Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Public Transportation Mess

This was the Part 2 of my speech to debate the 9th Malaysia Plan mid-term review, which would have been delivered, had the time to speak not been cut to 10 minutes. As I mentioned earlier, on hindsight I probably should have spoken on this Part 2 which covered the issue of transportation and not Part 1 on economy which many have spoken about.

Anyway, I wanted to highlight the complete overhaul which is needed to solve our public transportation problems in this country. I had also voiced my disappointment to the policies (if any) which was put forward by the Prime Minister in the mid-term review.

Di kalangan pertubuhan bukan kerajaan (NGO), cadangan YB Perdana Menteri untuk mewujudkan satu Pelan Induk Pengangkutan amat menggelikan (amused). Ini bermaksud selama 50 tahun ini, kerajaan telah lalai dalam tanggungjawabnya kerana kerajaan telah mengurus tanpa sebarang pelan untuk mewujudkan satu sistem pengangkutan yang terpadu.

Sekarang, harga minyak telah meningkat dengan cepat sekali, apanya alternatif kepada rakyat Malaysia? Manakah sistem pengangkutan awam berkesan yang sering dijanji oleh kerajaan?

Penggunaan sistem pengangkutan awam di Lembah Klang telah menurun sehingga 16% sahaja berbanding dengan 40% pada tahun 1980an. Sepatutnya, bagi bandaraya negara yang maju, penggunaan sistem pengangkutan awam adalah melebihi 70%.

Sekarang, kita nak datang ke parlimen pun takda bas yang boleh dinaiki kecuali menggunakan teksi.

Pada tahun 2006, semasa harga petrol dinaiki 30 sen, kerajaan berjanji memperuntukkan RM4.4 bilion kepada dana sistem pengangkutan awam. Apa telah jadi dengan dana ini?

Pada masa itu juga, kerajaan mengemukakan pelan LRT yang baru, di mana satu aliran baru ditubuhkan ke Kota Damansara, and aliran yang sedia ada dipanjangkan ke Puchong. Akan tetapi bukan sahaja kerja ke atas projek LRT langsung tidak bergerak selama 3 tahun ini, sekarang, kerajaan sekali lagi mengemukakan pelan yang sama sebagai jawab kenaikan harga petrol. Suratkhabar The Star dan lain-lain pun menerbitkan pelan LRT yang dikemukakan sebagai satu pelan yang baru, memberikan berita baik kepada penduduk-penduduk di Lembah Klang.

YB Perdana Menteri mengumumkan bahawa kajian separuh penggal rancangan Malaysia akan memberi tumpuan kepada sistem pengangkutan awam. Tetapi, seperti yang telah dijanjikan sebelum ini, cakap kerajaan tak serupa bikin.

Peningkatan harga petrol bulan lalu dianggar menjimatkan kerajaan sebanyak RM13.7 bilion. Akan tetapi, hanya 11% ataupun 1.6 bilion sahaja daripada penjimatan tersebut diperuntukkan untuk menaik tarafkan sistem pengangkutan awam di Malaysia. Walaupun peruntukan baru sebanyak RM30 bilion telah diumumkan, tiada peruntukan tambahan diberi untuk sistem pengangkutan awam. Jumlah RM1.6 bilion langsung tidak mencukup untuk memberikan pengangkutan alternatif yang memuaskan untuk rakyat terutamanya di kawasan bandar seperti Lembah Klang, Johor Bahru dan Pulau Pinang.

Kegagalan sistem pengangkutan awam di Malaysia hari ini, siapa yang patut bertanggungjawab? Adakah kementerian Pengangkutan dan menteri-menterinya yang sebelum ini yang bertanggungjawab?

Selepas tsunami politik yang baru berlepas, kita bertuah mendapat seorang Menteri Pengangkutan baru, tapi saya kesian sama dia. Bukan sahaja dia kena menghadapi cabaran yang sukar sekali untuk memulihkan maruah MCA selepas dilantik Presiden pada bulan Oktober yang akan datang, dia telah dilantik sebagai Menteri Pengangkutan yang langsung tidak berkuasa untuk menaiktarafkan sistem pengangkutan awam di Malaysia.

Hakikat ini jelas kerana YB Perdana Menteri telah mengumumkan satu lagi suruhanjaya yang baru, iaitu Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam. Pertubuhan suruhanjaya ini nampaknya lucu sedikit, kerana kita sudah ada Kementerian Pengangkutan, kenapa pula perlu sebuah lagi suruhanjaya pengangkutan?

Sebenarnya, YB Perdana Menteri menubuhkan suruhanjaya yang baru ini adalah sebab kerajaan Barisan Nasional ini mempunyai cara mengurus sistem pengangkutan awam yang tidak masuk akal dan barangkali yang terkekok di seluruh dunia.

