LOKE’S PENALTIES ARE WELCOME, BUT THE ROT IN PRASARANA AND KTMB IS CULTURAL

 



Dear Editor,



Transport Minister Anthony Loke’s decision to slap Prasarana with the strictest and highest possible penalties is not just timely—it is long overdue. 


In fact, I am fully supportive of Loke’s decisions. In fact, some heads have to roll. 


When the Pasir Ris MRT accident took place in 2016, this was how the authorities in Singapore demonstrated that they are dead serious about public safety:


 The Team Supervisor / Engineer (Lim Say Heng):

 Corporate: Dismissed by SMRT.

 Legal: Charged under the Penal Code for causing death by a negligent act. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four weeks in jail in 2018.

 

The Train Captain / Driver (Rahmat Mohd):

 Corporate: Terminated by SMRT in September 2016 (a move that drew public criticism as critics argued it deflected from systemic signaling and control failures).

 

Management / Executive Oversight (Teo Wee Kiat, Director of Control Operations):

 Legal: Charged under the Workplace Safety and Health Act (WSHA) for allowing a corporate culture where staff routinely bypassed safety protocols. He was fined S$55,000.

 Corporate Entity (SMRT Trains):

 Legal: Pleaded guilty to WSHA charges for failing to enforce compliance with approved operating procedures. The corporation was hit with a S$400,000 fine for the safety lapses that led to the fatalities.


For years, a barrage of warnings, constructive advice, and red flags have been raised by both desperate commuters and senior government officers. That it took a crisis of this scale for the Ministry of Transport (MOT) to finally wield the big stick is a damning indictment of how comfortable our public transport operators have become with mediocrity. 


But let us be brutally honest: fines alone will not fix a broken culture. The systemic failures crippling both Prasarana and KTMB are rooted in a toxic, deeply entrenched institutional mindset. It is a "cannot-be-bothered," business-as-usual attitude that infects everyone from top management down to frontline customer service. 


If this mindset does not change, we can pump billions of ringgit into state-of-the-art infrastructure, but it will still end up rotting right before our eyes due to sheer, unadulterated neglect, not to mention that if this accident has been more serious than just derailment, it could cost many hundreds of lives.


Look no further than the court complexes at Jalan Duta for a glaring example of this institutional lackadaisical attitude. They once boasted brilliant, gleaming yellow roofs. Today, that vibrant colour is a faded, shabby eyesore. Why? Because someone in procurement or maintenance couldn't care less and used the wrong grade of paint, utterly blind to extreme exposure to the elements and the long-term consequences. 


Today, fixing that single, careless mistake is a logistical and financial nightmare, requiring specialized multi-story cranes just to reach the roofs. This is the hallmark of Malaysian public infrastructure: high-end purchasing, zero-end maintenance.


The other example is the number of coaches by KTMB Komuter and previously Intrakota that have been left abandoned in their backyard over the years, most probably due to poor maintenance.


This indifferent mindset is equally pervasive in how these agencies treat the public. My own frustrating encounters with KTMB’s management and customer service recently are another prime example. The sheer apathy and rigid lack of empathy shown to paying passengers is infuriating.


Ordinary Malaysians are completely powerless. We are told to use public transport, yet when we try to highlight glaring flaws at a personal level—sending constructive feedback via formal emails or direct WhatsApp messages—we are met with a wall of silence. Till today my tickets are not refunded even after cancelling it for an alternative mode of public transport to Penang. Despite telling them that it is no use crediting it to the KTMB E wallet, especially when I decided not to use Ktmb services anymore, till today the refund has not been made despite me receiving an email claiming that the refund has been made by KTMB, not even to the e-wallet. It just goes to show how customer-unfriendly some of these people are, when they are supposed to be involved in the services industry.


Our voices are ignored until we are forced to shout in the public square.


Minister Anthony Loke's heavy penalties are a good start, but he must realise that he is fighting a war against an entrenched culture of complacency. 


It is time to stop coddling these underperforming transport giants. The Minister must purge this "tidak apa" attitude from Prasarana and KTMB, demand absolute accountability, and ensure that those who refuse to take pride in maintaining our public assets are shown the door.


Comments

  1. Anonymous29 May 2026 at 02:32

    Rapid should buck up, otherwise butt out

    ReplyDelete

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