AES System is not foolproof, functions should be explained

Instead of making sweeping statements like, Don’t politicise Automated Enforcement System, the Honourable Minister should instead clarify in detail comments made in the letter that the System is not foolproof, functions should be explained so that the public knows they are being treated fairly, and not used instead, to line up the pockets of the service provider!

In the letter, the Hybrid Car Owner asked, "Can someone from the appropriate agency explain again exactly how the AES functions? How does it identify multiple vehicles moving at different speeds, captured side by side together with a law-breaking vehicle (mostly travelling in the fast lane)?"

It is a good question, and it raises the fundamental question on how the AES system is able to selectively take photos of vehicles that break the speed limit, or shoot the lights? I may add to the question too. How will the camera take clear pictures of motorcyclists who snake around junctions and make all sorts of illegal moves like U-turns and shooting the lights, when the motorcycles do not behave in the "standard" way a car behaves, and will not "stand still" for a clear photo to be taken?

Like the Hybrid Car Owner, I have doubts of the technical capability of the system, and unless the Minister comes up with some detailed clarification and also demonstration to us and to the NGOs, you can't help the public for thinking that once again, we have been taken for a ride, AT OUR EXPENSE!

Haphazard parking in PJaya

It is obvious that the residents of Petaling Jaya have welcomed the One-way loop proposal for four major roads in PJ  as they are really fed up with the traffic mess they have to face daily. With the expected national annual increase of 600,000 vehicles on the road, there would have been no respite to their commuting woes.

However, I would like to suggest to the authorities that a good system is ONLY as good as it's maintained. At the present moment, traffic on this 'loop' can be much improved if the the authorities would maintain strict vigilance against haphazard parking at these areas:

1. Jalan Yong Shook Lin, the stretch from the TNB building to the overhead pedestrian bridge near the former National Registration Dept
2. Jalan Semangat, outside Jaya 33
3. Jalan Barat, from KFC to Courts, opposite the PJ Hilton.
   

If these stretches are diligently cleared of illegal parking, which blocks up to half the road stretches sometimes, traffic would be eased.
Can we do that, while we continue debate on the "proposed loop"??

Stop haphazard parking in PJ 
 

We love the Johor Sultan!

Reading this report in The Sunday Star, >>Johor Ruler: Mersing Laguna developer failed to fulfil condition I was impressed by the diligence of HRH the Sultan of Johor, who has taken a personal interest in the affairs of his beloved State and I was further struck by what he said, as quoted in The Star, " Nobody should take advantage of the situation for personal gains when acquiring equipment for the Special Forces,” he said, adding that recently four Rapid Intervention Vehicles (RIV) were purchased for RM2.76mil or RM690,000 each. During the event, Sultan Ibrahim displayed one of the RIV vehicles and another personal vehicle that he purchased for RM150,000. “Which of these will be your choice? I do not understand why government purchases involve exorbitant charges that do not make sense,” Sultan Ibrahim, who is also a Colonel in the Special Forces, said. "

Based on the statement, should the Auditor General and the Anti Corruption Agency initiate investigations as to the reasons why the Defense Ministry has paid such exorbitant charges for apparently the same type of equipment, and, if true, any other "exorbitant" charges have been made regarding the Government's purchases.

We are indeed grateful to his HRH the Sultan of Johor for showing an exemplary interest in the affairs of the State, and in this instance, I think the public fully deserves an explanation from the authorities

AES.. Malaysian Traffic Management System

When I read this business report, AES poised to make drivers toe the line and the statement that, " SOON Malaysians might be driving like Singaporeans.." I can't help myself but ROFLOL {rolled on floor, laughing out loud} ! Why, you may ask. In a properly functioning and efficiently enforced system, this may well happen, and we may see "drivers conforming to speed limits on their roads....driving in unison, keeping to the speed limit in constant flow of traffic, afraid of being nabbed for breaking the law."
In Malaysia, this maybe too much to expect, and certain answers need to be given by the authorities before we can dream of an orderly traffic on our roads and highways. The questions are as follows:

1. Will the AES system be maintained in proper working order 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?
2. Who vets the photos?
3. Who issues the tickets?
4. Who will collect the fines?
5. What happens when fines are persistently ignored? Will discounts be given, or will the offenders be taken to courts, no mitigation allowed?
6. Will the Operator of the AEC system be paid based on the amount of fines ISSUED, or on the amount of fines COLLECTED?
   
7. How will the Police and/or the AES system operator deal with motorcyclists who cannot be found, or have invalid addresses, as we know a significant number of these motorcyclists are foreigners, many of them staying in the country illegally?
   
8. Besides sharing the "spoils" or parking fines {issued or collected?}, do the AES operator get any other maintenance or "consultancy" fee, for example ?

