My take on Rapid KL and Rapid Penang

Recently, Second Finance Minister waved off some new buses for Rapid Penang and I thought – good for Penangites, some relief for their public transport problems. But I still maintain, that with the failures of Park May (after Renong took over) and Intrakota in revamping KL bus transport, failure of Rapid KL and Rapid Penang can be foreseen.

All the ingredients are there: federal control, public funds managed by people who did not have to account for their actions, lack of master plan for an integrated system like the Bus Rapid Transit found operating successfully in other cities like Curitiba, Brazil, and so on.

Cheng was with me when I suggested BRT for Penang island, and she introduced me to the concept of ‘subsidiarity’ which in effect, encourages decentralization wherever possible. Basically, the local people should know best and there should be minimum or no federal interference wherever possible.

According to Wikipedia,
Subsidiarity is an organizing principle that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority. The Oxford English Dictionary defines subsidiarity as the idea that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or local level. The concept is applicable in the fields of government, political science, cybernetics and management. Subsidiarity is, ideally or in principle, one of the features of federalism.
The word subsidiarity is derived from the Latin word subsidiarius and has its origins in Catholic social teaching. The concept or principle is found in several constitutions around the world (see for example the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution).
It is presently best known as a fundamental principle of European Union law. According to this principle, the EU may only act (i.e. make laws) where member states agree that action of individual countries is insufficient. The principle was established in the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht, and is contained within the proposed new Treaty establishing a constitution for Europe. However, at the local level it was already a key element of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, an instrument of the Council of Europe promulgated in 1985 (see Article 4, Paragraph 3 of the Charter)

Unfortunately, because of the large sums involved, politicians tend to want a piece of the action, which in my opinion, is the cause of most problems in Malaysia.

Few days ago, I read about a passenger’s complaint that his or her Touch n Go card cannot be used in a Rapid KL bus, and I thought, there goes the first complaint since I got interested. I did not have to wait for long and sure enough, Malaysiakini’s letter by their own transport specialist, Moaz Yusuf Ahmad,
Many more passengers, but where is RapidKL? seems to suggest the beginning of the end of Rapid KL.

The story line seems as follows: Funds allocated for the bus services. New buses bought amid fanfare when introduced with uniformed drivers. Behind the modern façade, a poorly managed entity carries out its operation until the next crisis followed by another quick fix.

When Tun Dr. Mahathir showed pictures of about 1000 buses lying idle, it reflected very badly on the management.

BADROLHISHAM BIDIN had reported on the history of the buses http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=21174453. The impression I got was that each time, start from a new slate, let the public funds go to waste, we have got the mandate.