What are Malaysians worth?

It would seem in Malaysia, that lives are cheap.

Despite the high mortality rate in road accidents, back seat passengers do not have to wear a seat belt. Babbies and toddlers don't have to be safely fitted into child car seats.

Buses can be made with cheap materials that disintegrate upon impact because there are no standard regulations that govern their design and construction, unlike in more developed countries.

Vegetables high in pesticides, rejected by Singapore and more concerned governments, are acceptable for the Malaysian public.

Yup, in Malaysia, lives are cheap.

It's like the regulators are telling us, "die, die lah."

In other countries, you can be jailed and your children taken away from you if you don't use a child seat in the car. You will be considered a danger to your child.

Elsewhere, there are tough regulations as to who can drive a bus - they are after all being entrusted with some 40 lives at any one time.

Background and police records are checked before someone is allowed to be a child minder at a creche in a church I attended in Madison, Wisconsin, US.

Lives are worth much more there.

Australians are probably the most valuable people on the planet as they seem to have the most stringent laws vis a vis public health and safety.

But in Malaysia? Politics, votes and collecting dirty money so that some little napolean can put up his mistress in an expensive apartment, are more important considerations than your life or mine.