The Red Herring Taxi Company

It wouldn't be Malaysia if the bureaucrats didn't avoid the real issues and instead had a short term blitz on something totally irrelevant

This time its the dress code for Malaysian Taxi Drivers...

I think the whole concept of dress in Malaysia is quite irrational. For starters most people wander around in the tropics thinking that they are living somewhere in the temperate zones. Is this a hang over from the British raj?. Whatever the reason the form of men's dress is totally inappropriate for the tropics. Of course Malay women's dress is dictated by Malay men's inability to control their sexual urges and is also quite unsuitable.
Secondly, dress is used as a form of repression in the young and self promotion in adults. This country is uniform crazy, partly that is to keep young people from daring to explore their individuality. In adults uniforms are used as an ego booster to make men in minor roles appear far more important than they really are. The sight of an overweight policeman in uniform is truly laughable

Malaysians are still struggling with the relationship between dress and status and widely assume that stereotypes prevail. That's probably the reason that so many of them get conned so easily by smooth talking, smartly dressed con men.

But back to the original subject... It seems that the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board have decided to gloss over all the major problems affecting the taxi industry, and have decided to pursue those drivers not adhering to the "uniform" of white shirt, dark trousers and black shoes ( with sox). I guess this is the easiest option available to them, after all you don't have to think too deeply or work too hard to notice if the driver is not adhering to the need to be "dignified and dress well"

The fact that the the well dressed driver:
... stinks of BO or cigarette smoke
... is driving a taxi which is dirty both inside and out
... refuses to use his meter
... refuses to take clients on short trips
... refuses to take clients into areas where traffic jams are common
... rips off visiting tourists at every opportunity
... is rude and unhelpful/ignorant

seems to be totally unimportant