From Terence Netto
About a million people ride the MRT, LRT and KTM Komuter trains in the Klang Valley every day.
The numbers are growing each year, which is to the good: imagine what the traffic jams on the roads would be if they were offloaded onto cars, buses and motorcycles.
We must hope more mass transit lines are built and more residents of the Klang Valley use them because commuters save time and money using them rather than cars and other vehicles.
A cursory glance within transit coaches is sure to reveal that the overwhelming majority of passengers, during their ride, are glued to their handheld mobile devices.
One hesitates to say they are reading the stuff on their screens.
More accurately, they are appraising digital stuff.
On very rare instances, a passenger would be holding a book or periodical; he or she would be actually reading something.
In fact, the sight—especially when it was of someone deeply absorbed in the print of a book or periodical—was as exhilarating as the sight of a footprint on the sand must have been to Robinson Crusoe in Daniel Defoe’s novel.
I exaggerate not. A reader on the trains is as rare a discovery as, probably, an honest politician is these days.
Which is why it is a lamentable lapse that in trying to promote a reading culture among Malaysians, the unity ministry of Aaron Ago Dagang has neglected to encourage the trait among the most captive of audiences these days – the growing throng of commuters on our trains.
The ministry has chosen to encourage the habit in nurseries and kindergartens in this month of October.
Well and good.
But nobody seems interested in encouraging it among the captives, especially the young among mass rapid transit commuters.
Seeing them agog on their handheld devices, immersed in images and text on digital screens, is one of the more troubling sights I have witnessed since the gamut of transit trains was expanded in the Klang Valley from mid-2017, when the Sungai Buloh to Kajang MRT line was opened, and the Putrajaya to Kwasa Damansara line was inaugurated in the middle of last year.
One thought of so much travel time saved for commuters to read.
Sure, not all commuters have the luxury of a seat, particularly during rush hour, in which to plunk themselves and read, but many don’t avail themselves of the most constructive habit they could indulge during the ride.
Which is why the unity ministry, tasked with promoting reading among Malaysians, is remiss in neglecting an audience that’s only going to grow but remains a captive and wasted one.
Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.