I am praying for the system to succeed, as too long, we law abiding road users have been hounded and harassed by the hooligans of the road. But, until the questions that I have raised can be properly answered for public consumption, I am afraid this project will join the ranks of those high sounding projects that the Government has implemented, and naively thought will work out.

We need to transform our traffic management system, but that means hard work like boring maintenance and enforcement, 7 days a week, 365 days in a year, 366 in a leap year!
Are we up to it?

4 Revisions of MAS organisation in one year! Messy!

First of all let me say that I am just a retired ex sometime Govt servant  and also Corporate Manager with no experience in anything at all, but reading your report, MAS has new organisation chart for staff still raises a few questions in my mind, which I hope to be enlightened. You mentioned that MAS has  "released a revised organisation chart to its employees yesterday and from the middle of next week, all division heads will be known as directors. This could be the third or fourth revision to the organisation chart over the past one year. " This statement conjures up so many images in my mind, which I feel can be confusing to the public who takes the trouble to read everything in The Star, like I do. They are 'bulleted' below for ease of reference:

• Three or Four revisions of of an organisation chart within a year would seem to me, the management do not know what they are doing, or there is such a tumultuous power struggle in the company that no productive work can be done
• Change of name titles from division heads to directors. What is so important about a name that it so delays and disrupts the important work of an organisation. I also noticed this seems to be a Malaysian "disease". From experience, I realise that Malaysian corporations like big titles like directors, Group ED/CEOs and all that egoistical stuff, and a title like General Manager is held with a little disdain. While in the Philippines for example, they tend to get on with the job, and just call any head of an organisation the GM. 
• Looking at some of the names holding the high sounding posts also gave me a small shock! I know MAS is a so called GLC, but does it have to staff it like a Government department? This makes me wonder if MAS promotes people according to strict meritocracy or does it think that it's just another Government corporation? 

I am beginning to understand why MAS, once the exemplary flagship corporation in Malaysia is struggling, and struggling badly. It is beginning to be very embarrassing. Let's hope there will not be another review of the organisation in 6 months' time ! :(

Malaysia destroys forest reserves..

Reading your report, Logging intensifies in Pedu it would seem to me that politicians of all stripes will ride roughshod over environmental issues, and will do anything to skirt laws that protect and preserve our precious environment. In this instance I find it ludicrous that there is such an useless law that requires a State Government to file an EIA report only if logging is approved for land in excess of 500 hectares! What is to prevent the wayward authority from awarding logging concessions in 'parcels' of 500 ha or less each time it deems that more royalty is needed to fill State Coffers? .

Forest reserves, especially those that form part of a crucial catchment area of the State, is essential for the continuous supply of drinking water to the State, and these areas should be placed above narrow parochial interests. A progressive Government, whether it be the State or Federal Authority, should protect it as part of our national Treasure,and anyone breaching the area should be considered as having committed a treasonous offence punishable by a life sentence, or death.

In Brazil, it has been just agreed by the government there that any project affecting the Amazon will only be implemented after due consultation with all the stakeholders involved.

It can be seen in the recent catastrophic events caused by seasonal rains in China, Japan, and the Philippines, and the terrifying drought in the Midwest of USA have been caused by decades of over development, with scant attention given to preserve the Earth's dwindling natural assets.

Are Malaysians learning from this?
Protect forests as national treasure

Malaysian politics: Wising up to fragile situation

This is such a timely interview, >> Wising up to fragile situation I think Star should forward this straight to the Government, and the Opposition, and then pray they will read and ponder....

Some of his keen observations:

• It is a fragile situation because anyone who is a bit of a populist and knows how to play with emotions can play the identity politics in a very bad way and drive this country into division.
• He sees contradictions as parties try to be inclusive and open up to society (especially non-Muslims) as this can attract voters for the election but at the same time, there is an opposing move which is the “narrowing down of the religion” and “reducing it to symbols”.
• He says when people play with such symbols, the media is quick to jump on it and create controversy on the issue of whether we can use the word “Allah” or not and this is not a good thing for the country.
• Another problem Dr Tariq has noticed is that when Malaysian students study Islam in Arab countries where there are literalists, they “come back with not only Islamic principles but also an Arab way to deal with the Islamic principles” and they try to project that culture here.“It is important for Malaysia to celebrate their culture and not to think that because you are an Arab, you are a better Muslim. It should come from something which is within

The whole column is worth reading slowly, and Dr Tariq who is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, one of the founder members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, says that Malaysia is in  a fragile situation given its religious and ethnic mix, and the nation needs WISE politicians, courageous religious leaders and a dose of good luck to continue its path of stability and peace.

If only our politicians will understand.