PETALING JAYA Dec 13 (FMT): Poor planning and a marked lack of foresight by the authorities in offering discounted traffic summonses have put thousands of Malaysians at risk as Covid-19 SOPs were near impossible to follow, says the Malaysian Medical Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MMA president Dr Koh Kar Chai said proper planning should have been done before announcing the discounts for traffic summonses as the government should have anticipated the huge crowds wanting to take advantage of the offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn view of this, they should have made necessary improvements to its online payment channels. While the discounts may be welcomed the implementation was poor and without much thought given to the risk to the health of the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe government should be preventing, not encouraging crowds, hence online payments would be the best option,\u201d he told FMT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The police MyBayar Saman portal and MySikap online system of the Road Transport Department (JPJ) crashed under the load of visitors and people have flooded the counters at KLCC, police headquarters and JPJ kiosks to take advantage of the 80% discounts offered on their summonses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Koh said the traffic police and JPJ should focus on online payments for summonses. \u201cIf there are issues with the portal or app, then it should be rectified, improved and tested first before the announcement is made,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Koh also said Malaysia should be concerned about the Omicron variant, which is more transmissible. \u201cAny of these centres can be at risk of becoming superspreaders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an announcement on social media yesterday, JPJ has now extended the summons discount period to December 15, following an announcement by health minister Khairy Jamaluddin that the payment counters at KLCC would be closed immediately yesterday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The discounted summons were offered as part of the 100-Day Aspirasi Keluarga Malaysia event. Khairy said the organisers were fined RM1,000 for failing to adhere to Covid-19 SOPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
JPJ said summonses can be paid at all its state offices, branches and offices in UTCs nationwide, subject to directives from the relevant authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a tweet today, Ipoh Barat MP M Kula Segaran shared pictures of the crowd in KLCC, of people queuing up to pay the summonses, while saying \u201cwhy invest in 5G, when the government still makes people queue in lines to pay their summonses, during a pandemic?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When contacted, he said the government should do away with any counters that require physical presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey should beef up the online portals to avoid any more crashes and extend the deadline for the discounts to three months so that people are not rushing to pay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He urged the government to provide an explanation on JPJ\u2019s short extension to Dec 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis will only force people to pay at the physical counters as there is no alternative to go online with the frequent crashes of the two portals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n