MSM Title: Whipping for illegal road racers
The Paragraph: Federal Traffic chief Senior Asst Comm II Datuk Hamza Taib warned that once the amendments became law, they may be given three strokes of the rotan. Those who are underage could face up to 100 hours of community service under the supervision of the Welfare Department.
Beat Around Bush: Good law but the enforcement of it is yet to be seen
MSM Title: Forced evictions not the way, says Bar Council
The Paragraph: Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan said the policy was "flawed and an unmitigated disaster from the high-handed manner in which the forced evictions were carried out".
Beat Around Bush: Is the policy flawed or the execution?
TANGKAK: All boats and ferries between Mersing and Tioman Island have to be fully inspected by the Marine Department before departure, Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said. He said any vessel without licences, safety features or not sea-worthy would be banned.
“It is very sad that such a tragedy had to happen and we are told that the vessel had no valid licence,” he told reporters at his Hari Raya open house in Sungai Mati near here yesterday.
The Tioman Island-bound Seagull Express ferry carrying 103 passengers catching fire off the coast of Mersing on Saturday. Four people drowned after jumping off the ferry, five were injured, and three are still reported missing. Abdul Ghani said the ferry operator should take full responsibility of the tragedy and urged the police and the Marine Department to act because the state did not want tourism to be affected.
He said the operator had ignored safety measures and deployed the unlicensed vessel to ferry passengers due to the high demand during the Hari Raya holidays.
He added that the department was unaware of the vessel’s departure from Mersing to Tioman and only knew about it after it caught fire, and the vessel was overloaded as it was carrying 103 passengers and they were not given lifejackets.
An angry Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor called for drastic action against the ferry operator. “I am shocked and upset. We are promoting Visit Malaysia 2007 and these kind of things happen,” he said in Johor Baru yesterday. Tengku Adnan said he was even more upset to hear that the ferry crew jumped into the sea to save themselves first.
He said he would discuss this matter and the safety of other boats with the Transport Ministry immediately. Johor Baru MP Datuk Shahrir Samad called for inspections on all boats to make sure that such tragedies never recurred.
“Why do we always have to wait for a tragedy before we take any action?” he said.
Cross Country: Firm ordered to stop dredging
SEREMBAN: A company dredging sand along the banks of Sungai Linggi, barely a kilometre from the only water treatment plant serving Port Dickson and parts of Rembau, was ordered to shut down operations yesterday.
Although operating with a valid permit, they were directed by the Seremban district office to stop operations immediately.
This was after the plant, run by the state Water Supply Department (JBA), could not treat the river water effectively due to high levels of colloidal dispersion, forcing several shutdowns or reduced production.
This led to supply cuts in Port Dickson and parts of Rembau and Rantau since Monday, about the same time the dredging began in that particular area.
State Energy, Water and Telecommunications Committee chairman Datuk Rais Zainuddin said it was very clear that the dredging was taking place too close to the plant.
“There is not enough time for sedimentation to take place before water flows into the plant for treatment,” he told reporters at the plant, near Rantau.
Rais, accompanied by JBA officials, spent about an hour checking the damage.
He was concerned as Hari Raya was just around the corner.
“This is the only plant serving these areas. It treats 136.5 million litres of water daily.
“What is going to happen if JBA has no choice but to cut the supply during the festive period?”
Panel to get appointment letters today
KUALA LUMPUR: The three-man panel formed to determine the authenticity of a controversial video clip implicating a senior lawyer brokering the appointments of judges will receive their appointment letters today.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will present the letters to them at his office in Putrajaya.
The three are former Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Haidar Mohd Noor, who heads the panel, National Service Council chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye and former Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mahadev Shankar.
Haidar, when contacted yesterday, said the panel would get a clearer picture of their scope of duties and powers after meeting Najib.
The panel’s terms of reference include conducting a full inquiry, analysing evidence and making a conclusion on the video tape.
It is understood that the panel met informally yesterday.
The eight-minute video shows a man purported to be a senior lawyer talking on his handphone with a Datuk who is alleged to be a senior judge.
Blacklisted bus in yet another fatal accident
GUA MUSANG: A blacklisted bus and a sleepy bus driver with outstanding summonses led to yet another crash that killed a Cambodian passenger and seriously injured four others.
The driver of the express bus fled the scene when he realised that one of his 29 passengers had died on the spot after he lost control of the vehicle that skidded and overturned at Km30 of Jalan Kuala Krai-Gua Musang at 1am yesterday as it headed towards Kuala Lumpur.
The roof of the bus caved in and it took rescuers two hours to extricate Punmin @ Benjamin Ali from Cambodia, said state police chief Senior Asst Comm I Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi at a press conference.
Punmin was a teacher active in religious schools in the east coast who had entered Malaysia on Saturday, he said.
Initial investigations revealed that the driver had been negligent and was also sleepy.
SAC Abdul Rahim said police were tracking him down.
The driver has two outstanding summonses in his name while the Triton Express Bus, WFQ 381, has been blacklisted by police after it chalked up nine summonses totalling RM1,920 over five years, a check with the police online summons-checking service revealed.
