Loke: BN appointees at Transport Ministry will be told to go

Following its first electoral defeat in 60 years, a number of BN political appointees at government agencies such as Felda chairperson Shahrir Abdul Samad resigned to respect the will of the electorate.

However, newly minted Pakatan Harapan Transport Minister Anthony Loke revealed that no BN political appointees for agencies under his ministry had yet tendered their resignations.

He said it would be a matter of time before the terms of these appointees are terminated.

“Of course, all these appointments by the former minister will be terminated. We will make fresh appointments soon. There is no rush to appoint anybody.

“So far, none of the political appointees, mostly from MCA, have yet to resign. Probably they are waiting for my instruction.

“But I think they should know that as political appointees, their terms will not be continued,” the Seremban MP told Malaysiakini after clocking-in for the first time at the Transport Ministry yesterday.

Loke was responding to a question on whether he will replace several MCA-linked port authority chiefs.

Among are Penang Port Commission chairperson Tan Teik Cheng (Penang MCA chief), Port Klang authority chairperson Kong Cho Ha (former MCA secretary-general and transport minister) and Port Klang Free Trade Zone chairperson Tan Chong Seng (an MCA central committee member).

Asked on whether he will ask these MCA political appointees to leave, Loke did not want to start his job by firing people.

“Today is my first day in office. I don't want to start up my job by firing people. So my instruction will come later,” he said, adding he plans to all major ports in Malaysia.

Improving road safety

Loke also gave his views on how he plans to improve Malaysia's road safety and reduce the high traffic accident rate saying the number of heavy vehicles and motorcycles on the road could be reduced by providing first-class cargo railway and public transport services.

“Road safety involves many things including its implementation and enforcement. You need a comprehensive study to reduce the usage of heavy vehicles on the roads.

“I was told cargo railway service utilisation is only at 30 percent. It is underutilised. We have to optimise our railway track to reduce the number of heavy vehicles on all roads,” he said.

At the same time, Loke said he also planned to improve bus connectivity to dissuade use of motorcycle and to improve road safety.

“I was told 60 percent of traffic accident fatalities involved motorcyclists. If we want to reduce the number of motorcyclists, we must have a good bus system to connect the workplace to home,” he added.

The minister dismissed the suggestion of building extra motorcycle lanes saying current roads were already congested.

“Our roads are already congested. If you have another motor lane, there will be other consequences,” he said. - Mkini