My Say

The traffic jam in Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley is getting worse by the day. I do not have the statistics but I believe every month, tens of thousands of vehicles add to the woes, with no reprieve in sight. So many productive hours are wasted everyday. Not to mention the pollution generated and the additional strain on the vehicles stuck in stop-go traffic. All this is in a country where vehicles are subject to up to 300% tax and where the cheapest car costs 2 times the GDP per capita.

Therefore any move to try to improve this has to be lauded. So is congestion charge the way forward? This has worked in a few places, namely Singapore and London. Before this is implemented, a few factors should be taken into consideration.

Firstly, the public transportation system in and around Kuala Lumpur is poor, to put it politely. The so-called ‘integrated’ transportation system requires the commuter to brave the weather when changing from one train line to another. At KL Sentral, the hub for trains, passengers on the monorail has to take a 10 minute walk from outside the station to catch another train in the station to the suburbs. Another famous ‘interchange’ is the Masjid Jamek stop, where 2 light rail transit (LRT) lines meet but there is no underground connection. And this is the theme for the transportation system in the capital.

If given a choice, I would prefer the public transportation anytime. I used to enjoy taking the train to work in London as I could sleep / read during the journey to work.

However, where I live now, only about 30 km from the KL city centre, there is not even a bus to take me to the train station. And there are about 10 parking lots at the nearest train station. How the heck am I supposed to take the public transport?

Secondly, how is the congestion charge going to be enforced? As you can probably gather from my ramblings, I am not a big fan of the police. Now, they of course would welcome this congestion charge with open arms, not because it means extra duties for them, but it’s another avenue for them to bolster their income. Can’t you just see it? Most people will not pay the congestion charge, just as many people drive without valid licence or road tax. When stopped by the police, they’ll just ’settle’ the matter with some currency notes.

Thirdly, the government has spent billions of taxpayers’ money to develop Putrajaya / Cyberjaya. Why then should some of the government departments be still based in KL? And why must some of the meetings of government department be held in hotels around KL? why can’t they all go to Putrajaya / Cyberjaya and leave KL to the rest of us who do not have the privilege of staying/working in one of the best maintained precincts in the country? Even more annoying are all the motorcades with their police outriders, who travel all the way from the official residences in Putrajaya to meet in KL, causing even more traffic congestion.

Finally, there is no reason, in this day and age, for offices to be situated or based in Kuala Lumpur. The government should really force the companies with Multimedia Super Corridor (’MSC’) status to locate South of Kuala Lumpur. If not, then what’s the point of MSC? Or is MSC already acknowledged as a big flop? The joke is, of course, that the Petronas Twin Towers is deemed to be part of the MSC. Hence by just setting up an office in Twin Towers, companies can still have MSC status.

There are many other ways to improve the traffic situation. Any attempt to introduce congestion charging and / or levy for single occupancy vehicle merely shows that the persons in charge of this have failed to consider all alternatives and have taken the easy way out. I hope they won’t…

I do not understand why so many leaders (including the education minister, who should know better) have come out to say that students should not strive for more As in the Form 5 exams. Read here. Although the officials will never admit it, there’s anecdotal evidence that the bar has been lowered, i.e. it’s easier to score an A these days. How then can the better students be differentiated from the average students? Let’s face it, it’s a rat race out there, whether we like it or not. After one leaves the comfortable classroom environment, they’ll face a harsh world where the fittest will survive and no one spares a thought for those who don’t make the grade! We may as well instill in the students the need for excellence in everything they do, including studies.

I agree that scoring As is not everything, but then if you look at the top scorers, they are not the typical ‘bookworms’. They have a life as well. Of course not everyone is born to be A scorers, but that fact should not be used against those who are capable of doing so.

Should we cap the number of goals that Ronaldo can score for Man United? Of course he will be hopeless when up against Tiger Woods in golf or Federer in tennis. That should not stop him from achieving excellence in what he’s good at - football.

Let the students score as many As as they can. But at the same time, for those who are not good at scoring As, they should be encouraged to find their strengths and excel at that too.

Read this. Is he talking total gibberish or what? Has he been reading the news about the hoo-ha recently over the toll agreement? How are the toll rates linked to performance or quality of services provided? Yet every toll agreement provides for an automatic increase in toll rates, otherwise the government will have to compensate the concession holder.

The same goes for the contracts with the independent power producers (’IPP’). Everyone knows how lopsided the agreements are.

Sigh. To give him the benefit of doubt, maybe he did not vet his speech before reading it… so he should sack his speech writer. Otherwise he should do the honourable thing. However, I doubt that anyone in the government even remembers the meaning of ‘honour’…