Argumentative Essay - discuss the new rear seat belt law intoduced in Malaysia

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        George         macias         p2         5/5/11                             Why not enforcing seat belts         As an address to this occurring problem, the government of Malaysia has taken massive action by making it compulsory for rear passengers to buckle up as of January 1st 2009. According to the Road Safety Depart¬ment director-general Datuk Surat Singh, those not wearing rear seat belts can be given maximum compound notices for RM300 now. However, this is not the end to it. Those who are still unable to adapt to this new ruling could fined up to RM2000 from July 1 2009, or jailed for a maximum of one year, or both, under the Road Transport Act.         In every law, there is always an exception. Same goes for this new safety belt ruling. Vehicles which are exempted from the ruling are those registered before Jan 1, 1995; vehicles which do not have anchorage points for rear seat belt fitting; and commercial vehicles such as buses, taxis and rented vehicles. Currently there are only about 10 percent of the vehicles which are not fitted with rear seat belts. Those vehicles which are registered before Jan 1, 1995 are given a 3 years grace to have the rear seat belts fitted. But, it is not mandatory for these vehicles to retrofit this safety features as they are not fitted with rear anchorage points to install the seat belts.         Other than those vehicles mentioned above, there is one more type of vehicles which are exempted from this ruling. According to the Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Kiat, the rear seat belt ruling will not be enforced on foreign-registered vehicles. The vehicles which he refers to are those vehicles from Thailand, Singapore and Brunei on Malaysian roads. However, he urged
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foreigners driving vehicles that have rear seat belts to use them when driving in the country as this safety feature could help to protect them in case of emergency.        As to why am I so attracted to this current issue? Well, it’s because this new ruling places a huge effect on me as a driver. Now, whenever I drive my little siblings around, I have to remind them to buckle up. In which it usually ends up in an argument as those little ones fail to understand the purpose of this law. Hence, I thought it would be good to ...

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