Local News Archives

RM185 million MySikap Contract Through Open Tender – Loke

The RM185.07mil contract awarded to Heitech Padu Bhd for MySikap was through open tender, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke.

The contract is for the maintenance of the Road Transport Department’s (JPJ) MySikap website. It was awarded to the said company as their bid was the lowest and most reasonable.

Anthony Loke said a submission awarding the three-year contract to the firm for the amount was sent to the Finance Ministry and was approved by the Treasury on Feb 2. The letter of acceptance was issued by JPJ to Heitech Padu on April 5.

He dismissed claims that the contract was given to the company as one of its major shareholders is Farhash Wafa Salvador, who is Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s former political secretary.

Loke said Farhash had acquired 15.9% of the firm’s shares only on March 16 this year. “This means he acquired the shares after the contract was awarded to the company on Feb 2 and not before it secured the project.

“As emphasised by the Prime Minister, after Farhash acquired the shares in the company, there has been no other government contract offered to Heitech Padu till this day,” he said in a press conference at the Transport Ministry here yesterday.

Loke said Anwar and the Cabinet viewed very seriously the insinuations by certain parties that the contract was awarded to Heitech Padu due to the prime minister’s close ties with Farhash.

“Farhash is no longer with the government and is not serving the government in any capacity.

“If there are parties who are still dissatisfied with this clarification, the Prime Minister welcomes them to lodge a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission for a thorough investigation,’’ he added.

Loke disclosed that two other companies that met the technical and financial prerequisites had also vied for the contract with bids of RM186.8mil and RM199.5mil. He said the ceiling price for the contract was RM207.3mil.

The contract was for a three-year term as it is deemed a new contract, instead of an extension.

“Usually, maintenance contracts are long term. This is a new contract and not an extension of contract. If it is an extension then it will be on a year-to-year basis,” he said.

The contract comprised two job scopes, namely MySikap and Mainframe. MySikap was an online platform offering various services such as vehicle registration, road tax and driving licence renewals, while Mainframe provided servers to store data from MySikap.

In March 2023, JPJ decided to merge both components to a single tender and for it to be overseen by a single company for more effective monitoring and management.

Fuel Subsidies Cut will Begin this Year

The Minister of Economy, Rafizi Ramli stated that the reduction of fuel subsidies will begin this year.

He said the move is to reduce the country’s fiscal deficit in an interview with Bloomberg last Tuesday.

He also said the move was needed to “manage the sequence” of subsidy cuts, given the risk of inflation rising before the cuts are implemented. Since last year, Rafizi said he wanted to implement the RON95 subsidy program which was targeted in the second half of 2024 so that it would be delivered to those who needed it. For now, the T20 group is taking the opportunity to receive 53 percent of the existing oil subsidy system.

Of the RM81 billion subsidy budget for 2023, the subsidy for RON95 petrol has taken up a large portion of it.

During the interview, he said the government plans to reduce the budget deficit to 4.3 percent of gross domestic product this year, up from 5 percent in 2023.

“To achieve the fiscal target of 4.3 percent, certain timelines need to be adhered to,” said the Pandan Member of Parliament.

Our opinion is that the government must have a mechanism to reduce the impact of fuel price increases in the future because there will be parties who take the opportunity to increase the prices of other goods. Withdrawal of subsidies from those who do not need it is a good move but it must be done carefully so that the less fortunate are not affected.

Roads are not Enough for Number of Vehicles – Expert

Road congestion especially during the festive season is due to the insufficient length of the existing roads to accommodate the large number of vehicles, said Traffic and Road Safety Psychologist, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Prof. Dr Rozmi Ismail. He also said that many other roads (not highways) only have one lane.

“If something like an accident happens, road users have nowhere to ‘run’ and they will be stuck with the congestion. They have to deal with it.

“Then, in most cities or towns, the roads are being repaired. For example in Gua Musang. It adds to the large number of vehicles causing further congestion,” he added.

