'Syed Hamid should publish the names of all taxi-permit holders. That would surely clear the air and gain the confidence of the drivers.'

Talk to us, not Pakatan, Spad tells cabbies

Josephine: Why does Public Land Transport Commission (Spad) need cabbies to tell them their grouses now, when the government has been told before time and again?

Under the current system, all cab drivers are slaves to taxi corporations. In the good old days, with a bit of savings and a driving licence, any person can be his own boss and drive his own taxi. Now they have to pay hefty rentals to line the pockets of cronies.

Long Jaafar: For a start, Spad chief Syed Hamid Albar can show his seriousness in doing his job by publishing the names of all the holders of taxi permits, be they companies or individuals, and the number of permits they hold.

That would surely clear the air and gain the confidence of not only the drivers, but also the general public. Does he have the courage to do it?

Fair_Election: Something is very wrong if taxi drivers bring their grouse to opposition leaders and not the government's Spad. Could it be that the country already as a whole has no confidence in the government?

Anon: That is the problem with the BN government. When the rakyat airs its grouse to them for years, most of the time, it falls on deaf ears. When the rakyat get fed-up with inaction and approach the opposition, all of a sudden the BN agencies started to ask the people to talk to them and not to politicise issues.

Syed Hamid is known for having been an incompetent home minister, putting people under ISA to protect them . Now that he is with Spad, are we going to see another round of incompetency again? Does he really know what he is doing or needs to be done?

Keturunan Malaysia: Syed Hamid, who dares to talk to you? You might order the people to be detained under ISA for their ‘own safety' even before they can open their mouths.

Jimmy Ng: The time for talking is over. The cab drivers have been talking for the last 20 to 30 years or so, but all this while, many taxi permits have been issued to Umno cronies, and the cab driver who knows no Umno politician has to resort to hiring or renting their cab from Umno cronies.

Sarawakian_3ff9: Syed Hamid, if you are really sincere on helping these exploited taxi drivers, now is the time to help them. First and foremost, take back all the taxi permits given out to crony companies and then reissue them to the individual drivers who're now in the business.

It's about time that taxis permits be given to those who drive them. How can someone, just because he's a crony, owns hundreds of permits while the drivers have to sweat for a pittance and their hard-earned money goes to the permit holders? It's modern slavery.

Abil: Why should anyone talk to an outsourced agency which does not have any power to decide? It is the Transport Ministry that has the power.

This problem existed long ago, and no agency felt compelled to listen to the poor taxi drivers. After they approach the opposition, now you would want to hear their grouses?

Don't Leave Name: How can the government not know what hardships the taxi drivers are facing when we ordinary folks know about it? If the government were serious to help, it would have been solved a long time ago.

Kgen: Malaysia has the worst taxi drivers in the world. I'm not blaming them, but the bad system that breeds bad cabbies, and no amount of enforcement is going to work. The whole system needs to be overhauled.

Anonymous: Syed Hamid and the Spad officers must ‘turun padang' (go down to the ground) to find out the problems of taxi drivers, or else they won't know how they are often at the mercy of permit holders.

You know, and I know, that these permits often issued to their own "kaki" (cronies) to make money.

JusticeKini: Taxi licences in Malaysia are given out to Umno-BN politicians as a reward for their support. As a result, the poor taxi driver has to rent the licence from these blood-suckers.

It would be a good idea that taxi drivers owned the licence and operate themselves. Singapore and Hongkong have done very well in this area.

Nik V: I agree that taxi drivers should own their own permits and not rent from some crony company. The taxi drivers themselves can then start their own consortium and vote in their own president, who works together with the respective state councils to ensure better management of this public service.

When the taxi drivers get to keep more of their earnings, they will enjoy better profits and better living that they will naturally ensure they perform better.

Let the taxi consortium within each state work with their respective state governments to achieve the best in public service as well as be ambassadors to tourists as well as locals.

Permits for cabbies if Pakatan takes Putrajaya

FellowMalaysian : It is apt and appropriate timing for Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan Rakyat to address this long-standing issue of outright monopoly and award of taxi licences to Umno cronies.

Imagine the tens of thousands of taxis plying the roads in the Klang Valley and elsewhere in the country, but most permits are held by a few elite businessmen who derive big income from renting their licences to the poor taxi drivers who have to pay exorbitant hiring fees.

Let's take the KLIA taxi service, for example, where the taxi services covering the entire airport is monopolised by this one single company. And with 30 million passengers using the airport, imagine the income of the owner.

So, I take my hats off to Anwar and his team of lawyers for addressing this plight of taxi drivers. They deserve better treatment and definitely better returns for their income.

Fair and Open: Taxi drivers are the ambassadors of the nation. Tourists generally get their first impression of the country by talking to taxi drivers. Because of BN's policy of cronyism, taxi drivers earn a miserable bony income, as most of the meat is taken by BN cronies.

If their income is respectable, we will have more knowledgeable, younger, better-mannered and friendly drivers.

When I take a taxi, I can feel the driver's frustrations in our conversations as compared to those from Bangkok, Singapore or Shenzhen, who are happy with their system. We have many bad drivers, too, who should not be driving due to their bad manners, dirty taxis and personal hygiene.

Wira: Get rid also of the monopoly system practised by the airport taxi service where the taxis are likely to return to the airport empty. I cannot imagine how the BN government could, for the sake of a monopoly, design such a waste into the system.

Multi Racial: We are having to many middle men in our dealing including taxis. Why should government issue taxi permits to middle men? They should issue directly to the individual taxi owners. I am counting on Pakatan to reform this.

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