Pengurusan sistem pengangkutan awam di Malaysia bukannya bertumpu di Kementerian Pengangkutan tetapi dibahagi kepada 13 agensi kerajaan di kementerian yang tidak berkaitan. Terutamanya Lembaga Perlesenan Kenderaan Perdagangan (LPKP) bawah Kementerian Pembangunan Usahawan dan Koperasi, yang menguasai pengendalian lesen bas dan teksi, Kementerian Kewangan yang menguasai bas dan LRT RapidKL dan Kementerian Pengangkutan yang menguruskan keretapi KTM.

Oleh sebab itu, saya menyeru supaya kerajaan mengenepikan faktor kepentingan politik, dan fikiran yang kolot, dan mengambil langkah untuk menggabungkan kesemua badan dan agensi yang melibatkan sistem pengangkutan awam ke bawah pimpinan YB Menteri Pengangkutan.

Kita yakin, YB akan dapat menjalankan tanggungjawab dengan lebih berkesan jika diberikan kuasa yang berpatutan. Kalau tidak, apa gunanya kerajaan menubuhkan suruhanjaya-suruhanjaya yang yang baru ini, yang hanya menunjuk bahawa peralatan kerajaan telahpun gagal menyelesaikan masalah rakyat selama ini.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

on penang woes, the federal is playing delay tactic - they're just delaying until 3 -4 yrs later and then blame oppos that they are weak in administrative to serve better the public and it's better that penang to vote for federal gov. if oppos to continue "begging" federal for funds for transportation project, rather working out to find alternative solution/fund and given the current minister attitude, penang can say goodbye to all transportation projects until next ge. worse, federal will compel the state gov to sign contract with "recommended" contractors, and force penang to "eat dead cat" when something bad crops out (light those highway deals). federal oledi reiterate
1) they have no money
2) sabah and sarawak development in priority (which is true)
3) petronas royalty to tgannu, sabah and sarawak.

to allocate billions to penang, why not to sarawak and sabah where their loyalty is certain. this is testing time for capability and quality of oppos rule, just like days sgpura kicked out from malaysia, and if the leaders continue to be complacent, self-bickering than focusing improving the state penang and dap can say goodbye in future ge.

Anonymous said...

No bad speech in Bahasa. Its not as easy to deliver a good speech in Bahasa as in English especially if you are well-trained in English.

Have a lot of experience with public transport everywhere and can tell you the challenges Malaysia far exceed the ability of BN govt.

Anonymous said...

Your part on govt size was pretty good. Consider also that

Singapore with the highest paid civil service in the world spends 18% of their GDP on govt, while we spend nearly 30% of our GDP.

In other word, the proper structure of our govt really should be to at least double the salaries of our civil service (particularly the police) AND slash the workforce by 2/3 to even come close to Singapore.

Anonymous said...

Hi YB,

BN government already setting up committee to improve ours transportation, and they only able to come out to plan to extend the LRT line, I believe people without much intelligence also able to come out this suggestion. Especially extending PUTRA line to USJ/SUBANG will make the PUTRA line more congested, if you taken PUTRA LRT from Kelana Jaya every morning, you can see the crowd from 7.30am to 8.30am, sometime LRT train coming from Tmn. Bahagia already full with passenger.

Few suggestions I have here
- New line connecting from Putrajaya, Puchong, USJ and Subang Jaya as outer ring LRT. And provide interchange to STAR, KTM and ERL Line (KLIA Transit).
- Construct another outer ring from Subang Jaya, Damansara, Kepong, Selayang, and Gombak also provide interchange with KTM, Putra and public transport.
- Improve the interchange stations especially KTM with others LRT stations.
- Provide KTM express train from the interchange into city such the passenger can exchange to other public transport.
- Improve Rapid KL service in LRT interchange stations, my experience waiting for more than 1 hours to get a Rapid KL bus from TPM to Bukit Jalil after working hour. Partly b'cos traffic jam in Bukit Jalil.
- Reduce number of Rapid KL bus entering town, they should send passenger to nearest LRT stations not go into town and causing a lot congestion.
- Rapid KL buses should not stop and wait for passenger especially in town area bus stop. You can notice traffic jam in Kota Raya is cause by all the buses stop at road side.
- No express bus should enter the KL city, govertment should build a north and south express bus stations outside from KL and close to North-South highway and LRT stations. Same as Paris has 4 train stations which connecting with north, south, west and east.
- Provide monthly ticket to access to all public transport (PUTRA, STAR, Rapid KL, KTM, KLIA Line, Monorail).
- Flexible office hours like Bangkok. For those who require sending children school can got out early and reach office early, they also can leave early to spend more time with their children.

I also felt sympathy to ours transport minister, he need to resolve all transportation problems without any corporation from police and other ministry.

Regards,
Strong DAP supporter.

Anonymous said...

would it be ok if i were to used the facts stated here for an oral presentation to some pentaksir?

Collin Ng said...

YB Pua

Talking about transportation woes, had posted my comments on my blog, http://tockkong.blogspot.com after my return trip to KUL. BTW, I am a Singaporean and I would like my fellow Singaporeans to know our transportation system in SIN is already god-send, don't create a big fuss over some minor hiccups.