Archive for category Transport
UMNO MPs’ “ambush” for OTK foiled by Minister’s absence
Posted by Kit in Corruption, MCA, Parliament, Transport on Tuesday, 10 November 2009
The ambush by several UMNO MPs for MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat last night during his Ministry’s reply in the government winding-up of the 2010 budget debate was foiled when the Minister was absent.
The reason given by the Deputy Transport Minister, Datuk Robert Lau, who stood in for the Minister, that Ong was “busy” with the official visit of the Chinese President Hu Jintao as Ong is the “Minister-in-attendance”, did not go down well with the UMNO MPs concerned as Hu’s visit would only begin the next day.
Led by Umno MP for Sri Gading, Datuk Mohamad Aziz, at least three UMNO MPs questioned Ong for the RM28 million purchase of second-hand DMUs (diesel multiple units) by Keretapi Melayu Bhd (KTMB) instead of EMUs (electrical multiple units).
Mohamad even asked the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the Transport Minister for the DMU decision, which is the first time a Barisan Nasional backbencher had called for anti-corruption investigation into a Barisan Nasional Minister. Read the rest of this entry »
Proton should respond to the shocking report from New Zealand where Proton Jumbuck turned in worst crash test ute performance and adjudged not fit for the road
Updated with video
The Proton management should respond to the shocking report from New Zealand where Proton Jumbuck turned in the worst crash test ute performance and adjudged not fit for the road.
The two-door Jumbuck utility vehicle (ute) was given dismal safety ratings by independent crash test organisation Ancap (Australasian New Car Assessment Programme) in New Zealand, awarded the lowest possible one-star rating after its performance in frontal offset and side impact crash tests.
Ancap scores vehicles from zero to five stars, depending on the safety features and protection of the driver and passengers.
The ute’s cabin was severely deformed in the 64km/h offset crash test. It offered poor head protection for the driver and passenger, and poor leg protection for the driver.
Read the rest of this entry »
Ops Sikap Degenerating Into “Oops! Silap!
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, Transport on Monday, 28 September 2009
by M. Bakri Musa
It is now a practice that with every festive season the authorities would go into high gear aimed at reducing the horrifically high rates of traffic accidents and fatalities. Judging by the results however, these initiatives are more show than substance. These “Ops Sikap” (a contraction for Operasi Sikap – Operation Attitude, as in changing the attitude of road users) are now more “Oops! Silap!” (Oops! I goofed!)
There has been no change to the dreadful trend since the series was stated over eight years ago. That should not surprise anyone. We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect to have different results. The surprise is that the authorities have not yet figured this out; this latest Ops Sikap essentially replicated what was done during previous twenty operations. There is minimal effort at learning from earlier experiences; the program lacks innovations.
This latest edition began on September 13 and just ended two weeks later today. It registered 238 fatalities. As with past years, the overwhelming victims were motorcyclists. Read the rest of this entry »
Why is Ong Tee Keat afraid of a Selangor Exco member sitting on the PKA Board and insist on having his own appointee representing Selangor State Govt?
Posted by Kit in PKFZ, Parliament, Transport on Thursday, 11 June 2009
My three questions (No.37 to No. 39 on the 13th day in the current series) to Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat on the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal today are:
1. In his blog from Beijing on 3rd June 2009, Ong wrote:
“At this very moment, professional experts and entrepreneurs have been roped in to provide their views and expertise on how to bring PKFZ back on track for which it was originally conceived.
“ We are not sitting still and playing rhetoric. In the weeks and months ahead, my Ministry and PKA will put in place a series of action plans to lessen the pain on taxpayers.”
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) submitted its “position review” report of the Port Klang Free Zone (PFKZ) on 3rd February 2009, which means Ong had more than four months to digest it.
Can he explain what he had done in these four months apart from “sitting still and playing rhetoric” to “put in place a series of action plans to lessen the pain on taxpayers” with regard to the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal and why he needs four months just to announce a blue-ribboned Task Force to make some more studies in the next two months to make recommendations “for follow-up actions” to be taken by the Government? Isn’t this a colossal waste of four months after the PwC report on PKFZ? Read the rest of this entry »
Govt studying DAP proposal to buy back North-South Expressway and end toll collection in six years
Posted by Kit in DAP, Parliament, Transport on Thursday, 12 March 2009
The government is studying the DAP proposal that the government buy back the North-South Expressway to end toll collection completely in six years.
