Malaysian Road Transport Department (JPJ) director-general Ismail Ahmad became the butt of jokes when he announced a key performance index (KPI) for road deaths last weekend, says a DAP leader.

 

Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong said today that Ismail had made a “KPI of road death” joke when he said the JPJ needs to adhere to it by 2020.

 

“Ismail is soon becoming a laughing stock among ordinary Malaysians for that particular statement,” Liew said.

 

The JPJ director-general made that blunder on Nov 9 when he said JPJ is trying to reduce the number of road deaths because of their adherence to the KPI.

According to Liew, Ismail ( right ) said it in a widely circulated video interview with Astro Awani.

 

“We expect 10, 716 citizens in this country to die by 2010 (road deaths).

"So, our efforts to reduce the number of deaths is partly because we have a KPI to keep.

 

“We want only 5,358 people to die by 2020. But this is merely a theory.

Basically, what we mean is that without proper steps, 10,617 people will die,” Ismail had said.

 

Misplaced priorities

In the statement, Liew also pointed out JPJ's misplaced priorities, for example, in enforcing irregularities in car license plates.

 

He said Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai failed to recognise Malaysia's highest road death per capita in the world, and is not dealing with it appropriately.

 

“Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi claimed that Malaysia's road death has been in the decline. (But) what the Transport Minister is not saying is that the country's total vehicle has almost doubled between 2002 and 2013.

 

“It's time for Liow to rein in JPJ and to ensure that his entire ministry recognise this horrendous fact,” he stressed.

 

Malaysia, according to Liew ( left ), has the dubious record of having the highest road fatality risk in the world since 1996 if measured by deaths per 100,000 population.

 

Between 2000 and 2009, 4.5 million road accidents were reported and these resulted in 58,582 deaths, he added.