Taxi drivers demand to see Guan Eng within 24 hours over Grab’s ‘preferential treatment’.
The Transport Ministry has no plans to replace feeder buses with e-hailing services at MRT stations.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said finance minister political secretary Tony Pua’s proposal to replace buses with ride-sharing service Grab is just the latter’s proposal.
“We are not going to cancel any feeder bus services. That was just a proposal from Tony.
“As far as I am concerned, that is at a proposal stage. On the ministry’s side, we have no plans to scrap the feeder bus system right now,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.
“We want to integrate with other bus systems and we hope we can roll out monthly passes soon. Then all services will be part and parcel of the public transportation system in Klang Valley,” Loke added.
Taxi company operators also expressed unhappiness over Pua’s announcement that the government was in talks with e-hailing firm Grab to provide “complementary transport services” for MRT commuters.
He said the move is to help the government to defray the cost of some of the public transport expenditure.
A coalition of taxi drivers has demanded a meeting with Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng within 24 hours to have a discussion in relation to Pua’s revelation
Taxi operator Big Blue Taxi Facilities Sdn Bhd founder Shamsubahrin Ismail, who led a 250-strong crowd in a protest held in front of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) building in Putrajaya today, met the ministry’s representative, Suhaili Ahmad, who is the secretary of the corporate strategy communication division.
Shamsubahrin was heard asking for Suhaili’s email address in order to send him an invitation letter to a meeting. He then sent the invitation via email using his handphone, at 10.15am in front of Suhaili.
“I have written a special letter to the minister so that a meeting can be held within 24 hours over the issue triggered by (Lim’s special officer) Tony Pua. The issue is, why Grab?
“What will happen to other drivers who, all this while, have been waiting for passengers at LRT? This is unfair. Rule of law is out,” Shamsubahrin told Suhaili.
He added that the taxi drivers are not against the government but they are fighting for their rights.
Cab drivers are giving Lim Guan Eng 24 hours to explain why e-hailing service Grab is given “preferential treatment” to provide complementary services to commuters.
They are demanding that Lim resolve this issue that discriminates taxi drivers, failing which they will organise pickets nationwide.
“We want explanations as to why the Pakatan Harapan government, which we threw our support for during the general election, has sidelined us,” Shamsubahrin said.
Malaysian Taxi Drivers’ Transformation Association president Kamaruddin Mohd Hussain urged Transport Minister Anthony Loke to have a clear direction for the taxi service sector.
“We want Loke to present his plan to us because we are the industry players. We want to know what his plan for the taxi industry is,” Kamaruddin said.
On the protest organised by taxi drivers in Putrajaya today, Loke said anyone could protest as long as it was peaceful.
“As far as we are concerned, we respect the freedom for them to voice out their opinion as long as it’s a peaceful protest.
“There’s no problem with that,” he said.
Loke said although taxi drivers are demanding that the government ban Grab, the government had made the decision to allow e-hailing services to operate and for them to be regulated.
“My political secretary has an ongoing discussion with them (taxi drivers), and I’ve asked the political secretary to keep engaging with associations.
“With some other associations we have very good relationships, and in fact, we are encouraging them to adopt e-hailing. And one particular association is developing an app for airport taxis, which I will launch soon,” he added.
Earlier, the group of taxi drivers, some are believed to have come from Penang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan, converged at a car park near the MoF building from 8.30am.
An hour later, they marched about 200 metres towards the MoF building while chanting “rule of law” and “lawan tetap lawan“.
Some 30 police officers and men monitored the protest. No untoward incident occurred and the group dispersed at about 10.50am.