Is there a hike at all in parking rates in Kuala Lumpur?

While the city mayor was widely reported in the media today as saying that parking rates will go up from Monday, evoking wide ranging criticism from almost all Pakatan Rakyat members of Parliament from the city, the Kuala Lumpur City Hall painted a different picture altogether.

DBKL said that media reports on the parking rates hike were wrong - in fact it said that the supposedly new rates were actually rates that have been in place since 1984.

Whatever the situation, the move by DBKL to increase the city’s parking rate up to 35 percent has riled KL opposition members of parliament. The general comment from them is that it was a very insensitive move.

Yesterday, Bernama reported KL mayor Abdul Hakim Borhan’s announcement that DBKL will be increasing the city’s parking rate to 80 sen from its initial 60 sen hourly charge beginning Monday due to the implementation of the Electronic Parking System (SLKE).

Apart from the increase, the mayor also said that DBKL will be extending the charges to Sundays and public holidays.

The time frame of the charges have also been extended to between 7.30pm to 10pm from the previous 8am to 6pm.

And at the same time, the out-of-city parking rate will be revised down 10 sen from 60 sen an hour.

wee choo keong 090805 mdp sec gen Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong when contacted for comments said that the decision made by Abdul Hakim was untimely given the people's burden in having to cope with the recent fuel price hike .

“This decision shows that the mayor is insensitive. The people have just been slapped with the fuel price hike and now they have to cope with this,” he said.

DBKL’s greed

Wee argued that DBKL has no reason to increase the parking rates as the costs involving in managing parking space is very minimal and is not in anyway affected by the fuel price hike.

“It is just a matter of wanting to make more money and Abdul Hakim, given the current economic situation, should be ashamed of this decision which is done with ill-conscience,” he added.

tian chua 03 240505 Batu PKR parliamentarian Tian Chua said he could not understand the logic behind the time extension accusing the decision as a mere attempt to make more money.

“What is the logic to extending the time? There is no logic to it. The only rationale behind this extension is DBKL wanting to make more money,” blasted Tian.

The fact that Abdul Hakim was appointed mayor and not elected also plays a role in City Hall’s decision making process, said Wee.

He explained that the mayor can actually make “public-unfriendly decisions” without having to face public scrutiny and is clearly an indicator that an election system must be implemented in the DBKL organisational structure.

“His (Abdul Hakim's) decisions are not susceptible to criticism as he is appointed. This is a clear reflection that there is something wrong with the appointed mayor system,” said Wee.

And in a joint statement, all the Pakatan MPs said that they were not rejecting DBKL's use of SLKE but were only against the increase in the charges which is said to be due to the use of the new system.

"We understand that the machines used under SLKE use solar power for daytime use and battery-powered during night time.

"As such their usage has no bearing with the use of fuel or electricity...and thus the hikes should not be implemented just because there is a change in the system," they said in their statement.

Opposition MPs from KL have long called for the mayor and members of the City Hall to be elected by the public instead of being appointed. They argue that this is the only way that DBKL can be held accountable for any decisions it makes.

FT Minister Zulhasnan Rafique however discounted such ideas saying that KL, unlike other states, fall under the federal government’s jurisdiction and therefore only the king has the right to appoint council members as stated under the FT Act.

Both Zulhasnan and his deputy could not be reached for comments.

DBKL clarifies

Meanwhile, DBKL today issued a statement claiming that the parking rate will not be increased but instead will remain the same.

"The rate post-SLKE implementation will remain the same as that administered since 1984 and we hereby state that the reports of an increase as reported by print and electronic media is incorrect," said DBKL corporate communication officer Anwar Mohd Zain in the statement.

A media liaison officer from DBKL when contacted said that Abdul Hakim had never said that there was an increase and that the media had misinterpreted the entire matter.

"The only new issues here are the implementation of the SLKE and the charge extension to Sundays, public holidays and the time frame within which the charges are to take place," said the officer who did not want to be named.

He added that the SLKE was a new electronic parking charges system that will administer the parking fee process more efficiently than the current analog meter system.