Keretapi Tanah
Melayu(KTM) – a commonly used public transport for daily commute of thousands
of fellow malaysians
The Transport Ministry and the Land Public Transport
Commission (SPAD) recently started looking into the issue of recent fare hikes,
said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.
He said the complaints from the public had been discussed in
the Cabinet.
Both the ministry and SPAD have been jointly directed to
look into the complaints for consideration to be given to children and senior
citizens.
Liow said he opposed the decision by Keretapi Tanah Melayu
Berhad (KTMB) to repeal the fare concessions for children aged seven and below.
KTMB President Lt Col
(R) Sarbini Tijan courting the public to continue supporting KTM
KTMB President Lt Col (R) Sarbini Tijan tries to woo the
public into supporting KTM by promising to offer numerous discounts for its
customers to cut their cost when using their commuter service.
Sarbini stressed out that the train service would guarantee
the safety of a customer’s journey compared to using own transport like
motorcycles. He also quoted a statement by Malaysian Institute of Road Safety
Research (Miros) researcher Yusof Ghani who said the drastic increase in public
transport fares is like affecting the safety of road users in Malaysia as many
would shift to private vehicles, especially motorcycles, which is known as the
most dangerous form of transportation in Malaysia.
Apart from safety from riding motorcycles which is currently
the cheapest mode of commute next to trains, Sarbini also tried to convince the
public on pollution reduction on commuting by train rather than personal
motorized vehicle.
Despite Sarbini’s argument on safety and pollution
reduction, Malaysia Critique could not in any way relate neither argument to
justify the recent price hike. Whether or not safety and less pollution is a
justifiable cause for a train price hike, Malaysia Critique would allow the
readers to decide for themselves.
Transport Minister
Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai voicing concern over unreasonable KTMB policies
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, had openly
announce his disagreement with KTMB’s new policy which is to move the free
ticket from ages below 4 to below 2 while moving the children category from 4
to 12 into 2 to 7 years old which is deemed unreasonable by the public and has
created an outcry. Furthermore the recently increase of 4 sen per kilometer
from 11 sen per kilometer to 15 sen per kilometer by KTMB is considerably outrageous
as it had led to a massive 36% increase in cost of transportation for daily
commuters and had hit the public consumer hard especially those who are low to
middle income earners.
Ministry and SPAD’s enforcement on taking action is highly
valued as there’s been a massive public outcry on the unrealistic 36% overnight
increase in fare prices by KTMB in which some may see it as a breach of Act 712
article 10 Abuse of dominant position.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak recently replied
by sending a directive for KTMB to halve its Komuter fares for school pupils
and university students aged seven to 18. Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow
Tiong Lai vetoed SPAD in a directors meeting to ensure KTMB abides by the
decision. Although the children/adult ticket has been resolved, KTMB President
Lt Col (R) Sarbini Tijan has yet to answer the public with a valid argument for
the price hike. The rakyat hopes Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai
and Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) would demand a viable excuse from
KTMB for the recent massive price hike.
Youth and Sports
Minister Khairy Jamaluddin voicing concern over fare hikes
With all the fare
hikes, do you expect rakyat to walk? – Khairy Jamaluddin
The government has been urged by UMNO youth chief Khairy
Jamaluddin to refrain from introducing any price hikes as it would burden the
people heavily where public transport is a form of necessity for some. Khairy
strongly stressed out in the UMNO Youth General Assembly 2015, where enough is
enough and the rakyat had clearly had enough of the nuisance and could no
longer borne the increased costs that have caused a noticeable impact on burdening
their lives.
“Pemuda want the government to stop increasing all hikes at
all costs. Enough is enough,” said Khairy Jamaluddin who is Youth and Sports
Minister at Putra World Trade Centre on 9 December.
He also instructed that all UMNO youth should argue out on all
the toll hikes throughout the country.
“When toll tariffs are increased in the past, we seek the
youths to hop on the public transport. But now, after the toll hike, commuter,
ERL fares and all other fares are increased too. What choice does the rakyat
have, do we expect them to walk,” he added.
Khairy also reminded the Members of Parliament of their ‘aku
janji’ back in ge13 not to increase intercity tolls as it had been promised to
the rakyat.
Land Public Transport
Commission (SPAD) Chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar
SuaraTV recently reported that Land Public Transport
Commission (SPAD) Chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar confirmed that he had clarify
with Rural and Regional Development Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob that Cabinet
infact did not approve the recent KTM price hike. Does this mean there’s a
clear breech of Act 712 article 10 Abuse of dominant position where KTMB
management had increased the price of train tickets as they please without
consulting neither SPAD nor Putrajaya.
Should Putrajaya give SPAD autonomous power in regulating public transport prices as a controlled item?
Should Putrajaya give SPAD autonomous power in regulating public transport prices as a controlled item?
Attached is the evidence of the accusation by SuaraTV;
Malaysia Critique was not at the location to validate if the
statement by Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar is true or false. Malaysia Critique lets
the readers decide if KTM’s price hike is acceptable.
