Last night, there was a terrible jam in Kuala Lumpur after the rain. I got home late and after getting everything done, I only managed to sleep at 11 pm. As I was on my way home, I knew that a terrible fate would be awaiting me the next day because I would have to endure another day without sufficient sleep because yarl restaurant will chase us out of our bedrooms at around 6 a.m.. True enough, this morning, at 6.10 a.m., yarl restaurant's loud and deafening kitchen hood noise can be heard like thunder outside the window usual. But the Kuala Lumpur Cityl Hall (DBKL) officers will never want to know this despite repeated complaints. Even if they were to check on the restaurant, yarl restautant's boss would quickly turn off the kitchen hood and show them the speaker in the restaurant.and they would believe that the speaker is the kitchen hood. What is even worse in that they can't tell the difference between the speaker and the kitchen hood. In other countries, restaurants are not allowed to make noise before 7 a.m. and even after 7 a.m., they cannot emit noise which is above 60dBA. But in Malaysia, you can be tortured with noise as loud as a diesel truck outside your window at 6 in the morning and you have no right to say or do anything about it!
On a Saturday morning, I should be sleeping until 8 a.m. especially when I am not working but this is no longer possible because of yarl restaurant's kitchen hood noise. Since I am forced to wake up sleepy and tired by yarl restaurant's kitchen hood noise to endure another day of sleep deprivation, I have no choice but to make my plight known to the whole world. I am writing not because I want to but because I have to. Once I stop making complaints, the situation will get worse because yarl restaurant will then turn on the its kitchen hood at 5 a.m. in the morning and turns it off at 12 midnight. This has happened before.
Do you know how much pain I have to endure as a noise pollution victim? Take for instance yesterday when I had to give a very important talk - When I was giving this talk to a group of people, my mind was working so slowly that I couldn't remember many of the things that are so familiar to me. And of course having to force my sleepy eyes to remain open and concentrate on what I was doing was really an uphill task. Sleep deprivation can even cause accidents. This is worse than physical torture in the fires of hell. I normally sleep 8-9 hours a day but now I have to do with 7 hours or even less. Does anyone have the right to stop someone from getting enough sleep? In Malaysia, this anyone can have such a right. You can just rent a shoplot in any place, turn on your kitchen hood which is as loud as a diesel truck outside somebody's window at 6 a.m.in the morning to chase everyone out of their bedrooms and no one can stop you. Is this what is meant by "Malaysia Boleh" i.e. you can do anything in Malaysia?
Having to live up to yarl restaurant's noise pollution expectations is also an uphill task. I can no longer do many of the things that I used to so such as going out with friends after work, watching my favourite programs at night, calling friends at night, or even doing shopping after work. There is only one thing in mind, i.e. I must get up early because yarl restaurant's kitchen hood noise will chase me out of my bedroom at around 6 in the morning. As I look back, I really yearn for the freedom that I have lost and will never have as long as yarl restaurant's ktchen hood is making loud and deafening noise outside my window.
Everyone takes freedom for granted but for the victims of yarl restaurant's noise pollution program, freedom is only an illusion. If yarl restaurant says, "Don't attend your company's annual dinner or watch football at night because you must wake up early next morning as my kitchen hood noise is going to chase you out of your bedroom at 6", they have no choice but to obey. In this era, even children wouldn't listen if you ask them not to watch football at night. But what about me, as an adult, who have to live up to yarl restaurant's noise pollution expectations? Do you know how stressful it is to be a noise pollution victim? It is worse than cancer. Even refugees are given the right to an adequate standard of living but as a citizen of Malaysia, I have no such right!
According to the United Nations on Human Rights, the right to an adequate standard of living requires, at a minimum, that everyone shall enjoy the necessary subsistence rights: adequate food and nutrition, clothing, housing and the necessary conditions of care when required. The essential point is that everyone shall be able, without shame and without unreasonable obstacles, to be a full participant in ordinary, everyday interaction with other people. Thus, people should be able to enjoy their basic needs in conditions of dignity. No one should have to live in conditions whereby the only way to satisfy their needs is by degrading themselves or depriving themselves of their basic freedoms, such as through begging, prostitution or forced labour.
As a citizen of Malaysia, I have to live in shame and with unreasonable obstacles in the form of yarl restaurant's kitchen hood noise. I cannot be a full participant in ordinary, everyday interaction with other people. I can no longer go out with friends after work or attend wedding dinners as I have to rush home to sleep because yarl restaurant's kitchen hood noise will chase me out of my bedroom at 6 in the morning. I cannot enjoy my basic needs in conditions of dignity. In actual fact, I have no dignity now. I am only a slave to yarl restaurant's noise pollution program. I am living in conditions whereby yarl restaurant' is depriving me of my basic freedoms, such as chasing me out of my bedroom with its kitchen hood noise early in the morning at 6, depriving me of sleep, preventing me from going out with friends, attending dinners, doing shopping, and watching football at night. These are the things that many people take for granted but do you know that I am fighting desperately and in vain just to have these basic freedoms restored to me?
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