asian repressed road rage

i was trapped on the LDP last night for more than two hours. in this time i traveled less than 15 km. the back up started just before the sunway toll and didn’t let up until i got off on the sprint highway. during the drive i noticed something interesting about malaysian drivers. they suffer from a disease i have never seen before, and i wanted to be the see if others are aware of it.

the condition is asian repressed road rage (ARRR or AR3), it presents as the inability to show ones feelings of tension, stress or anger during a traffic jam. this of course comes with two patterns of behavior, the first is a stone cold stare forward with an apparent lack of awareness for anything going on around you. a classic example would be when the mat salleh next to you has his blinker on to merge in and you simply continue to creep forward as though there is no one else in the world. this passive aggressive response can be dealt with by others simply by waiving to your wife and smiling, she will then provide the corrective action required to remind you that you are (or should be) a person who has some degree of compassion and social skills.

the second response pattern is the need to bounce from lane to lane in a hyper-kinetic frenzy. here the stress is dealt with via movement, rather than the single minded need to move forward a need simply to move at all costs is displayed. sufferers of this version of the syndrome appear to be younger and less emotionally broken than those in the first pattern; as such it is suspected that this is the early stages of the condition which with age and repetition may convert to the more passive approach.

each of these responses are in sharp contrast to the western open road rage (WORR) displayed in the us and europe. WORR sufferers display tendency towards violence, open hostility, use of foul language, verbal and physical abuse to their cars, themselves and those around them. the western version is primarily differentiated by lack of social barriers towards loss of face or stigmatism towards display of openly hostile or aggressive behavior.

asian sufferers do appear to be unable to deal with and openly channel the stress, rather they suffer silently, or though apparent concentration on their hand phones. this, of course, maps to behavior patterns displayed during work, family or other social situations where stress is involved.

the longer i am here, the more subdued i become. watching others deal with their stress by internalizing it, allowing it to eat away at themselves, has been positive experience for me. i am seeing that neither response western or asian is positive. there was a moment when i looked over at the chinese girl next to me and smiled. i think, she thought i was nuts. “why is he smiling”, she must have asked. because i am not tearing myself up emotionally over a traffic jam. kl is full of traffic jams, what’s the use.