We need enforcement, not increase in fines, Gerakan
Press statement by Dr Cheah Soon Hai, head of Gerakan’s central bureau on environment, safety and quality of life and Derga State Assemblyman
Gerakan wants the government to focus more on enforcing the law related to road transport offences instead of increasing the maximum penalties.
Gerakan’s head of central bureau on environment, safety and quality of life, Dr Cheah Soon Hai, said the present laws were ample and sufficient to effectively deal with offenders but enforcement was lacking.
“Increasing the maximum compound fines may not necessarily help to deter people from committing offences. Instead, we are afraid it may lead to abuses of power by some quarters,” he said in a statement.
Dr Cheah, who is also Derga State Assemblyman, was commenting on the proposed amendments to the Road Transport Act 1987 which were tabled for first reading in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday.
Among the proposals was increasing the maximum compound fine from the present RM300 to RM1,000 and increasing the penalty from a maximum RM2,000 to between RM1,000 and RM10,000 for using a motor vehicle without road tax.
Dr Cheah said it was important that enforcement officers were not be arrogant and treating offenders like criminals.
He said enforcement officers should be polite with the public.
Dr Cheah said the Road Transport Department can detain the offenders, provided the offences fall under the department's jurisdiction, which is related only to road transport matters. Road Transport Department officers should not be doing the official police work such as conducting preliminary urine test and confiscating driving licences of drivers tested positive for drugs.
"RTD officers should focus on their jobs and not be given too much power which encroaches onto police work," said Dr Cheah who added that RTD officers are also not trained to do such police work.
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