Friday, August 22, 2008

Public Transport Commission Still In Freezer

In my supplementary question to the Minister of Transport in Parliament yesterday, I asked the Minister on the status of the Commission of Pubic Transport (Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam) promised by the Prime Minister in his speech to the parliament on the 26th June 2008. I also asked if the chairmanship of the commission will rightly be given to the Minister of Transport.

In reply, the Minister of Transport announced that no decisions have yet been made on the set up of the Commission.

Needless to say, I'm extremely disappointed with the response, and total lack of urgency by the Government.
  1. The absolute lack of progress, even on the simple act of appointing the chair of the Commission, clearly shows the lack of seriousness and priority placed on public transportation by the Barisan Nasional government. Despite the steep fuel price increases in the past 2 years, and despite promises that the Government will take immediate measures to provide efficient alternative public transport for the people.

  2. Even to my original question of when and how much it'll cost to build the extensions to the existing LRT lines, the Minister announced that they have yet to be established.

  3. Clearly, if the Minister of Transport is not appointed to lead the Commission, then once again the Minister, traditionally held by the President of MCA is marginalised within the Cabinet from responsibilities relating to public transport. It'll only prove that we have a Minister of Transprot which is not in charge of transport in Malaysia. And this brings to question the relevance of MCA in the cabinet led by Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

  4. If the Ministry of Transport does not lead this Commission, then the consequence will be the creation of another government agency in addition to the existing quagmire of 13 agencies in-charge of public transportation in Malaysia.
It is time that the Government wakes up from its slumber and understand the difficulties and inconvenience suffered by the Malaysian public especially in the urban cities where they suffer from the double whammy of high fuel prices, but no efficient and viable public transportation sytem as an alternative.

13 comments:

Bentoh said...

Don't copy YB Kit's style of "blogging" or issuing statement please... :P

Anonymous said...

Tony, its not lack of urgency. It is a plain white lie that they are going setup things like this. Yes right telling lies are their bread and butter. AAB is a born liar. I am sorry it hurts but that is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Its not the first, its not the tenth time, So don't go searching for something that they lied that they are going to do.

Anonymous said...

Dear YB Tony

How about you proposing that the minister of transport's pay be cut because either

1. His responsibility is less than what the title suggest, or

2. He is not doing job properly.

Either way, he do not deserve his pay.

Or maybe like in the private sector, demote him to deputy minister of transport.

Anonymous said...

Its not there is no urgency. But the urgency does not preceed the need for politicking and greed. Such a super-commission is a gold mind for favours and money making. You could almost hear the saliva dropping!!!!

The handouts has to be orderly arranged OR it will turn into a mess and embarass the govt. Its precisely because there are so many parties who want and can lay some claim to the handouts that it takes a long time to arrange it all..

Anonymous said...

The licencing should be given to the State Government. The Federal Minister under MCA have been a big potato under Ling Leong Sick. MCA Ministers did nothing. Works Minister build tollways and collect money and become a cash cow for UMNO. Imagine, JKR build a flyover from Maxwell school to PWTC (UMNO) free of charge whereas, toll were over collected just for a flyover in Jln Kepong/Jln Ipoh roundabout. Also the buildings at Jln Ipoh/Jln Pekeliling Junction are supposed to setback but DBKL allow the hotel to line close to the road.
The Government should invest more on PUBLIC TRANSPORT.

Fernando said...

Find some photos and youtube at votingmalaysia.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

The pubic transport system in Malaysia will forever be in a miserable state should UMNO/BN still rules the country. They are just too short-sighted to view the importance of pubic transport systems. They never understand how the ordinary public transport users suffer everyday.

No sincerity and serious efforts have been devoted so far to improve our pubic transport system. All the transport ministers from MCA (from Lim Leong Sick, Chang Kong Choi to OTK) were just drawing big salaries from our tax money but sleep on the job!

Anonymous said...

Tony, congratulation to you on winning into the DAP CEC. We hope that with you in the CEC, you may advise all the DAP's leaders to be united within the DAP and also within the Pakatan Rakyat. Although there are differences between the DAP and PAS, please ask the leaders such as Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng and Karpal Singh DO NOT OPENLY criticize the PAS. Any differences should be discussed and settled CLOSE DOOR with PAS. ALWAYS show to the BN that the PR is always united. Do not let the BN look down on PR. The DAP leaders must understand that they should no longer see themselves as the opposition. Bring themselves up as part of the ruling government. Only speak the right things and think before talk. Show to the rakyat that the PR components are united and no fighting with each other. Lastly, all the best to you and the DAP and the PR in forming the next federal government.

