Back in England, I was a regular commuter from my rented house at Harefield Road, Southampton to Southampton University. Now that I have graduated and started working, I have become a regular commuter on the RapidKL bus going from Damansara Utama to my workplace at Mid Valley City.

This while waiting for my new car to be delivered. Given a choice, I would rather remain a RapidKL commuter instead of facing the congestion and parking problems not to mention the exorbitant parking fees at Mid Valley.

Analysing the problem and making comparisons of my experience whilst a student and now a paid employee, I have come to realise that we can achieve a world-class public transportation system if the authorities in charge put their hearts and minds to it.

Our well respected Prime Minister Mohd Najib Abdul Razak had placed public transportation as a National Key Result Area. However, without proper execution plans, I am doubtful this can be achieved.

A few of us are aware of the existence of Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad, a company under the Finance Ministry. This is the company in charge of putting public transport infrastructure in place from building bus depots to providing the buses to RapidKL.

RapidKL is a mere operator while the funding for all the purchase and ownership of the buses and LRT are done and executed by Prasarana.

During one of my trips using RapidKL’s bus service, I raised the issue of poor-quality buses with one the drivers and he told me that Prasarana had being purchasing poor quality China-made buses since 2005 and that spare parts were not available.

Such information is very shocking when Prasarana has been using billions of taxpayers’ money to purchase these buses.

I recently visited Prasarana’s new office in Bangsar to lodge a complaint and to my dismay discovered that they were occupying posh office space using taxpayers’ money. I assume millions of ringgit of taxpayers; money was spent to renovate the office.

On the flip side, when I passed by a RapidKL bus depot, I was sad to witness the condition of their depot. I would like to recommend to the prime minister to make unscheduled visits to the depots of RapidKL to witness for himself the poor condition of office space provided for the drivers and mechanics who are responsible for serving the rakyat.

I would also like to recommend the management of Prasarana to also do the same, taking time off from their posh Bangsar office. The inappropriate spending of the public funds should be questioned.

RapidKL needs new buses and better facilities for their employees who work 365 days a year to serve the rakyat. Prasarana’s spending should be monitored closely by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).