TRISHAWS MELAKA

Assalamualaikum,

I had the opportunity to visit Melaka again recently on Chinese New Year break. The scenario above would be something that you can find easily around the World Heritage area especially in Banda Hilir. But I noticed a difference.

When I was at lower primary school, the trishaw pullers were mostly Malays from surrounding kampungs close to Melaka town, and their age group was most likely in the forties and fifties. Last year, when I took a group of students to do their fieldwork in Melaka, the traits of trishaw pullers had not changed much. Most of them were in the same age group as the one shown above.

But I was surprised to find that the age group of trishaw pullers had changed recently. I saw young people engaging themselves as trishaw pullers, something which I have not witnessed for over a very long time. If that was to interest me, then little did I realize that more changes have come to Melaka. I managed to take this photo to register my amusement.Not only the men are busy peddling the trishaws, ladies also do not want to miss the cake, as this lady signals to you. The gender barrier of trishaw pullers had been broken, and now you have the gentler gender also in the business.

This is the issue which I'd like to pose to PAS Melaka. Do these changes mean anything to you? As you readers might have known, Melaka is the only state in Peninsular Malaysia in which PAS still fails to make inroads, and I am not sure what strategies they have devised in order to break this jinx. But to me, the changes which are shown here are very telling. If only PAS Melaka can read what's in between the lines.

Is the economic cake becoming more rosy?