long queues are expected in front of Kuching City Parking System every 23rd of the month as car users fight for the limited monthly season parking coupons.

learning from past experience, (queue number given to me last month was 194 despite reaching at 6.40 am) desperation brought me there at dawn just so that i could get a better number. to my astonishment a long line was formed since 5 in the morning. the picture below was taken at 5.45 am.

by 6.45am, the centre was still closed believed to be deliberately done. shutting us out and turning us bona fide purchasers into barbaric hooligans. the once well formed line disappeared and a dishevelled crowd emerged... people were pushing and shoving. it was chaotic. the people standing in front were at one point crushed towards the shutter but that didnt stop the pushing, everybody was too stubborn to back down.

by 7, there was an influx of people and the crowd grew. the centre was finally opened and the machine that gave out numbers was brought out. afraid that the situation might go out of hand, the security decided that he should be the one pressing the numbers and giving it out. there was no system. taller people had the obvious advantage as they could reach out for the number. people started pushing more. the crowd went out of hand.

i was caught in the middle where people were tryin to get out of the crowd and into the crowd, i was squeezed. i felt my feet stepped on a couple of times. my body jabbed by an unknown stranger. bt i was determined to fight for the number. then came an overprotective dad who shouted for us to let his daughter out and used his strong arms as a weapon. i saw a small space between the girl and i and as i was about to let her through, i felt a sudden force frm the back pushing me towards the crowd, hitting my chest onto the person in front of me. protective dad managed to get his daughter out. i lost my balance.

it was a moment of madness, from the time i lost my balance to the time i finally gt the number. the brain works in funny ways, i suddenly see things in a slow mode, i cudnt hear well and thoughts of deadly human crush disasters came into my mind. bt i managed... i managed to get the bloody number and to get out of the crowd. i came out shaking... my right foot was bruised and my chest hurt, another girl came out crying. 50 years of independence and civilization and who would think that a piece of paper would turn us into uneducated barbarians. shame on the guys who took advantage and were far from courteous.

there is something seriously wrong with the system. we're talking about cramping the purchasing of season parkings from 30 different areas in one day. my area in bukit mata kuching has 80 slots to fight for and that is one of the smaller areas. so roughly we're talking about more than 2,400 season parkings to buy in ONE FREAKING DAY. so you can imagine the turnout and the wait. it took me a whole lot of guts to be squeezed in a crowd like that, a number of unfriendly stares frm the overworked counter lady serving me and 3 hours of wait just to get ONE seasonal parking coupon. something needs to be done. that is something the council has to implicitly ponder on.