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The PM’s ironic ‘gift’ - abolishing the Batu Tiga toll

COMMENT | I live in Shah Alam, a place far from everywhere. My school is in Subang Jaya and we have to pass through the Batu Tiga toll every day to get there.

We are stuck in the congestion of a 2km stretch before the green roof of the Batu Tiga toll is visible.

I tap my father’s shoulder and ask, “Why don’t you buy a Touch ’n Go card? It’s so much faster.” My father keeps quiet. Then with a tantrum befitting a seven-year old, I say, “School starts in five minutes! We are never going to make it. It’s all your fault!”

“Why would I pay an extra RM100 just to get a damned card so that I could use it to continue paying for something we shouldn’t?” my father says.

He continues, “None of this should be here. Plus is making exorbitant profits out of the people by having this crazy contract, simply because they were close to the politicians. Listen, I am never paying for that silly card!”

The car falls silent. With a grunt, my father steers his car to a man in a green vest selling stacks of Touch ’n Go cards under the scorching sun.

“How much?” my father asks. “RM80 today, discount,” says the vendor in the green vest. My father pays him, and steps on the accelerator forcefully to leave.

For many years, the Batu Tiga toll has attracted many curses from our family. There is no other reasonable way to get out of Shah Alam without passing through the infamous Batu Tiga toll. The plaza’s ugly green columns resemble prison windows, and we are its innocent prisoners.

The Touch ’n Go privilege started to wane over time as its queue became as bad as the ‘Tunai’ (cash) lane. New lanes for SmartTag surfaced, and with frustration and anger we paid RM150 for a SmartTag. Soon all of the lanes had long queues.

“Insanity, isn’t it? We pay to get stuck in a congestion,” my father always laments.

But as Plus and the government kept extending the concession periods behind our backs, we started to forget the magnitude of its corruption. First, we build the corrupt structures, then the corrupt structures build us.

The Batu Tiga toll became a permanent fixture in our lives. We started to factor tolls into our family expenditure.

The plaza became a landmark for directions into the jungle of Shah Alam. It served as a geographical node and a psychological alliance. This was the entrance and exit into Shah Alam; this was the halfway point between Shah Alam and Subang Jaya.

I know which lane has the slowest-lifting barriers. I know which lane has the weakest SmartTag sensors. I know which lane is famous among tailgaters.

I even wanted to work as a cashier at the toll once; it seemed like a cool job to a 10-year old. I always wondered if they had air-conditioning in their small booths, or if they could stop for lunch, given the continuous stream of cars.

Perpetuated corruption gives you a sense of numbness and acceptance. The Malays call it redha. If you are corrupt long enough, even the worst corruption can feel like nothing.

Lifting the lid of corruption

But it is not nothing. When the concession agreements were declassified, it confirmed our worst fears. The terms were wholly lopsided against the public.

The concessionaires were guaranteed profits until 2038. Plus was allowed to increase toll tariffs by 10 percent every three years until 2038. If the government decided to postpone the toll rate increases, the government would compensate Plus with taxpayers’ money.

The agreements also stated that the government would bear the cost of substantive upgrades, like adding another lane, which would effectively mean that the taxpayer was paying more publicly for Plus to earn more privately.

Plus absorbs minimum risk and earns maximum profits. The people continue to pay billions for the profit of a few.

In the 2018 Budget speech, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak framed the abolishment of the Batu Tiga toll as though it was his personal gift to the people.

The perplexing irony is that it actually felt like a gift. It is a kind of Stockholm syndrome that I didn’t realise I was under.

I had been going through the Batu Tiga toll all my life when I can finally just breeze through it without paying.

But now I can see clearly. There is no more quiet acceptance of a wrong.

There is no gift. What is wrongfully taken from the people cannot be deemed a gift when it is returned. In fact, this is only a bandage to stop the bleeding. No one has been held accountable for the infliction of the wound.

The prime minister must have thought that the abolishment would make people like me happy and vote for him in the next general election. Little did he know that his abolishment has awakened me from my numb slumber induced by systemic corruption and abuse of power.

It made me see clearly again that we have been wronged by this corrupt system far too much, and for far too long.

I feel the pain now.


JAMES CHAI works at a law firm. His voyage in life is made less lonely with a family of deep love, friends of good humour and teachers of selfless givings. This affirms his conviction in the common goodness of people: the better angels of our nature. He tweets at @JamesJSChai.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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