Judge, Jury, Executioner...

 

A Witchhunt...

The Cops posted a statement on their Facebook page. They warned cyclists not to use the highway as their trampling grounds. This is founded as it is an offence to cycle on the Highway under the Road Transport Act. As a matter of fact, the Cops also posted a picture of a cyclist being detained by highway patrolmen in relation to the matter.

And here's where things got really interesting. A friend on mine posted a link to Carsifu.my on a related article. It has a picture of me posing next to a motorcycle and bicycle sign on the Federal Highway. The story made an example of the cyclist on a Highway. But, without verifying facts, they published the story without a caption. To the uninitiated, the traffic offence is indirectly linked to the photo. 

For the record...

The picture was lifted by The Star straight from my Facebook photo album. It was taken more than eight years ago when I cycled to work from my home in Subang Jaya to Section 16 in Petaling Jaya. I used the main road to connect with the bike lane along the Federal Highway. I did not cycle on the runoff on the Highway. Instead, I used the designated bike lane to get to work.

A series of photographs captured above explains the route taken from Subang Jaya to Petaling Jaya via the Federal Highway bike lane. And as a rule of thumb, it is against the Law to cycle on the car lanes along the Highway. You don't have to be a brain surgeon to figure that out. I used the bike lane, not the car lane. So, how is this against the Law?

An axe to grind?

The photo was my personal visual entry on Facebook. Only friends can access the images. The person who published the photo is perhaps no stranger to pictures of me cycling everywhere. 

The question here is "what is their agenda?" Is The Star, being a moral guardian -- saying that it is wrong to stand next to a road sign and take pictures? 

They singled me out to make a point, based on a Facebook statement by the Cops on the dangers of cycling on the Highway and the penalties of doing so if caught.

If I had actually done it on the Highway, then there is no argument. But this was not the case. The people who ran this story actually took the trouble to scour my Facebook album and used the photo without properly verifying the facts. In fact, they published it without my permission. And just so that you know, this image was taken on a tripod and self-timer. I am the rightful owner of the photo.

Why so personal? 

Aren't there any pictures of cyclists actually caught in the act? I won't draw any irrational conclusions. Perhaps it is poor training on the part of the Editor in this case. Any responsible journalist would check for the correct facts before the story makes it to final print. 

Two things are in play. First, they violated my privacy by using the photo without permission. Second, they incriminated me by associating the image to the offence under the Road Transport Act. Was it deliberate? No one knows until some fella has the balls to own up. Till then, we wait and see.

The right thing to do is to contact the owner of the photo and give a reasonable explanation to the public shaming of a cyclist using the Federal Highway bike lane as a means to commute to work...