Malaysians Don’t Appreciate The One-Month Free Rides Via Rapid KL Public Transport?

In view of the recent complaints that many Malaysians have shared on social media on both Twitter and Facebook regarding the problematic MRT and LRT, was giving free rides for one month on all Rapid KL public transport the right move made by Malaysian Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri? One tweet that stood out among many pro-government supporters was this particular tweet by Nedim Nazri, son of ex-Minister Tourism and Culture, Nazri Aziz.

In a time when the whole world is affected by inflation, you guys are making noise even when you get 1 month’s free ride on MRT and LRT. Try saying Alhamdulillah or Thank You. Seems like everything done (by the government) gets complained about. Fact is, one can never be satisfied.

@NedimNazriAziz Tweet translated to full English

Needless to say, he was burned quite badly in the replies and quote tweets.

However, is it true? Are Malaysians ungrateful about the free rides? Could the free rides really help the Rakyat?

Many Twitter users shared their experiences using the MRT, LRT and other public transports in Malaysia. Most of them complained of escalator issues, dark stations at night, safety issues, the inaccessible pathway for handicapped people, frequency issues, and many more but none were complaining about the fares. One Twitter user by the name @HarizRahim shared a thread of different train stations with different problems that can be hazardous to users (the Rakyat).

Apart from Mr Hafiz Rahim, many other users also shared photos and issues on other LRT/MRT stations. It seems that these issues have been going on for a long time and complaints fall on deaf ears. Read some of the tweets below:

In my opinion, the Transport Minister, Wee Ka Siong and Ismail Sabri should first address these issues raised by the Rakyat. These issues are not solitary but have been experienced by many. Most of the problems showcased at these train stations are accidents waiting to happen. Does someone have to get badly hurt, or worse, die before an action would be taken? So, was Ismail Sabri’s decision to give a month of free rides the right solution to the increasing problems that occur throughout Rapid KL’s public transportation or was it just a thoughtless short-term fix to pacify the Rakyat?

Ismail Sabri’s decision on this has cost the government a whopping RM155 million. Instead of losing RM155 million, wouldn’t it be wiser to use that same amount to fix some of the problems that are currently happening in some of the LRT/MRT stations? Maybe that amount wouldn’t be able to fix everything at every station but something is better than nothing, right? If only some of his many “advisors” had given him a piece of sound advice on this matter.

I don’t deny that help from the government like the My50 pass, which is a monthly unlimited travel pass that can be used on all Rapid KL transportations — LRT, MRT, Monorail, BRT, Rapid KL bus and MRT feeder bus had been very helpful to many Rapid KL users. This monthly pass program was an extension of the MY100 pass that was first introduced by ex-Transport Minister, Anthony Loke during the PH government’s short rule. Hopefully, this plan will continuously be extended into the future for the benefit of the Rakyat.

A friend from a neighbouring country once said, “Malaysia is good at building new things but very bad at maintaining them.” I couldn’t agree more. Most projects have a maintenance period (often renewed after a few years’ time) that should be handled by the contractor. So, my question is, did these projects have a maintenance period as well? Do you think the new MRT Putrajaya line would also fall victim to this “bad at maintaining” mess?

Aliza M. is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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