Ambassadors and spies who rip-off the rakyat

Minister blames taxi drivers for tarnishing the country's image yet doesn’t address allegations of corruption among the higher-ups in government.

COMMENT

Tourism and Culture Minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz complained that rogue taxi drivers were the reason Kuala Lumpur was not selected as the best shopping city in the world. He said, “When Kuala Lumpur was ranked as the world’s fourth best shopping city, by global news network CNN in 2012, we lost out to the top three because of our cab services.”

Nazri is being disingenuous and should not blame only taxi drivers. There are ample government bodies to monitor the taxi drivers, but they do not do their jobs. Therefore, it is Nazri and these official agencies who are responsible for the poorly performing cabbies and the failure to be selected the most attractive shopping city.

For decades, Malaysians have complained about arrogant, cheating, dangerous and unscrupulous taxi drivers. The rakyat’s legitimate complaints fell on deaf ears. So, whose fault is it, when taxi drivers continue to give poor service? We don’t need more laws, we just need the relevant government departments to enforce the existing laws.

To be fair, the taxi drivers have their complaints too, and their concerns have also been swept under the carpet, by the government.

First. Nazri should address allegations of corruption affecting the agencies which are tasked with monitoring taxi drivers’ performance.

One policeman, on condition of anonymity said, “How can any policeman or Road Transport department (RTD) official do his job properly, when they are fearful of the wrath from higher up?” He explained that permits for taxi operators were invariably connected to a senior politician, or crony who had close ties with a top politician.

Second. How sincere are the authorities in helping taxi drivers?

In 2011, Syed Hamid Albar, of the Land Public Transport Commission (Spad) urged taxi drivers not to politicise their concerns. He said, “Public transport is a public interest matter. I would like public interest matters to be depoliticised. It is not for the opposition to determine that public transportation is efficient (or otherwise).

“If they (taxi drivers) have a problem, come and engage us, we are prepared to listen…”.

Syed Hamid is also being disingenuous. Taxi drivers allege that companies, which belong to politicians, are given the bulk of the permits to operate taxi services. The taxi drivers want a change in the system, whereby they would be given individual permits, so that owning their vehicles would empower them and cultivate more responsibility. They said that having pride in their work, would mean a better provision of service to the public.

Taxi drivers have long complained about poor working conditions, and would like to see legislation which would entitle them to benefits like a pension scheme, the social security scheme (Sosco) and access to other entitlements enjoyed by workers in other sectors.

Will the Spad chairman be prepared to resolve the issues of the taxi drivers immediately, and make personal ownership of taxis a reality?

Third. Irrespective of the fact that Nazri is in charge of tourism, doesn’t he think that the needs of Malaysians come first? Don’t local tourists count too? Is action only to be taken because of the complaints of foreign tourists?

For decades, Malaysians suffered from taxi drivers who were rude to them, and who did not keep their vehicles clean, safe and road-worthy. There have been complaints about taxi drivers dumping their passengers by the roadside if they complained about cabbies taking a longer route or switching off their meters. Other passengers have claimed that some taxi drivers would refuse to go to certain areas, or charged exorbitant rates, even for short journeys.

Nazri should know that good and reliable service counts, first and foremost. He should not have to act just because he wants to attract foreign tourists and make KL the top spot for shopping.

Finally, Nazri and his peers in government should realise that if they want to improve the attitude and performance of taxi drivers, they should not give taxi drivers ridiculous makeovers, such as making them ambassadors or spies.

In 2011, Nazri was a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department. He said that taxi drivers could serve as the eyes and ears of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, to help fight corruption.

He said that information supplied by cabbies about their passengers, could be used to secure arrests and convictions. He proposed that 30,000 taxi-drivers could become the MACC’s informers.

The following year, Ng Yen Yen, the Minister for Tourism at the time, had a ridiculous idea and said that 4,000 non-smoking taxi-drivers, with good communication skills, operating in the Klang Valley, would be appointed as tourism “ambassadors”.

Today, corruption flourishes, and these “tourism ambassadors” and “MACC spies”, continue to rip off the rakyat and are despised by both Malaysians and tourists.

Mariam Mokhtar is an FMT columnist.