I refer to the recent statement made by the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board (CVLB) chairman, Markiman Kobiran that Penang bus operators will be given one more chance before their licences are revoked for their obviously ridiculous service to the Penang public.

I cannot imagine how many more chances the CVLB is going to give these bus operators who have proven time and time again to be predominantly motivated by greed. The revamp mooted by the state government on April 1 was a already the second chance given to them even though these bus operators dished out nothing less than glaringly pathetic service for so many years causing so much untold suffering among the bus users of Penang.

Even then, the move was denounced by the general public and NGO groups like Cepat and Bugs. The move was met with such an outcry and true enough, the bus operators failed to deliver and instead were actually defiant and defensive of their poor performance with blatant disregard for the law.

Now, instead of applying the law and bringing the offenders to books for their defiance, the CVLB announces that they would given yet another chance. It makes me wonder who elected these public officials and whose interest are they supposed to be looking out for. The interest of the public or the interest of businesses who have the audacity to break the law and then justify it?

The reason often cited by these bus operators (the reasons echoed by CVLB) for the their lackadaisical performance is profitability in that some of these bus operators were made to ply 'social-service routes' that were not profitable. This is a mere excuse and a lame one and that too. Do bus operators have the liberty to choose to comply with the law only when their business is profitable?

How else would they explain violations like not issuing bus tickets and using atrociously dirty busses both of which have nothing to do with profitability? It is apparent that these bus operators are holding the state and the people of Penang to hostage knowing that despite the bad service, Penang has no choice but to use the existing service as there is no other to replace it.

I would urge the state to start working towards finding an alternative so that these operators once and for all are shown that they are not indispensable. As for CVLB, why should they exist when they have themselves been unable to do the job they have been given? They must undergo a revamp too.

Or perhaps some folks in high places think they need to be given a second, nay, a third and more chances to do better while the public languishes under the yoke of badly-performing and greedy business enterprises and federal agencies.