THE SIGNS ARE CLEAR – NO ONE RESPECTS 1MDB-TAINTED NAJIB ANYMORE: ‘WE WANT SOMEONE CLEANER’ – KL CABBIES TO PROTEST ISA SAMAD’S APPOINTMENT TO SPAD, FEAR ANOTHER FGV DEBACLE

SOME 700 to 800 taxi drivers in the Klang Valley will launch a protest against the appointment of Isa Samad as the Land Public Transport Commission’s (SPAD) acting chairman, saying they want someone “cleaner” for the post.

Klang Valley Taxi Drivers Action Committee chairman Zailani Isausuludin said the protest will take place in front of the Petaling Jaya Civic Hall on July 3.

Zailani told The Malaysian Insight that cabbies in the country want someone else to helm the commission instead of Isa, whose reputation had been soiled by the Felda Global Venture Holding Bhd (FGV) boardroom tussle.

“We want someone cleaner to chair SPAD. To us, bringing in another politician as chairman, like what had happened at Felda, is just a new political colonisation of SPAD.

“If you just need someone to chair meetings, why do you need a politician? Have we no good leaders in Malaysia?” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Isa was appointed to his new position in SPAD on June 19, the same day he resigned as FGV chairman.

Following the negative reactions over his new appointment, Isa said he only went to SPAD because Prime Minister Najib Razak asked him to.

Isa and suspended FGV chief executive officer Zakaria Arshad are embroiled in a dispute over purported irregularities involving deals between FGV subsidiary Delima Oil Products and Afghan company Safitex.

Zakaria and three other senior officers were forced to go on leave by the board early this month following an internal probe into the deal while the MACC investigated allegations of graft and abuse of power in FGV.

Isa and his wife were both called up by MACC last week to give statements in relation to the corruption and power abuse claims.

Following the FGV scandal, Zailani said taxi drivers did not “trust” the former FGV chairman’s credibility and were worried that his appointment would only worsen SPAD’s already bad image.

The commission was blamed for failing to protect the rights and welfare of taxi drivers in the country, he said, adding Isa would not understand their difficulties.

“SPAD needs an honest person. We don’t see a person who can understand the people’s hardship when we look at Isa. He is not a Malay fighter.

“We need a person who can really understand the difficulties we face, to lead over 80,000 taxi drivers,” he said.

Zailani said the protest would also highlight other issues like protecting the interests of taxi drivers and their objection against issuing private vehicle permits to Uber and Grab drivers.

“We want to invite ministers like (Minister in Prime Minister’s Department) Nancy Shukri, representatives from the authorities like SPAD senior general manager Che Hasni Che Ahmad, the Road Transport Department, and Deputy Transport Minister Aziz Kaprawi to come.

“They can explain those issues to us,” he added.

– https://www.themalaysianinsight.com