Wee strikes back at ‘hypocritical’ Chin Tong, ‘anti-public transport’ PH govt

 

Wee Ka Siong said the government has allocated RM115 million as subsidies for My50 and My100 unlimited travel passes to encourage people to use public transport.

PETALING JAYA: Transport minister Wee Ka Siong has called Johor DAP chief Liew Chin Tong a “hypocrite” over criticisms on traffic congestion.

The MCA president said the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, when it was in power, was clearly “anti-public transport”.

“As the ‘anti-public transport’ government, PH had cancelled many public transport projects that may have solved traffic congestion.

“But now that it has become the opposition, isn’t it hypocritical for Liew to ask how to solve traffic congestion, to say the least?” said Wee on Facebook.

To back up his claim, Wee said when PH was in power, it had abandoned or postponed several mega public transport infrastructure projects.

“These included the High-Speed Rail (HSR) project between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, the Johor-Woodlands RTS Link and the Electrified Double Tracking rail plan.

“They also downsized the LRT3 project by cancelling five of its stations and the tunnel work as well as using trains with fewer carriages.

“These ultimately caused the project to be delayed until 2024,” he said, adding that the MRT2 project was also delayed until later this month.

Wee said the government had already allocated RM115 million as subsidies for My50 and My100 unlimited travel passes on public transport.

“I wonder how much more the government, which Liew claims is almost going bankrupt, should increase its subsidies?”

Liew had earlier said the government should heavily fund and subsidise different modes of public transport, especially bus fares, so that Malaysians could choose to use them instead of their cars or motorcycles.

He had asked why the transport minister was being overly defensive over the traffic congestion issue, following his comments on two statements made by Wee that there were too many vehicles on the road and that the government was considering increasing fares for public transport.

Wee said it was unfair to pin the blame for traffic congestion in the country on the transport ministry when construction projects, which contributed to heavy traffic, were under the works ministry. - FMT