Anonymous said...

Why PKR always get away? It is not only PAS and DAP but also PKR. Don't they have comments on religion too? Where is PKR stand on religion? Where are the voices of other races party leader in PKR? If one party decided to quit PR, the 2 party system will collapse.

Anonymous said...

The only way the minister will felt the urgency if all of them taking public transport to Parliment. When they actually queue up with normal public, then they will see the urgency to improve the public transport should be done 4 years ago.

Unknown said...

Dear YB Tony

Congrats for your efforts to highlight the issue. Looking forward for more participation from end users (bus/train commuters) on this.

FOR THOSE INTERESTED TO GET THEIR VOICES HEARD, please consider to join TRANSIT (Association for the Improvement of Mass Transit) Klang Valley. We are looking more volunteers for the sake of mass transit improvement in Klang Valley.

Details can be found at:
http://www.transitmy.org

Anonymous said...

The balance of public versus private transport must be carefully studied with different factors taken into account. Why do i say this?

Malaysia is currently one of the forty remaining countries left producing oil. While the country has been a net oil exporter for more than thirty years, the position is expected to turn into net importer by 2014. Latest projection from the National Depletion Policy estimates domestic oil to last another 19 years under difficult scenario to increase oil reserves. This situation is chiefly contributed to both depletion of indigenous supply and increased in energy consumption across the country. A common problem worldwide and the most difficult challenge to date is to ensure that energy remains sustainable from economic, social and environmental perspective.

The UN has labeled Malaysia to be the fastest growing polluter in the world with the greatest increase in CO2 emissions from 1994 to 2004. Rapid development in the 21st century made the transport sector as the largest consumer of energy in the country. In the latest policies and strategies formulated by the Government of Malaysia as documented in the Malaysia Ninth Development Plan for the plan period from 2006 to 2010, this issue was briefly acknowledged. Unfortunately, measures to resolve the issue have not been addressed in a comprehensive manner. Instead, the focus was more emphasized in the energy to power electricity.

The following recommendations should be seriously considered
• Gradually shift the 70:30 modal split with specific milestones to reduce use of private vehicles. By further delaying development in public transport infrastructure, motorists will have no choice but to rely on private transport. Priority for road development will have to be reviewed in relation to higher investment in public transport. All development plans must take a longer term outlook and not just from a five year plan window. This will provide better justification to pursue public transport initiatives without having to worry too much the financial challenges.
• Petrol consumption currently accounts for 95% portion in the fuel mix for private vehicles. Diesel use should be aggressively increased in the fuel mix to reduce overall oil consumption and emissions. Fuel subsidy from fossil fuel source must be reviewed to ensure fairer distribution according to different wealth category across society.
• Encourage motorcycles over cars as private vehicle of choice. Future design of new models by local motorcycle manufacturer Modenas must firstly incorporate safety and comfort factors that will attract car users to switch to motorcycles.
• Introduction of Biodiesel and Hybrid technology in the market. Stronger effort from the Government by lowering import tax to encourage motorists to use other readily technology from abroad. The national oil company must play a leading role in setting up the necessary infrastructure at fuelling stations. National car makers must embark on commercializing B100 and Hybrid models to remain competitive in the technology race.
• Malaysia must begin to measure and control CO2 emissions from transport sector.
• At preliminary stage, all the efforts mentioned are best tested at local level first, particularly in new economic regions like Iskandar before being fully rolled out.

sutanpane@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

Tony Pua,
It is sad to see that Pakatan is blissfull unaware
that the Transport System had been hijacked by a throughly corrupt PM!
1. Why is transport under the Min of Finance @ PM and not Min of Transport, strange?

2. Why did DAP allow Lim Guan Eng to make a 'deal'
with BN for the 2nd Penang Bridge? It is outright betray of the Penang people.

3. Why Pakatan unaware what is going on in KL Sentral.
It is a hell hole in the making to decinerate the common people.

Pakatan is just lost about the entire public transport system in Malaysia. What use to put Pakatan in power
when they can;t do anything about it NOW?