On The Train (Culture Change), Oct 20, 2008

I knew even before the Eidul Fitri celebration that KTMB was finally going to manage the embarking and disembarking passengers at major stations especially KL Sentral when I saw the lines being painted on the floor just like at the LRT stations. Today I saw the first implementation of that when we approached KL Sentral. I saw commuters neatly lined up on each side to board. Or course I saw a few guards on duty to make sure that happen and I could not help but wonder how long that going to last. I hope all of us would learn and observe the new ‘rule’ even when the guards are not around. I am a bit optimistic but being a Malaysian I have my doubt. We have just to wait for few more weeks if indeed we could change the culture and mindset. If forcing the rules upon us would make it works I am all for it. But I have also seen at LRT station when the guards were not there or when the train approached suddenly the lines went missing and commuters simply rushed in. We have still along way to go. I just got back from Temasek and I did not see any guards at all on the platform. The same thing when I was in Hong Kong. So I guess as far as Malaysian is concern we have to force this rule upon us to make it a success.