— The Malaysian Insider
December 10, 2012
DEC 10 — The Automated Enforcement System (AES) is supposed to help cut down the number of accidents and road fatalities by making motorists slow down for fear of being caught and having to pay punitive fines.
Everyone gets that bit. Especially when there are enough reports of corrupt policemen or enforcement officials out there. Which leads to continuing mayhem and a loss of revenue for the government.
But that isn’t the reason to bulldoze the AES as the answer to ensuring laws are observed and those captured on film pay their fines and hopefully not continue speeding in the future.
The reasons are simple. Till today, the government can’t explain why the service has been privatised.
The initial cost cannot be the answer as the government will still have to upgrade the equipment once the service is handed back to them.
And why would any company run a system that works on being successful if it doesn’t capture anyone committing an offence any more?
The Road Transport Department (RTD) can say all it wants about a drop in the number of accidents or a reduction in speeding with the AES but no one believes the agency because there is no independent verification system.
And where do most major or fatal accidents occur in the first place? Who are the fatalities? Motorists or motorcyclists or pedestrians?
The RTD needs to come up with a better explanation and engage the public about the AES to ensure that it is a system that will help in cutting down accidents and fatalities, not help line some people’s pockets.
Until then, no one will believe the system will work for what it is intended to do.
And most will oppose the government for bulldozing the system despite the outcry. That itself should be food for thought for the RTD and the government of the day.
Privatization of the AES would readily open the door to corruption under the pretext of saving precious lives.
agree
The basic problem with AES is that traffic law enforcement ISN’T AUTOMATIC. Driving is NOT a machine function – there are judgements, there are gueses, there are mistakes.
Traffic law enforcement hence isn’t completely a machine function. IT REQUIRES A LOT OF TRUST BETWEEN THE LAW & THE PEOPLE..Its partly by privatizing is such a bad idea..
But what tops the cake of AES fiasco in Malaysia – UMNO/BN INSISTS they have the trust of the people/drivers/traffic members – WHEN THEY DON’T..
The system works because the authorities themselves says so, so it must be true and must be believed.
Just like the index crime rate and non-index crime rate.
Besides, it is all about ‘perception’.
and perception decides who is the winner, who is the loser
MPPJ is cashing in to hide and issue summons and clamp tyres.
All sorts of agency is after money.
Malaysia is such a large area. Imagine installing AES in all states including Sabah and Sarawak. Logical ? And all the cowboys riding wild stallions ?
And off the topic…Selangor Govt is doing a wonderful job by checking out old folks homes and electricity bills vastly reduced by their subsidies.
First the water…now electricity.
That’s taking care of poor Malaysians in the right ways.
“AES would readily open the door to corruption” – NO! No!
Worse! AES itself IS d product of CORRUPTION!
An officially sanctioned $$ making n self-enriching scheme
D gomen has d resource 2 carry out d project n d $$ collected would go back 2 d gomen which can use d $$ 2 cover d cost of d project n 2 maintain our highways, thus terminating all toll collections
BUT it outsourced d project 2 some privileged individuals who now own an UmnoB/BN-backed mint non-stop printing $$$
Even our courts now work 4 them 2 threaten rakyat n extort fines
Why should motorists pay fines that end up in the pocket of private companies? That is the crux of the matter. Whether AES helps reduce accidents is not the issue.
Everything now is being rammed through regardless of whether Joe Public wants it or not!
If objections are entertained, how are the scammers able to line their pockets?
So, what are Malaysians waiting for?
We have to do some ramming of our own!!!
Ram through a change in government!!!!!!
The basic objective is good for the nation, the issue is the way BN has gone around implementing those projects for the benefits of cronies and consequently their interests. For example, the Mamak followed Margaret Thatcher on privatization of ports, it was a wonderful idea but the terms offered to their cronies made the nation lost out. Our version must be the only edition uniquely available only in Malaysia where the proponents are assured of both the cake and take home whatever left on the table. In reality, many of the projects undertaken locally are not different from other Gomen; nothing really original but we all disputed the mode of implementation which was based on the so-called Negotiated Tenders! You don’t need rocket science to manage a country! Only Honesty and Sincerity! Put every national project on the table and call for the best terms; the poor bottom quadrant can be financially assisted with means they are capable of handling not just spoon feeding them; as can be seen that every Malaysian is seeking such mode of financial assistance! Such mind set can only push the nation into the 3rd world status. Some one just calculated that during the 2008 financial meltdown, the us$25 billion to GM was indeed just to pay their workers at us$52 per hour. A day’s work here is us$416 or or some rmb2,600 which maybe equal to the month’s salary of the GM’s workers in China! Surely, no way can it be proven that the Chinese workers are only 4% as productive as the US workers! And it is noted that the unemployment rate in the US is falling because the Federal Gomen has started to recruit more employees; maybe with a civil service ratio better than Malaysia’s. So when we start to compare, like Malaysia the US Gomen is also hoping that the country will be able to depend on its black liquid gold for sustaining their payroll.
Without doubt all our national projects are ALL way above international market rates! And so long, the majority of Malaysian voters are willing to bite the poisoned baits; they will get hooked for another round of merry-go-round. In a sense, many have are behaving like drug addicts; in time of desperation they swallow hook and sinker with the sweet talk and petty cash from the Gomen and then moaned for the next 5 years! Significantly, such tactic seems to work and very applicable in certain strata within some of the different communities!
Elton John’s Honesty speaks volumns. Sincerity has to work both ways. The art of politics is such that you cannot be a devil, neither an angel. Our former PM also called to cut down accidents. Is it lives that matter ? Or the money ? The real answer sucks.
PR should be thankful that Umno/BN is digging its own grave by ramming the AES down the rakyat’s throats.
That big man (kong cho ha) should read the comments. Nobody is against the “public road safety” element of AES.
But everybody is against the “rent seeking”, “corrupt practice” element of AES.
For every weaknesses or incapability of government, there is ‘piratisation’ opportunity to enrich the elites.
If we support AES, we are indirectly supporting the government agencies to go inefficient and weak, create opportunity for BN elites to enrich themselves thru piratisation of ‘satu lagi project oleh BN’.
This is really an Automatic Extortion Scam (AES) under the ETP, the Economic Takeover Programme where wealth is transferred from one party to another under the overall murky Alphabet Soup Shenanigans (A$S).
The hidden intent is to make money by criminalising the general public.
The buisness model is fundamentally and morally flawed. It has to go. No two ways about it.
The prioritization of AES is base on rent seeking concept. It is very simple to feed the cronies
This is a typical Ali – Baba joint venture. Here, Ali has the bigger slice of the cake while Baba is being asked to justify the venture.
Criminal law enforcement has always been a matter of state vs people. The enforcement comes when a person commits a criminal wrong for which the state (as in, a country) seeks punishment. And there are several reasons for punishing. The state needs to maintain law and order. The state also has a responsibility to ensure that other citizens are not in harm’s way. Finally, the punishment will serve as forewarn to would-be criminals.
What about AES? That is enforcement of criminal wrong undertaken by a private company. And that effectively turned the idea of criminal law enforcement into people vs people. And worse, profit could be gained from the effort.
JJ1B
RR1C!
When talk about privatisation to make money program. All BN and cronies will support.
To our transport and housing minister, why all the new approved Township with CF without public transport?
Do you think the G should provide the basic facilities like bus transport system to all the new township to help the poor rakyat?
This BN only know how to find way to make money rather than helping the poor.