A 'Perfect' New Year Gift.. and A Perfect Lie

New toll rates for 5 highways around Klang Valley. This could be the most-posted topic for Malaysian bloggers today.

Well, what can we say? The Government or rather the Minister/Ministry has every reason to hike up the rate. Just swallow it and dig deeper into our pockets to look for the extra cents to pay the toll. Or probably, open the car door and look below (or maybe step out from the car and look underneath the car), in case people in front of us dropped few cents while paying their tolls. :-)

Just what make me sad is the statement made by the Minister. He said (quoted from NST) despite the hike, local toll rates were among the lowest in the world. The average toll rate for Malaysia is 13.6 sen per km compared with 14.8 sen per km in Indonesia, Thailand (22.76 sen per km), China (27.62 sen per km) and the Philippines (35.57 sen per km). He's not even comparing the world, just the Region. I'm not so dumb Geographically to figure this out!

Read this from Jeff Ooi's http://www.jeffooi.com, "a Thailand-based reader wrote me this: I've been staying in Thailand for 9 years and there are NO tolls on Thai HIGHWAYS. The tolls are only in Bangkok metropolitan areas and there-abouts. You can drive from Bukit Kayu Hitam to Bangkok without paying one Baht, so Samy Vellu making a comparison with Thailand is telling only half of the story."

That's not all... the Minister also said "concessionaires would have to improve their services such as traffic flow." F*#k you, Minister! What has KESAS done to improve traffic near the Cheras/Bkt Jalil area even after the rate was revised from RM1.20 to RM1.50 two years ago? What about the limited toll gate for Smart Tag lane in KESAS which makes paying using cash relatively faster than using Smart Tag? What with the jam in Federal Highway caused by the improper plan of the Motorola Exit of the LDP and the narrow 2-lane highways, which practically impossible to overtake a slow motorcycle on the highway?

A great gift and yet, great lies by the trusted-men of the Imam Hadhari.

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From Sadao/Bukit Kayu Hitam to Bangkok = 1,299 km and you pay 0 Baht. From Johor Bahru to Bukit Kayu Hitam = 734km and you pay RM107.60 (class 1 rate) - that's equivalent to around 1,000 Baht!! I'm not too dumb financially, either, unlike some people (Oxbridge graduates, perhaps) who sold MV Agusta for 1 Euro.