In reply to my query during the winding up of the committee stage debate for the RM60 billion mini-budget, the Second Finance Minister, Tan Sri Nor Mohamad Yakcop said the government is studying the DAP proposal to return the expressway to the people.
The proposal, a comprehensive, practicable and creative one formulated by the DAP Ops RESTORE (Restructure Toll Rates & Equity) Team, after consultations with legal experts, investment bankers as well as the general public, has the following features:
1) Impose no further increase in North-South Expressway toll rates.
2) End toll collection after 2015 instead of 2020.
3) Create RM14 billion savings for Malaysians from 2009-2015 – saved either (i) by Malaysians using the highway because of no further toll rate increases or (ii) in terms of compensation which would have to be paid by the Government to PLUS Expressways.
4) Incur no additional cost for the Malaysian Government or Malaysian tax-payers
Horror flight on board MH161
by Radhika Iyer-O’Sullivan
Jan 20, 09 3:55pm
Malaysiakini
I am a Malaysian currently residing and working in Dubai. On Dec 25, 2008, I flew with Malaysian Airlines flight MH161 to Kuala Lumpur to visit my parents. I was in seat 36H (an aisle seat) and the seat next to me, 36K (window seat) was vacant. The flight stopped over at Karachi for an hour.
In Karachi, more passengers boarded the plane. One male passenger boarded, showed his boarding pass to a stewardess and she pointed to seat beside me (36K). The man looked at me and said, ‘She’s a Hindu, I cannot sit beside her.’ The stewardess responded, ‘So what? What’s wrong with Hindu?’ The man then began to yell and shout that he would not sit next to a Hindu.
The crew insisted that he had to because there were no other seats available because the plane was full. Then this passenger sat down but began to verbally abuse my faith and the crew members. I sat in my seat but was physically cringing away from him. The flight supervisor was summoned and until then the man was still seated next to me. Imagine my shock, horror and fear in being next to a hostile, abusive person.
One steward did stand next to me but did not offer any help and I did not feel safe or reassured. I reached out and told that steward that I did not feel safe anymore. I said this to him softly in English and he told me to sit and wait. He then walked off and a female crew member took his place. All this time I was under the impression that this hostile passenger beside me was a Pakistani.
I then told the stewardess in Malay that this man should not be seated beside me after what he had said about me. There were other Malaysian passengers sitting in the same area and all of them heard me. She smiled and merely nodded. Read the rest of this entry »
Whither National Air Transport Policy ?
Letters
by J Chan
The storm that is generated by the government’s decision to give the go-ahead to the Sime Darby-AirAsia consortium to build a brand new airport at Labu continues to blow unabated.
On the one side is a government GLC, Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) which is being accused by AirAsia of not being able to meet AirAsia’s needs of no-frills service, and yet attempting to charge AirAsia “exorbitant” landside charges.
On the other side is MAHB which, through its website, defends its record of meeting clients’ expectations, and asserting that airport charges are being set by the Government, not by the airport operator.
What the public is inclined to accept is that the present LCCT is in a shambles, and is probably on a par with some domestic Indian airports.
MAHB defends this, as they have spent RM 170 million to build a new extension, which is now partially opened, and they say that the upgraded LCCT should be able to cater for up to 10 million passengers per year until 2013. After that, MAHB says that they have plans to build another terminal that is contiguous with the KLIA main terminal, and that this terminal could be ready by 2013.
AirAsia says that this is baloney, for MAHB have never really delivered commitments on time (they point to the current state of affairs at LCCT as an example) and that any delays would negatively impact AirAsia’s business model. Read the rest of this entry »
The new budget air terminal at Labu
Letters
by J.C.
