Sim (seated right) joins other driving institute operators and staff members in a photo-call after the press conference.
KOTA SAMARAHAN: A group of driving school owners from Sarawak recently visited federal Transport Minister Anthony Loke, where they highlighted to him various issues faced by operators in Sarawak.
According to Sim Kim Hua, who headed the group during the July 2 trip, they also presented several suggestions to the minister, whom they hoped would take these suggestions into consideration in order to solve the problems.
“Our main concern is that we worry Sarawakians might find it hard or costly to obtain a driving licence, and we also worry that it might be hard to operate a driving institute with all the new rules and regulation set by the Road and Transport Department (JPJ) recently.
“We have identified a few ways to solve these problems and we hope that the new minister would consider them,” he said during a press conference at Konsortium Memandu Kota Samarahan yesterday.
According to Sim, among the reasons why there is need for the minister to look into the problems is that most of the new rules and regulations set by JPJ are more suited for Peninsular Malaysia, and not for Sarawak and Sabah.
“Peninsular Malaysia has a higher population compared with Sarawak. We (driving institute operators) cannot survive if we have to follow these new regulations as the income of the people in Sarawak is not as high, and the cost of materials here is also higher,” he said.
Sim added that among the things that the driving school operators here wanted Loke to look into would include the usage of serial numbers for textbooks used by driving students to sit for examinations; the language used for the computerised tests; the lesson’s fee charged upon anyone wanting to obtain a driving licence; and the grading system for driving institutes.
“In our opinion, the usage of a serial number on textbooks is a waste of money because we do not see the point of having a textbook that can only be used once by one user, who is going to sit for a computerised test. In order to re-sit for the computerised test (should one fail in the first attempt), one has to buy the textbook again and key in the new serial number found on the new textbook. Why not just recycle the book and maybe come up with other ways to sit for the computerised test?”
Sim said the operators were grateful to Loke for setting the time for them to meet, and hoped that the minister would be able to come up with solutions.