That's rubbish!

Yesterday, my usually 50-minute journey to work took an additional 60 minutes because of an accident which happened in KL somewhere and caused ripple effects through all major roads. While crawling along Jalan Istana, I saw a truck driver threw an empty cigarette pack on the road nonchalantly. And the truck – an Alam Flora truck! How ironic. I bet he didn’t even stop to consider whether what he was doing was appropriate or not. And that is the attitude of a garbage disposal company staff. What about the rest of us then?

So, what’s the big deal about throwing rubbish on the road? I think it reflects our public sense of responsibility, which is sadly, wanting. In Islam, doing our part for the public, however small the act may be, is encouraged. Even putting away thorn (or something harmful, in general) out of people’s way is considered a sadaqah. Together, let’s try shift from the ‘I do what’s most convenient for me, I don’t care about other people’ to ‘I do what’s most convenient for me, as long as aku tak menyusahkan orang lain’ first, Insya’Allah. That’s the least we can do. We may pay the toll for the highway, and the highway company may be very rich, but at the end of the day, it's the RM700/month rubbish-picker who would have to collect that extra rubbish we contributed at no additional commission.

Perhaps the truck driver thought he was giving his company more business.