However, the driver has a valid commercial driver’s licence and has not been blacklisted by the Road Transport Department. The passengers on the Triton bus said they had urged the driver to take a rest after he revealed to them that he had had only two hours of sleep the night before.
The bus left Kota Baru at 9.30pm on Monday with 29 passengers comprising 17 men and 12 women, including three children.
MB becomes engineer and architect for a day
KUANTAN: Common sense can help avoid shoddy workmanship that can lead to a project to be dismantled and rebuilt, said Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob. This in turn could lead to the Government having to spend more of the people's money, he added.
Adnan cited an example of how he took it upon himself to measure and design a section of a road where a traffic light was located in Bentong after it was found that vehicles were unable to make a U-turn due to limited space.
Armed with a measuring tape, the mentri besar said he went to the location with a few officials, took the measurements and designed the expansion needed.
``I became the architect and engineer for the day,'' he said as the people laughed and applauded. They were attending the PWD quality day dinner hosted by the state government at a hotel here on Monday night. Among those present was PWD director general Datuk Ir Dr Judin Abdul Karim. Adnan also said taxpayers would tolerate it if a project had to be rebuilt once in a while but if it became a practise they would definitely have good reasons to be very upset.
He noted that PWD was always in the limelight but for the wrong reasons, likening the department's situation to that of `wakil rakyats'.
``Goods deeds done are normally left unsung,'' he added. Adnan said being in the spotlight would also require them to be on their toes and for them to continue to improve on the services rendered. Judin in his speech said the PWD had been asked to implement more than 7,000 development projects worth about RM72bil.
For Pahang alone, the development projects totalled 498 and were worth RM3.4bil. There were 46 road projects estimated at RM2.3bil, he added. ``The responsibility and trust given to implement more than 7,000 projects under the 9th Malaysian Plan and to manage the national assets is indeed a challenge for us.
``It requires an effective and efficient work process and delivery system that demands committment from everyone,'' Judin said.
Transport Ministry proposes making wearing of rear seatbelt mandatory
Transport Ministry proposes making wearing of rear seatbelt mandatory
SERDANG: The Transport Ministry will propose that the Government makes it mandatory for passengers to wear the rear seatbelt in all passenger cars.
The move is hoped to reduce the number of fatalities during accidents. Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy said although the Government understood reasons why the public would be against it, the ruling had to be put in place in the interest of the public.
"It is definitely something we want to put in place as soon as possible," he said.
According to Chan, the main reason why the public opposes such a ruling is that only three passengers would be allowed to sit in the backseat.
Road Safety Department director-general Datuk Suret Singh pointed out that study by the Malaysian Institute for Road Safety Research in rural and urban areas as a whole showed that the availability of rear seatbelts was greater than the number of occupants.
"For this reason, we think it can be done," Suret said, adding that the first time there was a move to make the wearing of rear seatbelts compulsory was in 1993
Failed trailer brake causes massive jam on North-South Expressway
IPOH: A malfunctioned hydraulic brake sent a 28-ton trailer rolling down the 253rd
kilometre of the North-South Expressway, narrowly missing two cars, which were behind the trailer.
Fortunately, no one was hurt in the 7.45am incident, which caused a massive jam for northbound motorists, before the Kuala Kangsar exit.
The incident also caused a minor accident on the southbound side of the expressway involving a motorcycle and two cars, which slowed down to watch the commotion. Trailer driver Mohd Shafee Abdul Kadir, 45, said he had just passed the Menora Tunnel and was about to reach Sungai Perak when he applied the brake to change gear.
"But to my horror, the brake failed causing my trailer to reverse about 100m instead. "To avoid the trailer from hitting other vehicles, I manoeuvred it in such a way that it ended up blocking the highway," he said when met at the scene today.
Mohd Shafee, who was sending a consignment of screws and soap-making chemicals to Butterworth from Kuala Lumpur, said during the commotion he asked his co-driver Mohd Rozi Abdullah, 38, to jump out of the trailer to place planks under the wheels to stop the trailer from moving downhill.
"But before Rozi could do that, I managed to stop the trailer," he said, adding that it was his first accident in his 25-year career as a trailer driver. The incident caused the consignment to be strewn on the road.
Kuala Kangsar OCPD Supt Zakaria Pagan said the driver was released after his statement was recorded.
"Our investigations showed that the driver and the trailer had no previous traffic records," he added.
Driver broke every law – and got away with it
PETALING JAYA: Rohizan Abu Bakar had committed every traffic offence possible and yet the system failed to keep him off the road.
The 37-year-old bus driver, who was killed with 19 of his passengers in one of the country's worst road accidents, habitually broke road rules over more than six years and chalked up 13 summonses - none of which have been settled - totalling RM1,980.
Rohizan had been caught speeding six times, for not wearing a seat belt, not producing a driving licence and driving a bus which did not have a permit.
He had accumulated enough demerit points to have his licence revoked but no authority ever caught on.
However, The Star found all of Rohizan's wrongdoings by checking http://www.rileks.com.my/ – a social service website.
If the driver committed every traffic offence possible, then where was the enforcement on the previous offences?