He commented on the complaints of road users who had to travel for more than 10 hours when returning to the capital after celebrating Aidilfitri last year.

Apart from that, he also touched on the toll payment method and suggested that there are more effective payment systems. “For example, the user has already paid before going to a certain place. Say I want to go to Penang, I have already paid. This is to avoid these vehicles lining up at the toll plaza. That queue causes congestion too.”

Our comments:

Prof.’s summary Dr. Romzi is very good but there is another reason why the roads in Malaysia are getting more congested: The huge increase of new vehicles every day, month, and year. For example, almost 800,000 new vehicles were registered last year alone. The total length of roads in our country, including highways and paved and unpaved roads is 290,099 kilometers. But at the same time, there are 36.3 million active vehicles. That means there are 125 vehicles per kilometer.

The addition of roads and highways will not be able to accommodate the number of vehicles at any time, not to mention the construction of each highway takes a long time to complete. The construction project also adds to traffic congestion.

Chinese Villagers Repair Road to Help Aidilfitri Travellers

In a story that warms every Malaysian’s heart, Chinese villagers repaired a road in the middle of the night to help Aidilfitri travellers as they drive home.

Hari Raya Aidilfitri is fun, but it also marks the occasion when millions of vehicles flood the highways as Malaysians travel to their hometowns and back. The already busy highways will be so choked with vehicles that some motorists look for alternative routes. However, some of these are not B-roads, but off-road paths.

Such was the case in this story, when Zairul Annuar wanted to avoid a traffic standstill on the PLUS highway heading to Kuala Lumpur. He decided to exit at Gopeng to take the inner roads, only to find that road had a massive traffic jam in Ladang Bikam.

He then decided to follow a reroute suggested by Google Map, albeit an unpaved trail for an oil palm estate.

“Slowly, we continued our journey. Suddenly, a few cars from the opposite direction can be seen, who then stopped beside us to inform us that the road ahead was impassable.”

“They directed us to turn back. All of the cars behind us were instructed to do the same.”

He then did so but as his car re-entered the residential area, Zairul wasstopped by a group of middle-aged Chinese men living there.

They then asked Zairul if he and his family were heading to Kuala Lumpur and urged them to not turn back as they would be stuck in a traffic jam.

Instead, the Chinese villagers said that they would repair the blocked road so that cars could pass through. The group of middle-aged Chinese men said to Zairul. The conversion can be heard in Zairul’s video, “The road ahead of you is blocked, right? Don’t worry. We’ll bring a backhoe to repair that road. You wait a moment.”

Zairul then said that the neighbourhood turned out to be a Chinese residential area and that the residents collectively agreed to help facilitate the passage of vehicles through the neighbourhood.

The villagers banded together and used a backhoe to level out the road for strangers to use.

In the video of travelling through the trail (colloquially called ‘jalan tikus’), a backhoe could be seen by the roadside after it was used to level out the road so that normal cars could pass through, as only 4x4s could do so before due to an incline.

Touched by the Chinese villagers’ action of going out of their way to help strangers on Aidilfitri, Zairul heaped praises on them, saying, “They came out of their homes and worked together. The people of Perak are amazing. Powerful. This is the true spirit of Malaysia.”

Driver who Killed Three Pakistanis Admit to Taking Drugs

The driver of a car that hit and killed three Pakistani men while they were on their way to perform the Aidilfitri prayer, pleaded guilty to the charge of taking drugs.

The accused, Mohd Azizol Abdul Rasheed, 36, made the confession as soon as the charges were read before Magistrate T Ashvinii.

Based on the charge, the restaurant assistant was charged with using a dangerous drug, namely ganja, and was accused of committing an offence under Section 15(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 (amended in 2003) read together with Section 38b (1) of the same act.

The accused can be fined a maximum of RM5,000 or imprisoned for a maximum of two years, if convicted.

The court then allowed a bail at RM3,000 with two sureties and the additional condition of reporting to a nearby station every two weeks.

The court also fixed June 5 as the re-call of the case for the submission of the pathology report.

