Lembu punya susu, Pakatan pulak claim nama
Nonsense! What Pakatan said in October 2019 was it is impossible to abolish tolls because the government will be forced to spend tens of billions of ringgit to take over toll highways and additional costs for maintenance will require a few more billion.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s government has come out with a plan regarding Malaysia’s most unpopular highway toll charges.
For Malaysians not born yet at the time when toll highways were introduced, the idea for toll highways came from then prime minister (1981-2003) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad so that Umno-owned companies and cronies of those who walk in the corridors of power can make quick and easy money.
Toll highways are so unpopular that Pakatan Harapan made abolishing toll charges as one of their 2018 election promises. And it worked. Pakatan Harapan won GE14 against the backdrop of this promise and a few others.
But it could not be done because the government would need to fork out billions to buy off all the highways from the concessionaires. Then would come the cost to maintain those highways to continue to make them safe. Hence, after paying the concessionaires billions to buy the highways, billions more would need to be spent for their upkeep.
Mahathir said Pakatan’s election promises are unrealistic and cannot be delivered
These billions would come from the taxpayers’ money. But then only the Klang Valley residents would benefit, while the oil-producing states such as Sabah, Sarawak, Terengganu, and Kelantan would be paying for the cost, although they do not use those highways.
The English call this ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’.
On 7th October 2019, Dr Mahathir, who was then Pakatan Harapan’s prime minister or PM7, told Parliament it is impossible to abolish tolls because the government will be forced to spend tens of billions of ringgit to take over toll highways and additional costs for maintenance will require a few more billion. (Go check the Hansards if you wish to verify this).
Mahathir also said Pakatan’s election promises are unrealistic and cannot be delivered. The unrealistic promises were made because they did not think they would win the election and hence would not need to deliver them.
So that’s it. Abolishing toll charges cannot be done, and they promised that not thinking they would win GE14, meaning they would not need to deliver their promises.
Today, Ismail Sabri delivered what Pakatan promised and did not deliver. And now Pakatan is claiming credit for what Ismail Sabri is doing (READ NEWS REPORT BELOW).
Malays would say “lembu punya susu, Pakatan pulak claim nama.”
“This is a continuation of the effort started by the PH government in October 2019 whereby the Cabinet had decided in policy to take over the four tolled roads,” said Pakatan Harapan today.
Nonsense! What Pakatan said in October 2019 was it is impossible to abolish tolls because the government will be forced to spend tens of billions of ringgit to take over toll highways and additional costs for maintenance will require a few more billion.
Kuat tembak budak-budak Pakatan Harapan ni. Well, Malaysians mudah lupa, kan?
***********************************************************************
(MMO) – Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders said today the move against raising fares for four tolled roads was based on a policy decision made in 2019 as part of an election pledge to bring living costs down.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced yesterday the toll rates on highways operated by four highway concessionaires in the Klang Valley will not be raised and will remain unchanged until the end of their concession period.
The move will also entail the restructuring of the four concessionaires.
“This is a continuation of the effort started by the PH government in October 2019 whereby the Cabinet had decided in policy to take over the four tolled roads,” the Opposition coalition said in a statement.
“Thus, what was announced is a continuation and the fulfillment of the PH policy.”
Abolishing the toll was seen as one of the key election pledges that helped put PH into power.
One of several options considered was to take over all the concessionaires, but the lengthy negotiations and planning caused a long delay, prompting backlash and accusations that PH was reneging on its pledges.
The proposal was also criticised by some parties as a way to bail out certain concessionaires.
The coalition said the takeover would have taken place if not for the power-grab that ousted the elected PH administration, citing the reduction in toll rates for the PLUS North-South highway.
“What this proves is that if we had governed more than 22 months and the Sheraton Move did not happen, we could have put in place more policies that would alleviate the cost-of-living burden,” it said.
Ismail Sabri said the government had agreed to the proposed restructuring of the companies.
The four concessions are Kesas Sdn Bhd which manages Shah Alam Expressway (Kesas), Syarikat Mengurus Air Banjir dan Terowong Sdn Bhd which manages the Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel (Smart), Sistem Penyuraian Trafik KL Barat Sdn Bhd which manages Kuala Lumpur Traffic Dispersal Scheme (SPRINT) Expressway and Lingkaran Trans Kota Sdn Bhd which manages Damansara-Puchong (LDP) Expressway.
The restructuring of the four companies was expected to reduce compensation cost from January 1, 2022, until the end of the concession period, and enable the government to save at least RM4.3 billion in toll subsidies.
