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Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Wednesday, 21st April 2010:
Adverse reflection of mediocrity of BN Cabinet that the Road Transport (Amendment)Bill tabled for first reading on Monday will now be withdrawn after 48 hours because of pressures from Hulu Selangor by-election It is an adverse reflection on the mediocrity of the Barisan Nasional Cabinet that the Road Transport (Amendment) Bill tabled in Parliament for first reading on Monday will now be withdrawn after 48 hours because of pressures from the Hulu Selangor by-election on Sunday. When speaking in Batang Kali last night for the Hulu Selangor by-election campaign of the Pakatan Rakyat candidate, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, I had spoken specifically to censure the Transport Minister and former MCA President, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, other MCA Ministers and the MCA national leadership, as well as the entire Barisan Nasional Cabinet for tabling an amendment Bill to the Road Transport Act to increase compound fines for traffic offences by more than three-fold from RM300 to RM1,000. I described this as “the act of a Transport Minister and government which are completely unconcerned and unsympathetic about the plight of the ordinary people in these difficult times”. During the ceramah, the crowd in Batang Kali unanimously asked me to speak on their behalf in Parliament to demand that the proposal to increase compound fines for traffic offences from RM300 to RM1,000 should be withdrawn altogether or this would be one reason why the Barisan Nasional should be taught a lesson on the by-election polling day on Sunday, April 25, 2010. This morning, the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz announced that the Road Transport (Amendment) Bill will be withdrawn for further revision. Clearly, the public anger expressed at the Pakatan Rakyat ceramah in Batang Kali last night had reached the ears of the Barisan Nasional leaders and who have now realized that this will cost them dear in the Hulu Selangor by-election if the Road Transport (Amendment) Bill remains in its present form. This shows the power of public views in a pending by-election which voters must be able to fully take advantage of. This must go down in history at the speed at which a public grievance is addressed, where it is attended to even before I need to take it up in Parliament the next day!I welcome this super-speed of the Barisan Nasional to attend to public grievances, which should be the normal practice and not only when it is during a by-election campaign. Ong Tee Keat, as Transport Minister, must explain why he agreed to increase compound fines for traffic offences by more than three-fold from RM300 to RM1,000 which will be a great oppression of the people. The other MCA leaders and the MCA national leadership should also explain why they allowed Tee Keat to proceed with such an objectionable amendment to the Road Transport Act. *Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor
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