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Use your brains, MCA! Transport minister firing on all cylinders over AES
Published:  Aug 20, 2018 2:34 PM
Updated: 7:27 AM
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Transport Minister Anthony Loke fired a vitriolic salvo at MCA for criticising his decision to cancel all unpaid Automated Enforcement System (AES) summonses up to Aug 31.

He said this is because the problems surrounding the AES are a result of MCA's actions while in government.

"I can accept criticism from anyone, except MCA leaders, because they are the biggest hypocrites.

"It was your former MCA transport minister who signed this deal... it was a fool who signed this deal.

"So use your brains before you talk, what you say today reflects badly on MCA ministers," he told a press conference in Putrajaya today.

Loke was responding to criticism from MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong and Youth secretary-general Leong Kim Soon over the ministry's move to cancel AES summonses last week.

The AES was put into place when MCA's Kong Cho Ha was transport minister in 2012.

Loke said when MCA president Liow Tiong Lai took over the portfolio in 2014, he did no better and was not serious about enforcement as he made no attempt to collect 80 percent of the fines which remain unpaid.

"Neither of them was serious about this issue," he added.

Loke said because of the lopsided agreement, the government would not get anything from AES fines paid, after it was discounted to RM150.

He explained that this is because under the agreement signed with AES operators ATES Sdn Bhd and Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd, the two firms were entitled to 50 percent of the AES fines collected, based on the original RM300 rate.

"So if we collect RM150 now, it will only go to the companies," he added.

Loke said the government was also supposed to pay RM16 for every summons issued by the two companies, regardless of whether the fine was collected or not.

The two companies, he added, had already raked in RM129 million from these two-tiered payments.

The minister said this far exceeded the total cost of the 47 AES cameras installed, which he estimated to cost RM250,000 per camera, or RM10 million in total, at most.

"The companies had made huge profits already," he added.

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