Impractical to suspend licences, says DAP MP
M Kulasegaran is confident that move to suspend errant drivers will not compel them to pay up outstanding summonses.
PETALING JAYA: The DAP today questioned the practicality in suspending driving licences of 1.7 million drivers.Past track record has shown that by doing so, only 50 percent may settle their outstanding summonses.
“It is questionable whether suspension of licenses of blacklisted motorists is the correct, fair and practical solution,” said DAP vice president M Kulasegaran in a press statement.
“Let’s ask the first question – how many percent of the 1.7 million blacklisted drivers will settle their summonses for fear that their driving licences will be suspended?
“Going by past efforts of offering discounted rates to get drivers to pay up, I dare say that not more than 50 % will do so, even if the penalty amounts to suspending their driving licences,” added Kulasegaran, who is also Ipoh Barat MP.
Instead of suspending the licences, the senior DAP leader urged the police to go on a fact-finding mission as to the reasons why a large number of summonses were being issued and remain unsettled.
Earlier this week, Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar announced that the driving licenses of a whopping 1.7 million drivers would be blacklisted as they had failed to pay traffic summonses under Ops Warta which was launched in 2006.
“We will implement total enforcement within this month. Those who are blacklisted are advised to settle their summonses as soon as possible,” said Khalid.
He also said that the effort will be carried out with the cooperation from the Road Transport Department.
Khalid added that he was not satisfied with the outcome of the Ops Selamat III from Aug 1 to 18 in conjunction with the Aidilfitri celebrations which recorded 17,831 road accidents.
Commenting further, Kulasegaran said that the move to penalise motorists with driving license suspensions and summonses would only burden the people. Multiple summonses may run up to more than a thousand ringgit.
“As a motorbike or a car is a basic need for transport, suspending their license may only result in more becoming unlicensed motorcyclists and drivers,” he said.
He speculated that the reason to the issuance of the high number of summonses was due to “unpractical and unrealistic speed limits”.
“I believe that a reason for such high number of summonses being issued is due to the fact that there are many unpractical and unrealistic speed limits on our roads, thus resulting in many motorists being caught whenever there is a police exercise.
“I therefore call on the police to find out the real reasons for the phenomenon, instead of suspending the driving licences which will create a big number of unlicensed drivers on the road,” said Kulasegaran.
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