PUTRAJAYA, 23 May 2018:
Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) chairman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad has been given a week to resign honourably or be fired following the announcement on the dissolution of the commission today.
“Embarassing anyone is not my way, so I am asking Isa to resign,” newly-appointed Transport Minister Anthony Loke told reporters after his ministry’s post-Cabinet meeting here.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad – after chairing the first Cabinet meeting of the new government today – announced the dissolution of SPAD, saying its role would be returned to the Ministry of Transport.
Commenting on the announcement, Loke explained that it was logical and should have been made earlier.
“As SPAD is subject to the SPAD Act, the act must be repealed in Parliament. Meanwhile, SPAD is answerable to the Transport Ministry.”
He said the talks would be held tomorrow with SPAD’s management to see how SPAD would be integrated into the Ministry of Transport in terms of mechanisms, officers and restructuring.
Loke also urged the chairmen and all political appointees at the port authorities – namely Port Klang Authority, Penang Port Commission and Johor Port Authority – to also resign.
“They know who they are, there is no need for me to name them one by one. It is not my approach to embarrass people.”
Dr Mahathir announced the disbandment of several government-linked agencies and institutions in a move to reduce government spending.
These entities include SPAD, Special Affairs Department, National Council of Professors (MPN) and Federal Village Development and Security Committee (JKKKP).
“Most of these institutions are not actually part of the government, (they are) supposed to advise the government. All these things will be disbanded.
“We don’t need their intelligence; I think we are quite intelligent ourselves.”
Dr Mahathir said the matter of disbanding the entities was discussed at the Cabinet meeting – which focused on introducing measures to reduce the national debt that had reached RM1 trillion under the previous government.
On the disbandment of MPN and JKKKP, he said the two institutions had come under political influence under the previous government.
“Initially, MPN was an entity which we utilised to obtain information from people who were highly knowledgeable but lately there has been political influence, so much so that they were used to support the government. That’s why we do not want to repeat the bad practices of the previous government.
“We found that salaries were paid to the JKKKP members as though there was an additional government in the states; it became politicised and was not administrative in nature. We have government officers to undertake those duties. We will not pay the JKKKP members because we do not desire to practise the politics of the previous government.”
Asked about the Bandar Malaysia, Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) and Pan Borneo Highway projects, Dr Mahathir said: “We are studying which ones we can scrap, which ones will continue, which ones I will defer until a later date.”
He also said the government would decide “very soon” on whether to continue with the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur high speed rail project.
Dr Mahathir said the disbandment of institutions and the review of projects were carried out as part of the measures to reduce government spending that ran into billions of ringgit.
“We have identified much expenditure in the old budget, in old projects that we can reduce. They go into billions of ringgit but we cannot go into the details.
“As much as we can reduce government spending, surely there will be projects that will be dropped, that we may stop, that we may renegotiate to reduce the cost to a level that we can afford.”
– Bernama