By Teresa Kok, Seputeh MP
I welcome the Transport Minister’s decision to direct Road Transport Department (RTD) to suspend the nationwide crackdown on number plates till further notice. Liow Tiong Lai should also direct that a refund be made to car owners who have been fined for wrong number plates since the crackdown began on Nov 1.
Since the Road Transport Department (RTD) began the nationwide crackdown on fancy number plates and the use of strobe lights on vehicles on November 1, there has been heavy public criticisms against the operation on the number plates.
Though it was announced that the operation was against fancy number plates, it was actually an operation against vehicles fitted with non-approved standard number plates.
There is public unhappiness that the enforcement on number plates even involved measurement of the size of the alphabets and numbers and the spaces between them to ensure that they comply with the exact requirements specified by the number plate guidelines.
Many members of the public have complained that going by the RTD number plate specifications, probably more than 80 % of vehicles on the road will fail to meet the specifications. .
Questions were raised as to the necessity of such strict enforcement when number plates are not the cause of high accidents on the road and if the specifications have always been in existence or were they only recently modified and introduced.
If the guidelines have always been in existence, why the overzealous and strict enforcement now? And if they are new guidelines, is it fair to car owners?
As a result of public criticisms against the operation, Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told Sin Chew Jit Poh on Sunday that the crackdown was only against fancy and extreme number plates. He said that RTD should not go overboard and so long the number plates can be seen clearly, they should be accepted.
Two days ago, MPs raised the issue in Parliament and the Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said that RTD officers will only go after the extreme cases and will allow 10 to 15 % allowance in conforming to the specifications when enforcing the regulations on number plates. But on the same day, Pahang RTD was quoted saying that if a number plate can be visible from a distance of 21 meters, then it is acceptable, irrespective of the size of the alphabets and numbers or the spaces between them.
The public are still confused as to what the new enforcement guidelines are that will be used by RTD in its continued operation on number plates.
Immediate suspension of the crackdown is therefore a must and the correct decision.
Number plates are not a cause of accidents and RTD should instead focus their energies and time on carrying more important things like conducting drug screening tests on express bus drivers.
I also wish to remind Liow that the majority of vehicle owners have never changed or modified their number plates. The number plates were already fitted when they bought their cars.
Is it fair to penalize car owners in such cases ? Shouldn’t car manufacturers then ensure that these cars have legal and approved standard number plates?
Liow should therefore direct RTD to talk to car manufacturers to ensure that they must provide cars fitted with approved standard number plates. If car manufacturers fail to do so, then they should be penalised and not the car owners.