The incident happened on the first Hari Raya Aidilfitri which caused three Pakistani men to die, while three others were seriously injured after being hit by a car driven by the suspect.

The identities of the three victims who died were identified as Zahir Nur Muhammad, 31; Shayan Mumtazali, 22 and Adil Noorullah, 33.

Three other injured individuals are Kamran Muhammad Wali, 26; Yasen Afzalsha, 19 and Salem Said Rasol, 23.

Meanwhile, four Pakistani men have been remanded for beating the driver of the car.

The matter was decided by the same Magistrate, T Ashvinii at the Teluk Intan Magistrate’s Court to allow further investigation to be carried out in accordance with Section 147 of the Penal Code.

The suspect aged 24 to 49 and working as oil palm laborers were arrested after the driver of the Proton Saga made a police report stating that he was injured in the head as a result of being beaten.

Earlier, Perak’s Hilir District Police Chief, Assistant Commissioner Ahmad Adnan Basri, reportedly said they were arrested after the police identified the suspect through a viral video on social media involving the car driver and the four men.

Police Corporal Arrested for Causing Motorcyclist Death

A police Corporal was arrested for causing the death of a motorcycle-riding teenager. This viral case happened on the first night of Hari Raya Aidilfitri in Melaka.

In the video, several motorcycles were seen moving from one direction. Suddenly, a Police 4-wheel drive vehicle was seen coming from the opposite direction as if it was chasing some motorbikes, and crossed the intersection in a hurry. This rash move caused the victim’s motorcycle to crash into the vehicle and the victim was thrown from his motorcycle.

The victim was taken to Malacca Hospital, but died later.

Melaka Police Chief, Datuk Zainol Samah, informed that the Corporal who is one of the Durian Tunggal Police Station’s crime prevention patrol was arrested at the Alor Gajah District Police Headquarters (IPD) Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Division Office at 9am this morning (April 12).

He said, the police are currently waiting for the reaction and cooperation from the 37-year-old Corporal.

“A preliminary urine screening test was also carried out and the result was that the member was free of any drug abuse,” he said.

Datuk Zainol added that his party has received six reports so far about the incident and three recordings of conversations from witnesses and victim’s family members have been completed.

He said the case was reclassified in accordance with Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987 due to the offense of driving causing death.

“If convicted, this act provides for a minimum prison sentence of five years and a maximum of 10 years and a fine of not less than RM20,000 to RM50,000,” he said.

He hopes that the public who have any information about the incident can contact the head of traffic investigation and enforcement, IPD Alor Gajah on 06-5563222 to assist in investigations.

35 Deaths due to Road Accidents on First Day of Raya

The Royal Malaysian Police released the statistics on the third day of Op Selamat yesterday, and the death toll continued to rise. A total of 35 people died due to road accidents on the first day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Wednesday, April 10).

The figure is almost double the 18 deaths on the eve of Hari Raya (Tuesday, April 9). However, there was a reduction in the total number of accidents to 1,289 cases from 1,631 cases.

PDRM once again advised road users to drive prudently and always follow the set rules, apart from obeying the road laws.

PDRM has implemented the 22nd Safe Operation with the theme ‘Safe Home, Safe to Destination’ from April 8 to 13 throughout the country.

Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Razarudin Husain urged road users to drive patiently, prudently and responsibly throughout the journey back to their respective hometowns.

He also advised users who are planning to go back to their village or on vacation to inculcate these qualities when driving for the sake of their loved ones and to ensure their safety on the road.

Our advice is to always be alert when driving and riding a motorcycle, no matter when you are on the road.

Car Rams Pakistanis going to Eid Prayers, 3 Die, 3 Seriously Hurt

The excitement of Hari Raya Aidilfitri for 6 Pakistanis turned into a tragedy when they were rammed by a car driven by a man who tested positive for drugs. 3 of them died, while 3 others were seriously injured.

The incident occurred at KM16 of Jalan Teluk Intan-Bidor, yesterday morning.

