Speech

by Lim Guan Eng

(Malacca, Sunday): MCA Melaka State Chair and State EXCO for Housing and Local Government Datuk Poh Ah Tiam should prove that he is the EXCO with power(hanging on to the house and to the power) by directing that the 45,000 summons issued in May and June under the commission basis be cancelled. Since the parking system was privatized, Majlis Bandaraya Melaka Bersejarah(MBMB) enforcement officers were given 40 cents for every summons issued above 50. If 100 summons were issued per day, then a commission of RM20 per day will be earned. Each officer can earn an extra RM 400 a month.

Before the system of giving commissions, 9,000 summons were issued in April. When the parking system was privatized and commission given, the number of summons jumped to 100% to 19,000 in May and 200% to 26,000 in June. Clearly such a huge increase was due to the incentive of summons given.

This is immoral, unethical and irresponsible as it defeats the purpose of issuing summons:

a)     educate the public on the regulations on what is right and wrong;

b)     punish them to ensure that they do not repeat the wrong again; and

c)     rehabilitative to make them law-abiding citizens.

The commission incentive system defeats the purpose of issuing summons and turns the MBMB into a direct sales company. This has resulted in ridiculous situation of parking summons issued for parking in a housing estate that one lives in and even on private land. The legality of the summons issued is questionable as probably Melaka is the only state to implement such a commission system. That is why DAP strongly condemned the commission incentive system and welcomes MBMB Datuk Bandar’s decision to cancel it.

However, DAP questions Datuk Poh’s authority over local government when he appears to be fearful and unable to override the decisions of (MBMB) Datuk Bandar Datuk Zaini Md Nor. Can Datuk Poh prove that he has the authority to cancel summons and decisions made by MBMB? If he has, then the people can refer unfair summons to him to be cancelled instead of waiting for the Datuk Bandar.

The decision of canceling the commission incentive was clearly taken not by Datuk Poh but by the Datuk Bandar. During the press conference Datuk Poh merely accompanied Datuk Bandar who clearly showed he was the decision maker and posing the question who has the higher authority?

DAP wishes to give Datuk Poh the opportunity to show that he has full control over local governments and Datuk Bandar by canceling the 45,000 summons issued under the commission incentive. If the system is cancelled because it is wrong, then the summons issued under such a system is also wrong. There is no moral basis for such a summons to be issued when the intention is no longer good but made in bad faith to earn commissions.

(13/08/2006)