Baradan Kuppusamy
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 2005 (IPS) – It is comparable to the suicidal rush of lemmings. But the annual Balik Kampung (Return to the Village), the biggest mass event on the Malaysian calendar, is marked as much by the joyousness of home coming as the horrendous road accidents on the way.
Coinciding with Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, Balik Kampungs see over a million people, from the capital alone, heading for the rural Malay hinterland with the movement acquiring fever pitch as the end of the Ramadan festivities, peaking on Hari Raya (Day of Joy), approaches.
To the uninformed, the capital s roads going suddenly bereft of its roaring traffic, the empty shopping malls and the ghost town effect can be bewildering.
A famous sketch by LAT , a prominent cartoonist, captures the phenomenon best and shows a couple of mice lolling about in the middle of Tunku Abdul Rahman road, the busiest thoroughfare in the capital, nonchalantly sipping orange juice.
But the real worry is for the people who rush headlong out of town mostly indigenous Malay-Muslims who form 51 percent of Malaysia s 26 million-strong population who have deep roots in the villages or kampungs.
Ethnic Chinese, who form the next largest group, are mostly concentrated in the urban centres and form another 24 percent, while the largely Hindu Indians make up slightly more than seven percent of the population and are scattered across both urban and rural areas.
Each year, authorities try hard to reduce road fatalities during the Balik Kampung season offering various schemes such as improved public transport. But none has worked well enough and daily average deaths, from accidents on the highways, remain a high 30.
Like others before him, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi s key message to the fleeing Malay masses, apart from the greetings, is: Reach home safely please. This year, he pleaded over national television, There is no need to rush as long as you arrive safely at your destinations.
But such fatherly admonishments fall on deaf ears and the mood is dictated by a popular song by the late singer Sudirman that celebrates the annual ritual and is called just that-Balik Kampung.
Last weekend, authorities recorded 1,892 road accidents and forty deaths causing Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy to remark: You are supposed to balik kampung to celebrate and your parents are waiting for you returnàbut what they see eventually is a dead body.
For the younger generation of Malays, Balik Kampung and Hari Raya (Raya for short) evoke images of parents waiting anxiously for them in the villages with open arms and mounds of delicacies prepared and waiting to accept the gifts and money that is called Duit Raya ( Raya Money).
Hari Raya is about celebrating with your family and I can t wait to be home, said accountant Ismail Sarjid, 29, waiting at the end of a long queue to get a bus ticket at the main Pudu Raya bus terminal. I can t wait to see my parents in Kota Baru I feel homesick.
I can t wait to see my mother and the food she will have prepared, said nurse Norlailah Ismail, 28, also standing in the same queue. The yearly family gathering is all important.
As the exodus picks up, a few days before the end of Ramadan, it begins to take a toll on the functioning of offices and businesses with most of them staying shut for a whole week for lack of staff if not exactly piety.
This year s Balik Kampung from Oct. 27 to Nov. 13 has been worse from the point of view of office managers û for the fact that the Malay-Muslim Ai dli Fitri (Id-ul-Fitr), marking the end of Ramadan, falls back-to-back with Deepawali, the Hindu festival of lights.
Reflecting the general mood of communal bonhomie that prevails at this time, Malaysians have even coined a new word for the joint celebration Deepa Raya.
Bus, train and air tickets out of the capital were sold out months earlier and as families leave in droves, the highways are packed with cars and buses, especially the 660 km North-South highway through which 1.2 million vehicles pass daily during the festive period.
Sadly, it is also a time when the newspapers and television channels are full of gory images of accidents of people who did not make it to their villages in the mad rush homeward.
I have asked my children not to return to the village this year, said retired teacher Muhamad Hashim by telephone from Tampin a village, about 120 km from here. It is too dangerous to travel.
To facilitate movement along the North-South Expressway, all repair and construction along the main backbone is halted and other safety precautions taken.
This year, the police department is even offering free coffee and newspapers at rest places along the highway to get people to relax and maybe reduce the number of fatal accidents.
And instead of laying speed traps, this year, the department turned benevolent and released a list of hazardous spots on the national highways where speed cameras have been set up, so as not to tense up drivers.
In the 2004 exodus, 157 people died during the nine days of the peak Balik Kampung season.
Balik Kampung is, understandably, the busiest time in the year for the Road Safety Department, whose director-general Suret Singh urges Malaysians to use public transport rather than drive home in their own cars.
About 75 percent of Malaysians prefer to return to their villages in their own cars, he told IPS, explaining that parents are gratified to see their children returning home in new cars, symbolizing their success in the cities.
Suret Singh said the penchant for going home for the Balik Kampung in private transport significantly contributes to road mishaps. The volume of vehicles on the roads shoots up three-fold.
At last, another Hari Raya and Deepawali are here again. It s time for all Malaysians to get together and share these happy moments. In your haste to get back to your respective kampungs, I sincerely pray that all of you get home safely, said Malaysia s best known blogger Jeff Ooi.
It is really heartbreaking to see fatal accidents being aired on TV and news media. Please do drive with care and don t spoil the Raya or Deepawali mood of your loved ones on these auspicious occasions, he blogged.
As the cities and towns empty out, another worry is the increase in break-ins and burglaries that target houses that are left unattended.
Police patrolling of the empty towns and cities has therefore to be more, rather than less, vigilant. This year, residents leaving home are being asked to inform police via SMS of their absence.
Ironically, Balik Kampung is also the time for another exodus û from the neighbouring, affluent, predominantly Chinese island of Singapore into mainland Malaysia s empty cities across the Johore Straits.
Cooped up in their small city state, Singaporeans see the Balik Kampung mania as a chance to put their fast and expensive cars through their paces, fill up empty city hotels, eat at expensive restaurants and enjoy the sights and leave behind unpaid parking and speeding tickets.