Letter to Editor
THE highly-anticipated rolling out of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) lanes along the North South Highway was initially lauded by a large number of the Malaysian public who for years have suffered through the congestion commonly occurring at toll booths of the major highway in the country.
This enthusiasm and optimism by the Malaysian public can easily be explained as the RFID technology is not new and untested but has been proven to reduce congestion in many developed countries around the world.
Our close neighbour Singapore for instance has utilised the same technology for 20 years with much success.
The success that is seen in many countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and Australia that have implemented the RFID system to reduce road congestion for many years was however not present here.
What we saw instead was road users experiencing more problems such as being double charged and facing a greater amount of congestion due to the system’s failure to detect the RFID tags.
The failure of the rolling out of the RFID system and the lack of response from the parties responsible for its successful implementation has sparked a barrage of negative criticisms from the public, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and relevant associations that are largely dumbfounded by how such a catastrophic failure could have taken place in the first place.
This has even prompted a response from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob who most recently called for the highway concessionaires to allow road users the freedom to choose the payment method of their choice either, be it RFID, Touch ‘n Go or Smart Tag.
Despite the fact that the Prime Minister’s statement is a step towards the right direction, it is worth noting that all the payment systems listed are currently monopolised by a single company and each of these payment systems have been plagued with their own problems for many years.
For instance, there are longstanding criticisms of the unnecessary fees and reload charges imposed on users when reloading their Touch ‘n Go card.
The free reload option is still only available over the counters of Touch ‘n Go Hub, Highway Operation Office, selected highway toll lanes, and some Rapid KL and KTM Komuter stations.
These selected places are not easily accessible to most Malaysians, and as such many Malaysians have been burdened by the additional charges for years.
Another widespread criticism is that the Touch ‘n Go eWallet system, despite being introduced for quite some time now, continues to cause great road congestions due to the PayDirect features being available only at selected toll booths.
Users are thus forced to reload their cards manually despite having sufficient funds in their Touch ‘n Go e-wallet for the fear of coming across toll booths that are not equipped with the PayDirect features.
Bearing in mind the long history of failures by the Touch ‘n Go electronic payment system, the Government must begin seeking other alternatives and quell the long-standing monopoly of the company that for years have no reason to improve its system due to its strategic position of being the sole payment method available for Malaysians on the road.
Monopolies and other non-competitive practices need to be abolished and made unlawful if the country were to have any hope of competing with our neighbouring countries that are currently at the forefront of science and technological breakthroughs. – Jan 20, 2022
Na’im Brundage
Ketua Pemuda
Parti Bangsa Malaysia
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
