(Petaling Jaya, Thursday): DAP regrets that Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy appears to confuse policy with penalties in sabotaging the police initiative to reduce fines for traffic summons when he should be facilitating such reductions instead of venting his frustration that he was not consulted. The Cabinet in rejecting this police initiative accepted Chan’s explanation that for traffic compounds to act as a deterrent, the amount must make the motorist feel the pain.

Chan said that: "We must send out the right message, especially to hardcore traffic offenders, and those who commit serious traffic offences.’’ This is self-contradictory as hardcore traffic offenders would continue to commit wrongs regardless of the penalties. Just like serial rapists would continue to rape even if there is a death penalty for rape. Witness the increasing number of drug peddlers sentenced to death despite the death penalty imposed more than 30 years ago.

There must be different and harsher penalties for hard-core traffic offenders. For the ordinary traffic offenders there is no reason that they can not enjoy the reductions of between 50 and 70 per cent for various offences, including speeding, driving without a licence and beating the red light as announced by Internal Security and Public Order director Datuk Mustafa Abdullah.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi spoke of facilitating not frustrating the country development that benefited the people. Chan has become a figure of disapproval and unpopularity by frustrating not facilitating public interests just because he “lost” face when he was not consulted by the police about the reductions in fines.

Even though DAP agrees that the move would not help to discourage Malaysians from bribing police to escape heavy fines, it would help motorists to face the rising cost of living. Corruption is not caused by heavy penalties but the political will of the government in wiping out corruption.

For Chan to say that there can not be too big a gap between traffic summonses issued by the police and Road Transport Authority(RTD) is also misleading as such gap can be closed by reducing RTD summonses by a similar amount. Chan should explain why he is only interested in revising traffic summons upwards instead of downwards?

DAP fails to understand how high traffic fines can improve road safety. To follow Chan’s perverse logic, if high penalties is the answer then the logic can be extended to increase the penalties to death penalty. If that is so why is it that the drug menace remains a severe crisis in Malaysia despite the death penalty?

Clearly Chan is a confused man unable to distinguish between policy and penalties due to his judgment being clouded by his perceived “humiliation’ that the police did not consult him as Minister. With an average of 11,000 motorists are issued summonses every day, Chan has performed a great disservice to Malaysians.

(07/09/2006)