The police said the accident happened when the victim was walking to a nearby mosque to perform Hari Raya Aidilfitri prayers.

Hilir Perak District Police Chief Assistant Commissioner Ahmad Adnan Basri said, “According to the investigation at the scene, the Proton Saga car driven by a 36-year-old man is believed to have lost control and skidded to the left shoulder of the road and subsequently hit six pedestrians on the road shoulder.

“As a result of the accident, three of them aged between 20 and 35 years old were confirmed dead, while the other three were seriously injured and are treated at Teluk Intan Hospital.

“All the victims have valid travel permits and documents,” he said in a statement tonight.

He added that a urine test on the driver of the Proton Saga found him positive for cannabis and the police arrested the suspect.

“The case is being investigated in accordance with Section 44(1)(a) of the Road Transport Act 1987.

“People who have information related to the incident are asked to come forward and help the investigation by contacting the investigating officer, Inspector Mohd Amirrudin Shafiei on 013-9126959 or 05-6122222 to help the investigation,” he said.

All photos by IPD Hilir Perak

18 Road Accident Deaths on Hari Raya Eve

18 deaths due to road accidents were recorded on the eve of Hari Raya Aidilfitri yesterday (Tuesday). It was also the second day of the 22nd Op Selamat.

The number was an increase from the 14 deaths recorded on the first day of the operation (Monday).

The Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) shared an infographic on its Facebook page today showing a total of 1,631 road accident cases reported across the country on the same day.

Accordingly, PDRM advises road users to drive prudently and always follow the set rules, in addition to ensuring that road laws are obeyed without compromise.

The 22nd Op Selamat with the theme ‘Safe Home, Safe Arrival at Home’ takes place from April 8 to 13 across the country.

The Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Razarudin Husain said that road users are reminded to drive patiently, prudently and responsibly throughout the journey back to their respective hometowns.

He also advised road users who are planning to go back to their village or on vacation to inculcate these qualities when driving for the sake of their loved ones and to ensure their safety on the road.

Heavy Traffic on Roads Leading Out of Klang Valley

A spokesperson for the Malaysian Highways Authority (LLM) said traffic flow on several major highways and roads leading out of the Klang Valley was reported to be congested this evening.

It is caused by the increase in city residents returning to their hometowns to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri. At the same time, they can take advantage of free tolls on all highways which will end at 11.59 tonight.

According to the spokesman, the flow of traffic to the north is congested on the North-South Highway (PLUS) from Bukit Lanjan to Rawang, Kawasan Rehat dan Rawat (R&R) Rawang to Bukit Beruntung, Bukit Tagar to Lembah Beringin, Tapah to Gopeng, and the Menora Tunnel to Kuala Kangsar.

“Four Smart Lane lanes have been activated for the northbound route involving Rawang R&R Area to Sungai Buaya, Slim River to Sungkai, Gua Tempurung to Gopeng, and Bukit Tambun to Juru. The route will be activated until 7pm tonight,” he told Bernama.

As for the route to the south, he said, congestion was reported in Nilai to Bandar Ainsdale, Port Dickson Selatan to Pedas Linggi, and Kulai to Sedenak.

“The Smart Lane has also been activated, including Nilai to Seremban R&R Area, Ayer Keroh to Bemban Side Stop, and Kulai to Senai,” he said.

As for the route to the East Coast, he said, traffic is controlled and congestion only occurs after the Gombak Toll Plaza to the Genting Sempah Tunnel.

“Traffic is congested along 13 kilometers following the rain, in addition to the increase in vehicles and hiking trails at the location,” he said.

Affected by Cold Weather, Qabil Irfan Remains Positive

Malaysia’s young rider Qabil Irfan Azlan said his debut in the 2024 Spanish Superbike Championship (ESBK) at the Jerez Circuit was affected by cold weather and a slippery track, but he saw it as a positive development.

The 2023 MiniGP World Series Championship world champion finished Race 1 in a good sixth place.

