Reconsider drink driving-related amendments, urges retired judge

 

Former Appeals Court judge VC George has urged the Dewan Negara to reconsider amendments to the Road Transport Bill which was passed by the Dewan Rakyat on Aug 26. The amendments will be tabled in the Dewan Negara this week and aimed at curbing driving under the influence of alcohol.

Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong had said the amendments seek to toughen existing sentences through a higher fine of up to RM150,000 and a jail term of more than 20 years as well as the suspension of the driver’s licence.

The existing Act provides for imprisonment of between three and 10 years and a fine of between RM8,000 and RM20,000 upon conviction.

The bill was passed with a voice vote and received bipartisan support, including from former transport minister Anthony Loke.

“The amendments take away the discretion of the judges in respect of the punishment to be meted out,” George (photo, above) told Malaysiakini.

He reminded the minister that one of the roles of the judiciary is to provide a check and balance to the excesses of the executive, and that mandatory sentencing ties the hands of judges in this respect.

“The executive has, over the years, tried to water down that aspect of the role of the judiciary, for example, by saying that the decision of the minister in respect of a particular matter would be final.

“The judiciary on their part have tried to get around that, for example by the device of relying on the fact that the minister did not strictly adhere to the requirements of the relevant regulations or provisions of the law in arriving at his decision and accordingly the courts should and would interfere,” said George.

In calling for the bill to be passed by the Dewan Negara, Wee had also said that accident statistics over the last five years showed an increasing number of cases involving drunk drivers. He added that a survey of 345,000 people indicated that 94 percent of respondents wanted drunk drivers to be severely punished.

George said that statistics have shown that the number of drink-driving cases that lead to fatalities is relatively small.

In June, consumer rights activist Deepak Gill highlighted government statistics, based on a query on the Public Sector Open Data Portal (data.gov.my), showed that from 2011 to 2019, there were 47 drink-driving related road deaths in Malaysia.

“This is out of a total of 55,887, and there are many other more common causes, which the government also needs to look into,” said Gill at the time.

George said that the Dewan Rakyat was misled into supporting the proposed amendments in respect of drink driving or drug-related cases by the suggestion that there were significant increases in that type of offences.

In May and June, a number of several fatal accidents involving drink driving were reported during the movement control order (MCO).

On May 3, police officer Safwan Muhammad Ismail was killed on the spot when a pick-up truck, driven by a man believed to be drunk, ran over him when he was manning a roadblock at the Kajang Selatan toll plaza of the Kajang-Seremban Highway (Lekas).

In the incident, K Kalaichelvan, 44, pleaded not guilty to three charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, failing to stop at a roadblock, and driving without a valid licence.

In another incident fish wholesaler Teoh Kian Peng, 42, was charged in the Magistrate’s Court in Kuantan, Pahang with killing Irwan Herman Kamarudin, whose car was allegedly rammed by Teoh who was driving against traffic flow in Jalan Pintasan, Kuantan on May 25.

While on June 1, a 44-year-old contract worker who was travelling home after sending food to his wife to be sold was killed when a car driven by a man believed to be drunk collided into him. Car accessory shop assistant Khor Yong Zhang, 21, was charged for drunk driving and causing death. - Mkini