Luyang rep takes bus ride to attend State Assembly
KOTA KINABALU: Luyang assemblyman Phoong Jin Zhe took a bus on his way to the State Legislative Assembly on the first day of sitting on Monday.
Phoong had long given attention to the issue of public transportation system and intends to spearhead its development in Kota Kinabalu – a devotion he expresses through his willingness to ride a bus to the assembly meeting.
He took off at 8.30am from a Lido bus stop, arriving Kota Kinabalu downtown about 9am after which he took a car to the assembly hall.
While on the bus, Phoong reminisced about the time when he was still a child, when he would take similar bus ride to downtown Kota Kinabalu with his family. To his surprise, the bus he took was still in the same condition as it was during his childhood days, two decades prior. He quoted Columbian mayor of Bogota, Gustavo Petro who once said, “A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation.”
Phoong called for an urgent need to have a more developed and modern public transportation system in Kota Kinabalu.
According to him, an efficient public transportation system is pivotal in reducing the need for citizens to drive their own cars, thereby minimizing the amount of congestion on the road. Only by such means can the city itself be transformed into a more livable city.
Statistics have shown that bus ridership in Kota Kinabalu has dropped from 30% as early as 20 years ago to only less than 3% today.
Phoong noted that the call to develop the bus transportation system has always been one of his election manifestos and main agendas.
When he was an opposition member during the Barisan Nasional government, he was a staunch critic of the bus transportation system which has been obsolete for more than 20 years.
However, with Pakatan Harapan now heading the new federal government, he is eager to push for collaborations with the state government as well as the federal on building a brand new public transportation system for Kota Kinabalu.
He also noted that since the previous government had promised to build BRT – Bus Rapid System in Kota Kinabalu on multiple occasions but has never delivered, he will follow up this agenda with the new government.