Stop attacks on S’wak govt for political mileage — Lo
Abdul Aziz should check his facts before criticising the council to attain his own political mileage when complaining about the traffic lights in Mile 7 and Mile 8.
KUCHING: The Sarawak DAP should concentrate on “seeing the bigger picture” rather than blindly attacking the Sarawak government to gain political mileage.
Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) chairman Lo Khere Chiang said the recent statement by DAP Socialist Youth Sarawak publicity secretary Abdul Aziz Isa calling for the council to immediately dismantle traffic lights between Mile 7 and Mile 8 is one such example.
“Abdul Aziz should check his facts before criticising the council to attain his own political mileage when complaining about the traffic lights in Mile 7 and Mile 8.
“Is it too confusing for him to act as a ruling (federal) coalition who can give constructive criticism rather than still acting like an opposition rogue who oppose for the sake of opposing?” he said yesterday.
Abdul Aziz in a statement on Saturday opined that too many traffic lights on the road at improper locations will not reduce traffic congestion and improve traffic flow.
Lo, who is also Batu Kitang assemblyman, pointed out that setting up traffic lights is “not a hobby of the council”, but that someone has to get the job done to necessitate and manage the safe
Lo Khere Chiang, Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) chairman
traffic flow.
“In the case of Mile 7 and Mile 8, the planning and approval of these traffic lights come under the State Planning Authority and Public Works Department (JKR) and not MPP,” he explained.
He said the government of the day cannot stop development on both sides of the road.
“With development come more roads and buildings, people and traffic jams. Abdul Aziz will be very narrow-minded if he believes that the opening of the new traffic light will be the root cause of the problem in the area, especially when there are already underlying traffic problems there.”
With regards to these underlying problems, Lo said the Sarawak government has already identified the problems and as such, a flyover has been proposed for Mile 7 and is anticipated to be completed in three years’ time.
“This Mile 7 flyover, along with the other flyovers at Mile 4, Mile 6 and Mile 10, when completed will ease traffic jams and provide a smoother flow of traffic to Serian,” he remarked.
On Abdul Aziz’s suggestion that MPP install traffic lights at the junction to Kampung Semeba due to many heavy vehicles using the Stephen Yong link road, Lo said he has brought this issue up to JKR.
“They are in the process of studying and planning the feasibility of providing a traffic light system there.”