Unfortunately, the slippery circuit conditions due to the cold weather resulted in a more challenging Race 2 for Qabil.

“I’m not very happy with this result (Race 2) because I’m not good with the bike. The circuit was slippery, cold and the tires slid. I also need to improve my riding style during the race that took place in cold weather,” said Qabil.

Regardless, Qabil and his ZK Racing manager, Zulfahmi Khairuddin will improve their performance in the second round of the season which will take place at the Valencia Circuit from May 30 to June 2.

“Our purpose in coming here is to give Qabil an early experience of racing in Europe. The result in Race 1 is a proud result while the result for Race 2 is a valuable experience for us to improve on in the next round.

“All week here Qabil spent the session in ninth and 10th place but in the race, Qabil was with the front group competing for the podium. Qabil finished Race 1 in sixth place.

“But, for Race 2 it was a difficult race for Qabil. He didn’t feel confident with the bike, the circuit felt slippery from the first lap until the end of the race because of the cold weather.

“This is a good experience for Qabil and the team. We will return to Malaysia to train well for round 2 in Valencia,” said Zulfahmi.

30 Students Nabbed during Anti Road Hooligan Ops

Despite the many cases of deaths, injuries and arrests, 30 secondary school students were among the 178 individuals arrested by the police in a combined Anti Hooligan Ops at Jalan Jelapang, near Ipoh.

The operation started at 2.30 in the morning and was carried out by a team of 72 officers and members of the Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department (JSPT) of the Ipoh District Police Headquarters (IPD) together with the Perak National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK).

Ipoh District Police Chief, Assistant Commissioner Abang Zainal Abidin Abang Ahmad said, those arrested for various offenses consisted of 166 men and 12 women aged between 15 and 34 years.

“Among those arrested were 30 secondary school students and four students of higher education institutes (IPT).

“Of the 143 motorcycles detained, a total of 19 were confiscated for various offences, the most serious of which was modifying vehicles in accordance with Section 64(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987 and a total of 302 summonses were issued to road users,” he said.

Apart from that, there were also some individuals who are high. The result of a urine screening test conducted by AADK found that five individuals tested positive for drugs, one of whom had been arrested for the same offence last year.

“The Narcotics Crime Investigation Division of IPD Ipoh and AADK will take further action on the five individuals.

“This operation was planned for the purpose of combating the activities of road hooligans for which the police have received many complaints from residents for disturbing public order,” he said.

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Local News

RM185 million MySikap Contract Through Open Tender – Loke

Fuel Subsidies Cut will Begin this Year

Roads are not Enough for Number of Vehicles – Expert

Our comments:

Chinese Villagers Repair Road to Help Aidilfitri Travellers

Driver who Killed Three Pakistanis Admit to Taking Drugs

Police Corporal Arrested for Causing Motorcyclist Death

35 Deaths due to Road Accidents on First Day of Raya

Car Rams Pakistanis going to Eid Prayers, 3 Die, 3 Seriously Hurt

18 Road Accident Deaths on Hari Raya Eve

Heavy Traffic on Roads Leading Out of Klang Valley

Affected by Cold Weather, Qabil Irfan Remains Positive

30 Students Nabbed during Anti Road Hooligan Ops

RM185 million MySikap Contract Through Open Tender – Loke

Fuel Subsidies Cut will Begin this Year

Roads are not Enough for Number of Vehicles – Expert

Chinese Villagers Repair Road to Help Aidilfitri Travellers

Driver who Killed Three Pakistanis Admit to Taking Drugs

Police Corporal Arrested for Causing Motorcyclist Death

35 Deaths due to Road Accidents on First Day of Raya

Car Rams Pakistanis going to Eid Prayers, 3 Die, 3 Seriously Hurt

18 Road Accident Deaths on Hari Raya Eve

Heavy Traffic on Roads Leading Out of Klang Valley

Affected by Cold Weather, Qabil Irfan Remains Positive

30 Students Nabbed during Anti Road Hooligan Ops

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