Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Fomca, CAP hail move to abolish minimum MyKad penalty
The Star
July 12, 2006
PETALING JAYA: Abolishing the minimum fine of RM3,000 for those not carrying their MyKad is a step in the right direction, consumer associations said.
July 12, 2006
PETALING JAYA: Abolishing the minimum fine of RM3,000 for those not carrying their MyKad is a step in the right direction, consumer associations said.
Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) secretary-general Mohd Sha’ani Abdullah said: “It is definitely a good move to abolish the minimum fine of RM3,000, but the maximum sum of RM20,000 is still too hefty.
“Do you really want to flood the courts with cases of people caught not carrying their MyKad?”
He said that instead of focusing so much on the penalty for not carrying the MyKad, the Government should instead focus on how to value add the MyKad to encourage the people to want to use it more.
“You cannot assume that everyone is a crook,” he said.
“We carry so many identification cards everyday – MyKad, driver's licence, office tag, library card, just to name a few. So why can't other forms of identification be accepted as well? The passport or the driver's licence are also legal identification documents.”
Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) president S.M. Mohd Idris said he felt the whole system was “totally unnecessary”.
“The whole system of imposing fines on those who don’t carry their MyKad needs to be changed,” he said.
“A RM20 or RM30 fine is all right, that is still reasonable. But RM20,000? It is ridiculous.”
The Star reader K. Veerah, 54, called up to say the Government should focus on serious issues rather than on whether people carried their MyKad.
“One thousand losses a day against a population of 25 million is not a very big figure. Why are they not focusing on the illegal immigrants which number up to more than a million instead?” he questioned.
“What about construction companies that fail to complete their projects and waste public money? These can go up to hundreds of millions of ringgit. These are serious issues, not whether people carry their MyKad or not.”
