(Petaling Jaya, Saturday): Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy is wrong opposing the move by police to reduce traffic fines as penalties is only half of justice by fulfilling punitive justice to punish wrongdoers without achieving rehabilitative justice to educate traffic offenders from repeating these offences. We have received many complaints from the public unhappy at Chan’s decision.

Punishing offenders without educating and convincing them not to commit offences would not work. That is why increasing penalties has not been effective in wiping out the drug menace which has worsened despite the death penalties for drug pushers.

Chan is clearly confused between policy and 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 was also wrong to accept Chan’s explanation that traffic compounds must be high to act as a deterrent.

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. After all why should Ministers with traffic summons enjoy such heavy discounts not given to ordinary Malaysians?

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?

(09/09/2006)