Changes For The Better Are Woefully Slow In Malaysia

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A FORUM titled “Public Roads Don’t Belong to Bicycle Gangs” was held at Pantai Dalam in Kuala Lumpur last Sunday. It was moderated by former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
The panel included Bukit Aman Traffic Investigations and Enforcement Department deputy director of enforcement Khairul Azhar Ismail, and Road Transport Department (JPJ) assistant director (operations) Mohd Alifarihan Abdullah.
Alifarihan disclosed that current regulations only require buses to be equipped with a GPS system, and JPJ is considering making dashboard cameras (dashcams) compulsory in all public transport vehicles.
He said, “The licences and conditions for public vehicles are only GPS and is why having dashcams compulsory is a good idea, for now it’s only mandatory to have a GPS.”
The proposal was made after a viral video showed an MRT feeder bus driving too close to a group of cyclists riding abreast on a narrow road, sparking a brief confrontation.
One of the cyclists involved raised the issue during the forum and Rapid KL has since launched an internal investigation into the incident.
More than 10 years ago, I had already proposed that the public be invited to install quality dashcams to record traffic violations and submit evidence to the authorities and be paid based on fines collected, which was explained in “All eyes on road safety” published on Nov 9, 2015.
(Image: The Star)Since then, I have written many similar published proposals. For example, when promoting e-hailing services for motorcycles to be introduced in Malaysia, I advocated fitting video cameras in front of crash helmets and at the rear of e-hailing bikes to record transgressions of other vehicles.
I have also repeatedly suggested that RapidKL buses be fitted with dashcams and rear facing cameras to record thousands of traffic violations daily, including vehicles parked at bus stops and illegally near junctions, stopping at yellow boxes and jumping red lights, especially motorcycles.
But neither the authorities nor RapidKL had followed up with my proposals, including the one I made in 2003 when I proposed in a road safety forum and published a full-page in a broadsheet  newspaper to appoint many concessionaires to assist in recording traffic offences nationwide.
In this new millennium, it would be a big miscalculation for any country to undergo slow changes.
For example, Japan rose from the ashes of the Second World War by copying Western products and making them cheaply, and everyone then used to laugh at inferior Japanese products.
But they practised Kaizen by continuously making incremental, ongoing improvements in work procedures, processes and products.
Long before the end of the last millennium, Japanese products were regarded as high quality at reasonable prices and sought after around the world.
China too started manufacturing by churning out inferior products as cheap as possible. But later, they did not go through the slow improvement to reach Japanese standard.
With no legacy to protect, they went all in to develop new technologies and reinvent existing products.
This was made possible because China produced the largest number and highest percentage of university graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Our country too could be transformed if our sharp minds are not prevented from getting things done. 
YS Chan is master trainer for Mesra Malaysia and Travel and Tours Enhancement Course and an Asean Tourism Master Trainer. He is also a tourism and transport business consultant.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT. 
- Focus Malaysia.

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