AFTER years of complaints against the ‘ghost lorries’ of Bakun to no avail, Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof finally shed some hopes that something would be done to rein in these road bullies.
He announced last Tuesday that he would talk to the timber and oil palm companies, which own these overloaded trucks, before implementing measures to stop these rogue drivers from using the 120km Bakun Road.
That road was not built to withstand such heavy loads, and the timber trucks and overloaded oil palm lorries are not supposed to use it.
However, the drivers have blatantly ignored this ruling at will despite howls of protest from local road users, who’ve had to endure the potholes that the lorries caused and risk their lives sharing the road with these heavy vehicles.
It is a damming indictment of the impotence of our enforcement agencies especially the police and Road Transport Department (JPJ) in dealing with these rogue drivers that they could flout the ban almost at will.
The public could draw a few conclusions from this sorry state of affairs, the most obvious of which is that there might be some kind of understanding to let these overloaded trucks use the road despite the destruction they wreaked and danger they posed to other motorists.
It seems the companies behind these ‘lori hantu’ are so powerful they could ignore calls to stop their vehicles using the Bakun Road from elected representatives and even a senior state minister with impunity.
Indeed it is an embarrassment to the state government that the voices of its ministers, elected representatives and the people could be brushed aside as the enforcement agencies could do nothing to address their grievances.
The lorries are also costing the government dearly in repairing the surfaces they destroyed.
Fadillah disclosed that his ministry spent RM30 million recently repairing the damage caused by overloaded trucks on the Bakun Road.
The money spent will go down the drain again if the nothing is done to stop these trucks from using the road.
It can be argued that the police and JPJ are handicapped by a lack of manpower to monitor the movement of the overloaded trucks along the remote Bakun Road 24 hours a day.
However, the solution to this seemingly unsolvable problem is so simple it is inconceivable that it has not been implemented.
Senior Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing, who is one of the most vociferous critics of timber trucks plying Bakun Road, had mooted building barriers across sections of the road with a clearance that is too low for the trucks to pass – prevention is more effective than enforcement.
It does not need a rocket scientist to figure out this solution and why it has not been implemented is fuelling the anger and suspicions of the affected people.
Perhaps there are forces stronger than the voices of the people and calls of ministers that prevented these barriers from being built; or is it lack of political will?
It is difficult to fathom how Fadillah and the companies could reach an ‘amicable’ solution to the problem given that there is only one trunk road in the area.
Apparently the minister is prepared for any eventuality as he indicated that he would authorise building the barriers if all else fails.
The haunting of Bakun Road by ‘lori hantu’ has been going on for too long and there has been too much talking and too little action taken.
In dealing with the ‘lori hantu’ of Bakun, it is time for the government to borrow a line from an Elvis Presley hit: “A little less conversation, a little more action please.”
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