PRESS STATEMENT – SPAD NOT PERFORMING ITS FUNCTION I refer to the announcement made by SPAD Chairman,Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar on the 3rd of October 2014 that SPAD will deregulate school bus fare structure from next year onwards leaving it entirely to the school bus operators and parents to freely negotiate the bus fare among them. I find it very disappointing that the Commissioner Chairman took this approach in handling this very important issue which arose amidst rising living cost and hot on the heel of the government decision to further reduce 20 sen of our fuel subsidy. SPAD was set-up and commissioned by the government pursuant to Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat Act 2010 and among its many functions listed in Section 15 of the Act, is to regulate the public transport fares mechanism. SPAD announcement on 3/10/2014 is akin to taking the easy way out and defeating the very purpose of its existence. SPAD should not run away from the problem and the public expect the commission to perform its role dutifully and come out with a fare structure that is fair to both sides in view of the rising living and business operation costs. By leaving it to the parties to negotiate, I fear the reality and lack of alternative transport would mean the bargaining table is heavily tilted against the parents. If one were to look at the household expenditure of a typical Malaysian family, school bus expenses actually comprises of a significant portion especially for those that earned RM3,000-00 and below. The recent fuel hike and the domino effect has already put a very heavy financial burden on the rakyat, and this decision by SPAD will only exacerbate the situation, as we can expect a significant rise in the new school bus fare. Hence, if SPAD Chairman is reluctant to perform his duties then, I demand that he should do the honourable thing and resign immediately and let someone who is willing to put in the hard work to replace him. Alternatively, the government should just dissolve SPAD and return their functions back to the Transport Ministry so as to save public funds since clearly SPAD is not performing its function. Jimmy Puah Wee Tse PKR Johor Legal Bureau Chief cum State Assemblyman for Bukit Batu 5th October 2014
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 07:54:20 +0000
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