If and when he leaves, Anthony Loke will leave some large shoes to be filled
IF you ever needed proof that social media is a toxic place where users spew nonsense just to rile up hate rather than share facts, these past two weeks have been a good example.
It all started when former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was granted a conditional home arrest by our King.
It was all done by the rule of law so there really is nothing to get bothered about. Sure, you can argue about the morality of it all but there’s always going to be winners and losers in a democracy. The most important thing here is to respect outcomes with an open heart.
Unfortunately, with politics being politics, we are about to lose one of the most capable ministers in the government. In protest of Najib’s conditional home arrest, our transport minister Anthony Loke, who is also DAP’s Secretary General, offered his resignation.
Whether his resignation is accepted by the prime minister remains to be seen but he has contributed great things to road users, and his departure is not one to be celebrated.
But the sheer amount of hate aimed at Anthony Loke is surprising and unwarranted. And it all centres around the sale of number plates, road accidents, and the frequent breakdowns of LRT, MRT and the KLIA Aerotrains. As if he engineered the accidents and breakdowns himself.
So, I would like to point out his contributions instead.
Under his tenure, Malaysians got to renew their driving license up to 10 years for the first time ever. This is a much-welcomed extension as renewing your license every year was troublesome in hindsight.
Then there is the digitalisation of our driving license. Malaysians no longer needed a physical driving license because all our data was already available on the MyJPJ application. You could get a physical driving license if you needed to drive overseas.
There are some who argue that mobile phone batteries sometimes die and if that happens at a police or JPJ roadblock, they would be issued a fine. A fair point, and in return, the ministry responded by allowing those who wanted a physical card to obtain one.
At an interview for a podcast with a local news outlet, Anthony Loke disclosed that the move to digitalise driving license as well as the road tax for vehicles saved the country a massive RM100 million.
I am sure we can all agree that is a huge amount. And then there is the reformation of the number plate bidding system, which is a sore point for many. Previously, you had to go through agents or “runners” who charged a fee to help you secure a special number plate. Now you can bid for it yourself through a dedicated website.
Expectedly, this is something many are sore about as it is a loss of income for their businesses. But it allows for people like you and me to bid for a number plate from the comforts of our own home.
And the system works well. The recent bidding for the H series Special Registration Number plate (a first since that alphabet was opened to regular cars while previously it was only reserved for taxis) recorded a total of RM91.21 million through bidding held over four days.
The transport minister revealed that RM89.27 million was collected from the bids and RM1.94 million was collected in service fees through the JPJeBid system.
Besides that, he also played a role in dissolving the years long Touch n’Go monopoly. Now we can all pay for tolls and more using our credit and debit cards.
There are more contributions, but Anthony is also often criticised for the frequent breakdown and delays in the LRT, MRT and KLIA Aerotrain systems.
As transport minister, he can only advise the management of the trains which are operated by Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd and Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad. He cannot sit in their offices and ensure the trains run on time.
As transport minister he was not perfect, but he comes quite close to being one of the best we have had. As a member of the media, I have attended events where he is the guest of honour, and he rarely keeps us waiting unlike some other ministers who frequently arrive late.
In fact, we groan at knowing a minister has been invited as that means a delay is guaranteed, but Anthony Loke is above that.
So, for that and many other things I am grateful and wish we could put politics aside and appreciate the things he has done rather than detest him because of the political party he represents.