This will be our first public consultation and dialogue on Malaysia's highway toll concession agreements since they were "declassified" for public viewing about a month ago. For members of the public who wish to find out more details of our findings, as well as for the professionals with additional information, please join us for an evening of sharing and brainstorming.
The details are as follows:
"Can We Have Our Highways Back?"The panel speakers include:
Venue: Crystal Crown Hotel, Petaling Jaya
Date: 18 February (Wed)
Time: 7.30pm
- Sdr Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader
- Sdr Tony Pua, MP Petaling Jaya Utara
- Sdri Teo Nie Ching, MP Serdang
- Sdr Tommy Thomas, Corporate & Constitutional Lawyer
- Sdr Teh Chi Chang, Economic Advisor to DAP Secretary-General
15 comments:
We hope you all beat the BN ASAP... so the toll can be cancel. or charge in cheaper price....
i believe at the moment the toll created is to made this top BN people rich... not the worker..
I think it goes to say, that if you can even abolish one, JUST ONE HIGHWAY TOLL PLAZA, like on some stretches of the LDP, or toll booths at Shah Alam along the Federal Highway, Pakatan Rakyat will be assured re-election in the next General Elections and State Elections.
You guys can point it out as your "monument" and visible achievement of your state govt rule. Pretty obvious.
We will wait for the next one or 2 days (as mentioned by your Menteri Besar) for the offer to take over the water concessionaires in Selangor, to gauge the Selangor Govt success in this "take-over" of concessionaire business before we dwell in the Highway concesssions.
Proposing to take over and successful implementation of a take-over is a very different matter altogether.
We need to see results and not political sandiwara.
Just like Anwar been broadcasting " I have the numbers and the numbers are keep growing by days". See what happen in Perak!!
Action speaks louder than words
Absolutely, I am a mother of two and after paying RM 9.60 per day in tolls, I am still stuck in traffic for upto 3 hours per day. Check the situation at Sunway toll, 7.30am and 6.30 pm it is a an awakened nightmare, Puchong residents live through this daily and our numbers are in the thousands. We pay toll to waste our petrol. The toll collection is being mismanaged, not even lanes are demarkated at the Litrak, sunway toll, leading to massive traffic snarls.
What next generation can we bring up, with so much wasted time and money just being on the road, it also creates great stress, driving under such conditions, all this so that greedy and callous toll concessionaires earn mega bucks at our cost.
Come on folks we are paying tolls only to be caught up in jams, raise your voice and say NO TO TOLLS.
Hey tony,
My best friend's wife was on the way to work the other today.
Le Tour De langkawi was on and the LDP road leading to KL via phileo route was so badly congessted that she had to park the car at the side of the road and talked to other cars doing the same thing.
Its really dumb that we have so many places for the event but chooses that route. And you know how dangerous our highways are.
Average Joe
Hi Tony,
Good effort but it would have been much better had DAP included speakers and researchers from other Pakatan parties. Just my unsolicited opinion.
You can have your highways back when you decide to hand over your citizenship. IN the mean time, please back off and let me continue to rape the people of malaysia. They want it, they need it and they are going get it for a very long time.
UMNO Sendirian Bhd.
Hi Tony,
I agree with Hussin, I will also like other speakers and researchers from other parties even from BN.
There will be a better view if we can invite all stakeholders including the toll concessionaires. Its good to see what they have to say
Hi,
We are trying to get external speakers. Unlike human rights, corruption and other issues, it's not as easy to find good speakers.
Someone from BN? We will more than welcome them.
Plus, it's a dialogue to get feedback as well, so in this case the speakers aren't as important as getting info/comments/suggestions from the audience.
Tony
Malaysian toll is licence given by gov (BN) to rob us rakyat back to front 24hr-365days.
I would like to correct our dear samy who once said our tolls are the cheapest in the world.
I think he missed to point out that we have the most tolls in the world too.