I read with apprehension at the recent announcements by Sime Darby Berhad and Air Asia with respect to their receiving government approval to build a new low-cost terminal at Labu, Negeri Sembilan. The announcements coincided with a statement by Malaysia Airports Berhad (MAHB) that it is ready to construct a new low-cost terminal to replace the existing LCCT at KLIA. The statements, and the subsequent comments by Air Asia spokespersons, gave the impressions that a new low-cost terminal is urgently needed, that MAHB has not been responsive to the needs of Air Asia, that Air Asia could easily save 15 pct of operating costs by moving to the new terminal at Labu and that not a single sen of public money will be utilised.
The following questions need to be answered by the government:
1. Was the approval given to the Sime Darby-Air Asia consortium based on the construction of a totally new airport, complete with runway(s) ? No one has indicated that there will be new runways, but it would be ridiculous to assume that planes could land on the existing KLIA runways and taxi the 7 km to the new Labu terminal. Sime announced that the new terminal would take up approximately 3000 acres of land, and surely a terminal without runways would not require such a sizeable landmass. If there are going to be runways, who would be paying for the Air Traffic Control (ATC) facilities ? Who would be charging passengers for airport taxes ?
2. Was any cost-benefit comparison made with respect to the construction of a new terminal at KLIA as opposed to a new terminal (or should we say airport) at Labu ?
3. When the government agreed with the sponsors of the new Labu airport that the entire project would be privately funded, did it take into consideration issues like the KTM Komuter link from Labu to KL Sentral ? KTM would be expected to build the link, and this is government money. We all know that rail links are only viable with subsidy from the public sector. Look at ERL. After 10 years of operations, their debt is still guaranteed by the government of Malaysia, and they are still being subsidised annually through a minimum ridership clause in their concession agreement. Would the roads leading to Labu be privately funded or would they have to be built by the Works Ministry ? Read the rest of this entry »
RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal – no need for MCA to campaign in KT if OTK continues to hide the truth
“Nothing to hide” – this was the front-page headline of Sun yesterday on Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Kiat’s “tell-all” press conference on Sunday on the RM4.6 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal – which told absolutely nothing!
Although Ong adopted the stance that he had “nothing to hide”, in actual fact he had hidden the most important fact in his “chronology of events” on the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal – the RM4.6 billion retrospective approval given by the Cabinet in June 2007 to bail-out the four unlawful “Letters of Support” which gave implicit government guarantees issued by the two previous MCA Transport Ministers to the money market for the RM4.6 billion bonds for the PKFZ project.
Both the two previous MCA Transport Ministers had acted unlawfully, as they had no powers to issue financial guarantees committing the government, which could only be issued by the Finance Minister and only after Cabinet approval.
However, the Malaysian Government would have created a major crisis of confidence in the international money market if the Cabinet had not bailed out the two MCA Transport Ministers and given retrospective approval to the four Letters of Support which gave implicit government guarantees to the RM4.6 billion bonds issued by Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd (KDSB), the PKFZ turnkey contractor, for the PKFZ project.
Can Ong explain why he had deliberately omitted this important fact in his “chronology of events”, which need not have to depend on the outcome of the Pricewaterhouse Cooper audit report? Or is he denying that Cabinet had given such retrospective approval? Read the rest of this entry »
Road carnage – disappeared from Abdullah’s radar screen in his last 100 days as PM
Posted by Kit in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Najib Razak, Transport on Tuesday, 9 December 2008
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is in his last 100 days as the fifth Prime Minister of Malaysia.
His silence and indifference to the latest road carnage in the express bus North-South Expressway (NSE) crash in Tangkak which killed 10 and injured 14 on Sunday, taking place in his last 100 days as PM, is in sharp and sad contrast to his anger and outrage at the Jalan Kuala Lipis-Marapoh three-vehicle accident which killed 14 on 30th November 2003 during his first hundred days as PM.
This also signifies another major failure of Abdullah with regard to his First-Hundred-Days-as-PM pledges– to end the road carnage on Malaysian roads.
I can still remember Abdullah’s furious and emotional outbursts five Novembers ago, when he expressed his frustration and upset at the number of road fatalities recorded under Ops Sikap V, with 25 road deaths on the first day of Hari Raya and the death toll which rose to 104 in the first six days of Ops Sikap V. Read the rest of this entry »
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