Grouses of bus companies
ON May 9 last year, most Malaysian voters elected for change, and the new government has been busy cleaning house and reducing the mountain of debts and liabilities piled up by corrupt officials in the previous administration since then.
After chairing his first Cabinet meeting on May 23, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced that the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) would be closed down to cut expenditure and its functions would be transferred to the Transport Ministry.
On June 6, Transport Minister Anthony Loke disclosed that a new Land Public Transport Agency (Apad) would be created to take over all the duties of SPAD except for enforcement on commercial vehicles, which would be assimilated into the Road Transport Department (JPJ).
Recently, the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission (MACC) arrested 51 officers from the Penang RTD to assist in its investigation on corrupt activities involving lorry drivers who violated traffic laws by overloading their vehicles.
But it is unlikely that corruption is limited to Penang JPJ, as it has plagued the entire department for decades.
The Pakatan Harapan government was decisive in closing down SPAD, hence it should also remove the enforcement division in JPJ and let the police be the sole agency dealing with all private and commercial vehicles in the country.
This bold move would reduce expenditure further and also hold the police accountable for all motorists and vehicles on public roads to be fully licensed, insured and adhere to traffic rules and regulations, thereby making our roads safer and not damaged by overloaded lorries.
Loke made an impressive start as Transport Minister by doing away with superfluous protocol and time-wasting. His rapid-fire speeches in English, Malay and Mandarin underline a desire for efficiency, and he is also quick witted. He is likely to issue a report card of his ministry come May in conjunction with his first anniversary as Transport Minister and also offer his ministerial point of view.
But on the ground, road transport industry players continue to be frustrated as their decades-old problems remain unsolved.
Take the grouses of stage bus operators as an example. The first is the Interim Stage Bus Support Fund (ISBSF) that was initiated by SPAD to ensure that stage bus operators continue to serve the unprofitable routes as a joint social service with the government.
Sadly, they have been left in the lurch since the expiry of their ISBSF agreements, and Apad has limited powers or urgency to handle the matter.
However, if Loke were to convene a town hall meeting to address the ISBSF and make the methodology transparent for calculating and issuing subsidies, he would earn the highest respect of stage bus operators throughout the country.
At the same time, he could support the call for tenders on Go KL and Smart Buses to be fully opened to all bus operators, but those whose routes would be affected should be given the right of first refusal to operate the new free bus service on contract with the authorities.
The condition that buses used for free service must be less than a year old should also be removed. I believe it was just a ploy to block competition from private bus companies.
Furthermore, the government should not spend a fortune through state-owned companies to run feeder buses at MRT/LRT stations. These feeder buses could easily be run by stage bus companies operating in the area, making bus services more coordinated and accountable.
If the above matters are addressed, stage bus operators would certainly give their thumbs up to the Transport Ministry – and Loke for walking his talk.
YS CHAN Kuala Lumpur