To win votes, lose toll highways

 

In the lead up to the 15th general election (GE15), Pakatan Harapan (PH) pledged to abolish tolls imposed for the use of our highways.

I am not suggesting they should go about doing this immediately, but there must be a concerted effort by the federal and state governments to draw up plans to have them phased out eventually.

But where should they begin? Is it possible for the government to formulate a winning strategy and implement it?

Since I am a fan of this unity government, I am willing to offer some unsolicited free advice. Here is how I would do it.

Full transparency needed

On the assumption that the government is serious about this matter, the first step would be to make toll concessions more transparent.

To that end, the government should begin by declassifying all toll concession agreements. After all, these agreements were signed a long time ago and under previous governments.

In its push towards better governance, accountability and transparency, the unity government should adopt a different approach. There should be no more hiding of information from the public or refusing to divulge the contents of previous and existing toll concession agreements.

If implemented, this approach will go a long way towards showing that PH is serious about honouring its campaign promises.

There is no basis whatsoever for classifying toll agreements as official secrets. The rakyat must be able to participate in open debate about the need for toll highways without the risk of being charged in court.

All toll concession agreements must be made open to scrutiny and transparent to the public. There should be no hidden agendas, secret clauses or other surprises.

Such access will allow the rakyat to understand and appreciate the complexity and sophistication of these concession agreements.

It will also give them the opportunity to monitor and participate in debates about whether tolls should continue to be levied along our highways.

High Compensation

Regrettably, the governments of the past have not always made decisions in the rakyat’s best interests.

Many agreements – be they in the field of education, land and properties, naval procurement, the supply of medical and health products, etc – have often been skewed in favour of the corporate sector. Toll concession agreements have been no exception.

High compensation costs payable to concession holders – regularly cited by various ministers of works as the reason for not cancelling a concession – are a product of lopsided agreements.

It may not be feasible to abolish tolls overnight as our highways need to be maintained. Therefore, as an interim measure, the government should pause further increases in toll rates while renegotiate existing concessions.

At the same time, the government must formulate and put in place a clear maintenance framework before toll highways are done away with.

Funding for public transport

Another important consideration which the government must consider is how public transport can be funded.

One way is for toll collection to be channelled to pay for the upgrading of intercity public transport, especially train and coach services.

Presently, our public transport sector lacks funding and faces stiff competition from privately-owned cars.

Current policy, which favours the ownership and unrestricted use of private cars, is not helping public transport to grow and flourish into a viable alternative.

The government must also address a prevailing narrative which claims that those who are using toll roads are not in the B40 category. Is it true that these Malaysians only use the old roads and are more likely to own motorcycles rather than cars?

Perhaps continued toll collection can be justified if it is used to fund a public transport system which helps fulfil the commuting needs of the B40 group. Maybe then the rakyat will understand the need to continue toll collection along some highways.

Perhaps in our quest for a wholesome solution a comprehensive study should also consider the impact toll highways have on the poorer segment of our society.

Another important question that needs to be addressed is why – even as the government is working to eliminate toll highways – do we see new ones still being proposed?

Certainly, places like Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam and other places in and around the Klang Valley are already littered with them.

We cannot have ‘spaghetti junctions’ all over the place. That would make the Klang Valley ever so ugly. Neither can we pretend to resolve traffic congestion by building more highways. That is a very short-sighted approach which will not work.

The government must, therefore, put an immediate stop to proposals to build more toll highways.

It will do well to remember that in order to win votes, we must first lose our toll highways. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.