What I thought would be an enjoyable day out with friends turned into an unpleasant one when a friend of mine was harassed at the LRT train station.

She was approached by a man who proceeded to actively engage in a conversation with her and asked about her personal information even though she showed signs of discomfort. The man then followed us into the train and kept trying to convince her to follow him under the guise of wanting to get to know her better.

Despite our attempts to remove her from the situation, the man pressed on and even wanted to follow us around on our day out- asking where we were going and what plans we had.

After that encounter, my friend was left stunned and unable to process what just happened. I felt upset, enraged even because I was not able to help her when everything happened so fast.

We thought of calling the Polis Bantuan hotline to report the incident but felt discouraged due to the fact that we would have to wait for them to arrive and the man had already left.

I decided that if the authorities are not efficient enough then I should take it to social media to share what happened as a reminder to everyone to be careful.

It did not take long for my post to go viral with many people replying and DM-ing me with their own experiences.

This made me realise that the security in places of transit is inaccessible and has failed many people. Public transportation should be made safe for everyone regardless of gender and age.

I do not want past and future cases to be overlooked. Sign the petition now to firmly ask Rapid KL to implement better and solid safety measures in every sector of public transportation. Some suggestions are:

1. Have a 'polis bantuan' stationed at every train stop so that the moment commuters step out of the train, there is someone available to assist.
2. Ensure that the 'polis bantuan' stationed are trained to address harassment reports appropriately and take matters seriously into account.
3. The utilisation of CCTV cameras at stations and in trains to identify harassers and hold them accountable!

Commuters should not have to worry about getting harassed during their commute. Everyone has the right to travel with a peace of mind.