Plenty of Old Cars in Sarawak to be replaced…..Do you Agree?
Ong Tee Keat enemy of the people of Sabah & Sarawak
A Government member of Parliament from Sabah has branded the Federal Government, MCA president and Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat as the enemy of the poor people in Sabah and Sarawak for imposing a policy to have cars aged more than 15 years go for mandatory roadworthiness inspection from next year. Datuk Dr Marcus Mojigoh, UPKO Putatan MP, described the new policy as ridiculous and annoying as well as burdening especially to the people of Sabah and Sarawak. He said it should not be imposed in the two States as yet. He said owners of such cars were mostly poor in the rural areas where there is no Puspakom branch. “This minister is a rich man, Please ask him to replace our cars. He is becoming the enemy of the poor people. The poor people are not happy as the policy will render them losing their only mode of transportation,” Mojigoh told Daily Express‘ journalist Chris Maskilone in Kota Kinabalu Sunday.
- November 4th
It is about time Sarawak and Sabah lawmakers must have regular communication in the form of meetings, emailing, chit-chating, telephonig and one-day-ahead-meet in KL before parliamentary sitting to coordinate common grounds and issues to jointly fight unfairness and impracticality on proposals, rules and regulations against the two poorer regions. A revisit of the Federal Constitutions, for make-over or update through amendments to ensure fairplay and justice based on current situation and conditions of the peoples in the 3 regions be done now and every 15-20 years. Food for thought.
Of course, I don’t agree. But the public transport like buses that carry many passengers is a different matter. An intorduction of such a kind of regulation must allow the people time to plan ahead and adjust with their lives and life-style. Give the people at least FIVE GOOD YEARS to warning and time to plan, Mr. Minister. P/S: The majority of the people in the two regions are poor and own old cars more, than 15 years old.
I agreed with Datuk Dr. Marcus this new policy can only apply to semananjung but not for Sabah and Sarawak because our road standard is nothing compare to the road in semananjung. so with the car we have now is just good enough even already 15 years old or more as long as it’s not a bone shaker. (That is, any minit it’ll fall apart) but still on the road ’cause it might create or endanger other road user.The age of a car is not the reason to get it off road as we can see there are so many antique-cars around but with constant maintenance the car are still in good working condition.
Instead of winning the hearts of people, the government is creating the animosity with the people by introducing a new policy of making it compulsory for all vehicles 15 years old and above to undergo annual checking at Puspakom for renewal of road tax from January 1 next year. It is just ridiculous and crazy.
The policy would only burden the people, especially those in low income group and the rural people. You think these people like this policy?
Muhkrif Mahathir, a new appointed deputy federal minister said that the policy was aimed at ensuring safety. What safety? Did Muhkrif make a thorough study which of the following elements contributed most causing the road accidents in our country:-
i. old cars - mechanical faults, or
ii. human errors (carelessness), or
iii. road conditions
Does the government know it the policy would cost BN public support? Bear in mind there are not less than one million old cars in Malaysia, and is the government willing to lose a minimum of two millions (husbands, wives and children) supporters?
I am a pensioner and is staying in Sebuyau about 100 kilometers from Kuching. I am driving an old car and do my wife and my elder son. We have been supporting BN all this while.
When the government announced that all vehicles 15 years old and above must undergo annual checks at Puspakom for the renewal of road tax, the three of us were very upset mixed with angry feeling. Most of the cars` owners in our village feel the same.
If the government is going to implement this new policy, it is a real financial burden for us, because we have to spend the whole day and RM70 at least for petrol excluding car inspection fee, if any, to go to Kuching to send our cars to Puspakom.
In our protest with this unjust government new policy, we have decided to abandon our support to BN and I will advice my relatives and friends who are affected by this policy to do the same.
In New Zealand, a Warrant of Fitness (WOF) need to be maintain on all cars, old and new which my husband Cobbold is aware of. All cars need to be checked every 6 months for the WOF renewal.
There are pros and cons to this. For a busy mother like me, having the WOF will give me the peace of mind that my car will not suddenly break down on the road on my way to work and while ferrying my children to school. For one thing, I can get very heavily fined if my car suddenly breakdown on the highway. Since it is a law to have the WOF current, it is one of the first things that the police will check on top of the road tax and drivers licence when we get stopped on the road.
Making old a car road-worthy for the first time can be very expensive. I am not sure what Puspakom check list are but in NZ it includes tyres and seat belts. Since living here, my WOF charges has never been less than NZD200 as this includes the all the checkings/testings plus changing the Oil and Filters. Once I had to pay more than NZD700 as I need to replace 3 tyres and the back seat safety belts! In NZ, by law all passengers need to wear seat belts all the time when in the car and they are very strict with the safety condition in the car.
I know for a fact that the WOF is very expensive to maintained, I can’t imagine implementing it in Malaysia esp. amongst the rural folks where most of the old cars are.
Having said that, because of the WOF requirements of the NZ govt, we very rarely see car breakdowns on the road and even accidents on the road does not happen all the time..
New Zealand Darling,
we very rarely see car breakdowns on the road and even accidents on the road does not happen all the time..
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Disciplined drivers in New Zealand. I guess. But in Malaysia most of the road accidents are caused by the negligence of the drivers.
By the way, the government has agreed to pull back the introduction of mandatory annual comprehensive inspection on old cars as it has been receiving many complaints from people. Secondly, the BN government scare to lose public support. At least Najib did not listen to Mukhrif Mahathir who supported the idea.