KOTA KINABALU: Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sabah has threatened an opposition-led confrontation against City Hall if it does not cancel the plan to increase the parking rates in Kota Kinabalu and revert to the old rate structure.
Its state chairman, Jimmy Wong Sze Phin, said City Hall should listen to the people’s complaints and not just force their will on the rakyat, who are already burdened with the increase in the prices of daily goods.
“Previously City Hall always said “do as we said”, “it is my way or no way”. Well, we say “no more”. The people are not cows that you can just pull around on their noses. We will not simply follow.
“If it is fair and just, we will listen, but this is not,” said Wong at a press conference, where he called on all motorists in Kota Kinabalu not to display any parking coupons as a show of protest against the increase of the parking rate.
City Hall in October reintroduced the scratch-and-park coupon system that was briefly used back in 2004 but was abandoned due to poor response from the public and the difficulties in enforcing it.
The new coupon system, according to DAP, comes with an increase of between 60 to 150 per cent in parking rates, depending on where you park your vehicle.
A one month’s grace period was initially given to motorists, during which time no compounds were issued and those who failed to display parking coupon on their vehicles were only given a friendly reminder slip.
The ‘promotional’ period which was supposed to end in November was however extended to December, when Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir announced another extension last week as a ‘Christmas gift’ for the city dwellers.
But comes January 1, next year, there will be no more pink slips of friendly reminders for drivers who still refuse to buy and use the coupons, the Mayor warned.
Wong said: “The message sent out by City Hall is that they will go ahead with the new rate that comes with the coupon system regardless of the loud and clear objections from the people. In addition to the expensive parking rate, the compound for failing to use the coupons is also exorbitant.
“I mean even the police do not give you RM500 summons for a traffic offence, how can City Hall charge a motorist that much just for failing to display parking coupons. It is ridiculous,” he said.
The Kota Kinabalu member of parliament said the introduction of the higher parking fees and the hefty parking summons could not come at the worst time, given that the people were already struggling with the price increase of almost everything else.
He called on motorists to be firm in their objections against the new system and rally behind DAP to get the new rates reduced.
“City Hall has to make a choice, take the view of the people or listen to its political master and face confrontation from the rakyat. I call on all motorists not to use the coupons until they reduce the rate as a sign of protest.
‘Just send any resulting summonses to me. I will take responsibility for it. If City Hall wants to ‘saman’ (sue) me, go ahead. We have a solid line up of lawyers to fight for this,” he said.