Gojek and Dego - a father’s fear

One of the debates that reared its helmeted head lately was the issue of reintroducing motorcycle e-hailing apps. I say reintroducing, but of course it was news to Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.

The young fellow kickstarted the latest round in farcical style by championing Indonesian company Gojek and its founder Nadiem Makarim, before admitting that he had forgotten about our own Dego Ride which had operated for a while in 2016, before getting banned in January 2017.

Syed Saddiq rushed to rectify this by getting chummy with Dego Ride CEO Nabil Feisal Bamadha, and it looks as if both Dego and Gojek will be zipping around in no time.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said that his ministry had been given a month to submit a report on the direction and mechanism for motorcycle ride-hailing services to the cabinet, which had agreed in principle to the concept.

A number of side issues have resulted from this, not least the drama surrounding Big Blue Taxi founder Shamsubahrin Ismail (photo), who launched a broadside against Gojek and managed to insult vast swatches of people in the Asean region. 

This even triggered a threatened protest outside Malaysia’s embassy in Jakarta, but that has been forestalled by an apology.

It was easy enough to just sit back and laugh at the number of faux pas being committed, and I even nodded wisely as my friend Andrew Sia articulated his pro-Gojek views in his column last week.

But I knew that deep down something was bugging me. It surfaced the other day when my teenager wanted a ride to a local mall just as I was getting ready for work. The easiest thing to do these days, of course, is to grab a Grab, which is what I suggested.

But the next day, I saw a Food Panda delivery boy driving in the lane next to me lose control, skid and crash (thankfully he was not too badly injured) and that’s when I realised what my real fear was.

That in time to come, my teenage children and their friends will take the motorcycle rides, instead of Grab, because it’s the cheaper option.

I have a phobia of motorcycles nowadays. One I didn’t have when I was a teenager and thought I was invincible.

That is not a fear without foundation. In January, Bukit Aman Traffic Investigations and Enforcement Department director Azisman Alias said the total number of reported road accidents in Malaysia for 2018 was at 548,598. 

Of the 6,284 fatalities, motorcyclists made up 4,128 – that’s 65.7 percent.

A recent article in May by Dr Milton Lum, past president of the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners Associations and the Malaysian Medical Association, summed up that “that only 75 percent of the motorcyclists involved wore helmets.”

Unsurprisingly, motorcycle riders involved in accidents are also more likely to be wearing helmets than their passengers.

Now, I know what you are saying – that Dego and Gojek riders are going to be wearing helmets and subject to stringent safety standards. I’m going to counter with the possibility that these standards will be on paper only.

The Food Panda driver I saw skidding was the second such crash in three months I witnessed in my neighbourhood. The number of times I have seen Food Panda and Grab Food drivers happily zoom through red lights at risk to themselves and others is probably five.

I don’t know if it’s the customers, the operators or the riders themselves who pile on the pressure to get things done at speed, but it’s clearly having a negative impact on safety.

Have you seen an accident involving cars and motorcycles? It brings home just how vulnerable and exposed the motorcyclist is. 

I recall an incident in Penang in April 1996 when two cars hit each and a split second later a motorcyclist hit them. The occupants of one car ran away, the driver of another had a bleeding forehead and was in shock – "Help me, brother," he said to me.

The motorcyclist? He had been sent spiralling in the air and landed in an adjacent drain. The bike landed on him. 

We jumped in the drain and heaved the bike off him. His head was massively swollen and parts of his body had turned to mush. I never found out, but I don’t think he made it. Certainly, he was unlikely to ever be the same.

A couple of years earlier, my cousin’s housemate had lost his life when he went flying through a bus window after an accident. 

Despite this, I continued to get on bikes as a pillion rider – until my good friend Faisal Syed Mohd died on March 3, 2003. He had been entertaining a friend from overseas and they were on the same bike. One misstep and my friend went flying into a tree. He died instantly. 

I know that in querying the use of motorcycles in general, and Dego and Gojek in particular, I will subject myself to elitist accusations. There is no doubt about the economics of it – there simply are millions of Malaysians for whom the motorcycle, and not a car or LRT, is the affordable option. 

And there will indeed be a boost to the economy if lower-income unemployed find that the rides make for a lucrative job.

But tell me truly, how often have you seen a family of four on a single motorcycle, where the kids are the ones without helmets? 

How often have you seen motorcycles weave in and out of lanes seemingly indifferent to the dangers they pose to themselves and others?

I’m not the only one who feels that safety education needs to be implemented before we give the e-hailing motorcycle services the green light.

Entrepreneur Aqmal Hadi Shapee was first moved to speak out because he was unhappy that the minister had touted Gojek. “We were seen as lobbying for Gojek instead of protecting local interests like Dego. 

"The government should not be seen as looking outward first to do business, but to make policies to encourage locals,” he told me.

But it’s safety now that’s on his mind. “We should have an ongoing campaign to promote safety and a zero-tolerance policy. Whatever we are currently doing to educate is obviously not enough if there are so many motorcyclists dying on the road.”

Aqmal suggested a regulating policy that makes these companies responsible for the safety of riders and app users. 

“If the government makes it a policy that these companies are financially responsible for the safety and their well being when they get into an accident, then they wouldn't be so blatant in making them drive so fast.”

“Knowing full well they have to take care of riders disabled on the job could lead to a change of culture. Right now it is based on how many jobs are completed, making being fast an advantage, at the expense of safety,” he said.

That’s what I am worried about. We cannot be too gung ho about this new idea and then lament the cost of human lives later.

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MARTIN VENGADESAN is a member of the Malaysiakini team.