ENRAGED Malaysians have taken to the social media to again demand the head of Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook to roll after 15 Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) students perished in a chartered bus accident in the wee hours of Monday (June 9).
That emotions flare up to boiling point is understandable as it was barely a month ago on May 13 that nine FRU personnel lost their lives after their truck collided with a gravel-laden lorry in Teluk Intan.
To aggravate matters, the Seremban MP’s deafening silence to the 1.10am ordeal at KM53 of the East-West Highway (JRTB) near Tasik Banding in Gerik, Perak — his maiden statement came some 19 hours later — has let to racist remarks and accusations of favouritism been hurled at him.
“You think that the Chinese fella will care for many of the dead are Malays? Obviously, he just acted like he didn’t know but if it were to involve his own race, he would have immediately swamp into action,” fumed one short-sighted netizen.
Others recalled how swiftly Loke had reacted to the recent incident of a senior Taiwanese citizen who was run over by a Light Rail Transit (LRT) train at the Pusat Bandar Puchong station recently by instructing Prasarana Malaysia Bhd to install platform doors at all LRT stations to enhance passenger safety.
Some accused him of being the minister “who has so much potential to the most useless” by being too occupied “to sell number plates” than to look into constructive criticism to improve road safety.
Interestingly, one social media influencer who claimed to be very impressed with the DAP secretary-general had even denounced the positivity he expressed on Dec 8, 2022 following “so many fatal accidents involving heavy vehicles and buses yet still no action has been taken to address this issue”.
09 Jun 2025, Aku tarik balik kata² 08 Dec 2022 berkenaan dgn Antony Loke.
Tak impress lansung dgn dia sebab zaman dia jadi Menteri sahaja, dah berapa banyak kemalangan maut melibatkan kenderaan berat dan bas, tapi masih tiada apa² tindakan utk mengawal perkara ni. https://t.co/ottIy3KOqK
— Zac (@ZacZakirin13) June 9, 2025
Thankfully, there are still many rational Malaysians who came to Loke’ defence by rightly pointing out that yhe accident happened because of the bus driver’s negligence “of driving at high speed yet the minister gets slammed”.
Some also lamented the tendency of Malaysians to even politicise fatal road accidents.
Rakaman dashcam kemalangan bas students UPSI. Laju gila wei. pic.twitter.com/mSDVULyHob
— هزوان عفيفي (@HazwanAfifi) June 9, 2025
Even in Loke’s ‘much delayed’ Facebook post, many commenters managed to hold back their frustration of having to hear of fatal road accidents involving heavy vehicles week in week out by offering a slew of constructive criticism to the Transport Ministry (MOT) and its enforcement arm, the Road Transport Department (RTD). – June 10, 2025
