The exodus to 'balik kampung' during the recent festive seasons have come and gone. It was utter and total chaos on the roads with congestion going north. In fact, this time around the number of fatalities from road accidents went up.

The problem of road congestion was compounded by the bad driving habits of the motorists ending up in tragedy and frustration for road users.

The problem is unpaid summonses and errant motorists escaping the long arm of the law for as long as they can. Settling a summons in itself does not automatically make you a better driver. It is not a feared deterrent.

It was suggested that driving licences be renewed yearly to catch recalcitrant culprits. In fact, I think this is an excellent idea and we should also consider a monthly renewal, so that errant motorists will be caught within a month.

I personally don't believe that our present enforcement efforts that will drive Malaysian motorists to be more law-abiding. I actually advocate a zero-tolerance policy for traffic offences. Have a blitz every now and then. Have pre-emptive strikes. Tow away vehicles and slap them with RM1,000 fines.

And perhaps it is time to introduce traffic congestion tax on motorists. Firstly, for congestion tax to work, other forms of cheaper public transportation have to be made available. At the moment, public transport is not that cheap and suffer from connectivity issues.

Also, the proponents of 'leave your car at home' should work on free bus services from city suburbs to the city centre in keeping with this concept where drivers leave their cars at suburban areas and get ferried into town.

In closing, I wish to opine that the people who are to be blamed for the diabolical standards of driving and road behaviour are parents - and parents alone - as their children learn from them. Their bad habits are passed on as 'good advice'.

We can have the whole police, army and the one million odd civil servants on road traffic enforcement duties but things will not change. Until and unless bad driving is frowned upon with people looking at you with disgust whenever you commit this 'sinful act', nothing much will change.