Talking like a 3rd grade politician as he is, & probably gone India more than travelling on the LDP, I was impressed when I was travelling in India lately that after a distance of over 350km, the toll rate was Rp 20 = RM 5.50 (one way). For 350km!!! The quality of the highway was the same, with all the free roller coasters. But not as bad as MRR1 & MRR2. MRR1 & MRR2 would be ashamed compared to the highway in India.
The rakyat is 1st class mentality - only the gov (BN) is 3rd grade & with bad attitude.
Dissolving the tolls is one 'happy issue' to rakyat but it will not necessarily solve the traffic problems. The damage is already done by engineering the traffic flow as such - to create jams so as to justify the toll roads! That was the oddest psychology by our ex-JKR minister. I remember clearly over the tv when he blurted '...if don't pay, don't use if we are not prepared to pay for jam-free road...'. No wonder the MRR roads crack. We have a blind JKR minister then, who saw only jam-free toll roads.
Tony:
There are many issues but I will focus on the core ones - here are my thoughts:
1. Taking back highways - easier said than done.
These are legally binding contracts, no matter how unfair or one-sided they are.
Hence a "take back" rally is a dangerous one - not many people realise the cost in terms of compensation as well as national credibility. (Of course you gain political mileage just as Khir wins points for leading protests in Penang, if he did at all)
One last one on "take back" - more for your readers - if your developer comes to you today and say "I am taking back your house regardless of how cheap, expensive or fair you bought it from me", what would you do and how would you think about that developer? That is exactly how these concessionaires and their mostly international financial backers (read rest of the world) will react and think of Malaysia as a country.
2. Look forward - prevent first, cure later.
It is clear that the procurement of these highways by means of privatisation can very much be improved. Having said that, I must say EPU today is much more savvy than before but "inclinations" still exists.
Find out why such contracts were one-sided. Who in government was accountable? Who made the decisions? Did the project assessed properly (cost-benefit, impact to long term plans, etc). Was the highway needed/justified?
If there was negligence on the part of the government, the people entrusted to act in in the interest of the public, then do throw the book at them.
And once we understand why this happened, ask and find out how can we prevent this in the future. Then implement these changes to the procument process.
There isn't much we can do with existing concessions unless we want to fork out billions in compensation. And if you are implying we can nationalise these private investments with new one-sided deals, then you are just as bad as the ones who drew up those one sided concession agreements.
And be prepared to lose your house and all your other private property too.
(By the way I disagree with your compensation calculations. You did not take into account the risks the concessionaires took from Day 0)
maybe you should invite the UMNO cawangan PJS. They held a protest on the 8th at the PJS toll booth, and lo & behold, within the week, the Cabinet has un-tolled the area.
they must have been doing something right. and we need to learn the secret of their success.
heard the perak royal house has a stake in ldp...is this rumour true or just a rumour?
True Fiction: True & Well said but unfortunately 100% disagree..!
It's not a question of legally binding Fair/Unfair,One sided or two,three or more sided contracts..! It's about the "Intended-Known-Ethical-Wrongful Acts plus Abusing of Power within the Power & Position in Gonmen " for the sake of few cronisym by all means, by horsing the "Public Government Privatisation-Tools" again and again to JUSTIFY for their Unparliamentary "Morally Correct" Wrongful-lawfully Gains..with & by Government Guarantorisme..&..Compensation..with Public Funds..again-again..!
Could you possibly imagine WHY the Emperor Dowager could pleasantly agreeable to sign the Concession Agreement to lease their Hong Kong for 100 years till 1997 to Queen of the Great Britain...?
Would you allow Rakyat Malaysia continue..to be silent for the next 50 years..in this particular "privatiselism policy" by mis-using & abusing of power again-again under this so called Privatisation Concession...?
That's not about The Nationalisation too as this is about the unacceptable concession for& by the Rakyat ( but of course acceptable only to cronies ) & clearly-bias implementation & mis-management acts created under the Privatisation Policy ; Today, together, we are only...doing a "CORRECTION" for the wrongful Act in the pass..not again the Privatisation...!
Post a Comment