Mike and his passenger instinctively got off without being told. The policeman eyeballed them both from head to toe. Without missing a beat, Mike popped open the seat to reveal his laminated road tax bolted underneath.
The policeman peered at it. It was good for another 3 weeks. As he was inspecting the road tax, Mike whipped out his wallet and handed over his driver's license. The policeman stared at Mike again before accepting the license. This kid was no newbie.
"Ni dari mana ni?" the policeman asked, looking at Mike's license. It was the first time any of them had spoken.
"Tengok movie tadi, cik." Mike replied. Nonchalant.
"Tengok movie?" There was a hint of something sinister in the policeman's voice. "Number plate kamu ni tak ikut peraturan. Kesalahan besar tu."
"Fuck" Mike cursed in his head. "No fuckin' way I'm gonna beg,"
Both Mike and I had seen our share of dudes begging traffic policemen to let them off with a warning. It's never a pretty sight. Anyone who tells you they 'kautim' with the cops to let them off is not telling you that by 'kautim' they mean putting their cool aside and putting up a sorry face, going "Tolonglah cik" over and over again.
The policeman waited for a response. Mike nodded without saying anything. Like a kid who knows he did wrong, accepting a scolding from his parent.
The policeman was in his forties. The patch on his arm ranked him as a corporal and his name tag read SUHAIMI. It must have been a busy day for Korperal Suhaimi cos he smelled like cigarette smoke and dried sweat. But his shirt collar was plywood stiff and his PVC boots still showroom shiny.
"Bila kamu buat ni?" Korperal Suhaimi asked, eying the front number plate. The characters had to be block shaped, but instead they were rounded at the edges.
"Ni motor second hand, cik." Mike said "Masa beli memang dah macamtu."
"Dah tahu salah, apasal tak tukar?" he prodded.
"Baru dua minggu beli ni."
He'd had that bike for close to 7 months.
"Lagipun ni first time kena tegur. Tak tahu pulak ni salah besar."
This was the third time it had been pointed out to him at a traffic road block.
"Semua dah buat makluman dah. Takde alasan tak tahu." The corporal was getting agitated "Ni kena saman ni."
"Aiseh, kalau saman, leceh cik" Mike lowered his voice but kept his cool. " Kami studen lagi, duit biasiswa belum masuk."
They had got their money at the beginning of the semester, a good month and a half before.
Korperal Suhaimi hesitated when he heard 'studen'. An almost unnoticable smile creeped across Mike's face in the akward pause that followed. Being a student means you get pity points from the police. And the government university sticker on the side of his bike almost always got Mike off scott free.
"Tu kamu boleh buat rayuan kat mahkamah nanti," Korperal Suhaimi broke the silence. "Sini IC kamu." he demanded.
"Goddamnit!" Mike thought to himself. But he kept his poise. This man he was dealing with is an unshakeable rock, and Mike was gonna pull all the stops on this dude's ass, without having to resort to begging. He had one last card to play, literally in his pocket.
He took out his MyKad and his BAT C20 along with it. BAT C stands for 'Borang Angkatan Tentera C". It was his reserve military identification card. If this didn't do the trick, nothing would.
The corporal looked at both, looked at Mike, and gave him back the BAT C20. He went to get his summons pad.
"God's last name really must be Damnit" Mike thought. He felt cold sweat on the back of his neck watching Korperal Suhaimi write the summon.
"Three hundred ringgit is a lot to pay for keeping my dignity," Mike figured. "I was hoping it would cost a bit less."
Looking back, Korporal Suhaimi wasn't an unreasonable man. I bet he's prolly a decent dude, just that he wasn't feeling particularly gracious with Mike that day.
And the fact that it was 3am and Mike's passenger was a demure looking Malay girl prolly didn't help much.
