On Oct 20, The Sundaily has reported that over 1.6 million traffic offences captured by Automated Enforcement System (AES) cameras in the past may be quashed soon.
The news report said that it was reliably learnt that the authorities are likely to drop pending charges against offenders and write off about half a billion ringgit in collectable fines from AES cases since September 2012.
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai has subsequently denied a decision has been made and said that AES will continue and the new mechanism will be decided by the Cabinet.
The question that Liow did not mention is why has he been sleeping on this issue after becoming the new Transport Minister 16 months ago, especially on the old summons issued before Sept 18, 2013?
In September 2013, the then Transport Minister Datuk Hishamuudin had talked about wanting to resolve the question of old AES summons—those issued before September 2013.
He was reported to say that the status of the old summons would be decided by the Attorney General’s Chambers on the possibility of a write off.
Then a month later, he said the Transport Ministry would outline several options to the Cabinet to determine the status of the summons. He said among the options were to write off the summons or to offer discounts.
On November 18, 2013, he said his Ministry hoped to table the problem to the Economic Council chaired by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib by the following week.
No solution has been subsequently announced till today. Hishamuddin talked a lot but in the end gave no solution. Liow did not seem to talk about efforts to resolve the issue since taking over from Hishammudin as the new Transport Minister 16 months ago.
Liow has not even worked hard to resolve this issue of old summons, let alone the new summons issued after September 18, 2013
According to a parliamentary reply, about 680000 AES summons were issued by September 2013 and more than RM 20 million had been collected.
Each summons cost RM 300 and it is unfair for the government to keep delaying making a decision to refund the money to the motorists.
Liow must not drag his feet and must give serious and urgent attention to the AES issues, especially the old AES summons issued before September 18, 2103.
