
The officers' faces changed from poker face to upset face...
"Patut la orang kampung tak suka JPJ... Kamu semua ni jahat! Memang patut la pun kena pukul..."
Before dad could finish his angry rant, the two officers went back to their vehicle and drove off...
It was supposed to be a happy day for us but the cheerful atmosphere was changed... Heck, even I was furious by the way those officers acted... Obviously they got the wrong car and refused to admit it...
Dad then told us a story about a JPJ officer was badly assaulted by some teenagers from our place some time ago...
There's this one young guy who dad referred as "Budak Kemaman" and he loved to drive fast... One particular evening, the guy was speeding when a JPJ vehicle suddenly appeared and tried to make him pull over to the side of the road... He couldn't find a safe place to stop and therefore kept on driving until he found a safe spot to pull over...
One JPJ officer came to him, asked him to roll down his window and suddenly took the guy's car keys and threw them away into the bushes... It was a bad movie for the officer as the guy was in the car together with a few of his friends... They beat the shit out of the officer...
"Aku tak kisah kau nak saman aku!! Tapi kenapa kau buang kunci tu!! Kau tahu tak sekarang ni malam! Macammana aku nak cari??!!"
They saw another officer waiting in the JPJ vehicle and threaten him to come out... But the officer refused and so, they tore the vehicle apart... Actually, the one who's in the vehicle was the superior and he had a gun but he was too scared to come out...
Therefore, the moral of the story here is, dear law enforcers, we don't mind u doing your job... but don't go around trying to show who's the boss and act all tough... It may work for certain people, but most cant tolerate your rudeness...
