The government has been urged to redirect the RM2.2 billion savings from petrol subsidy to improve the public transport system in the country.

Making the call today, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng considered it an important factor in reducing the over-dependence of Malaysians on private vehicles that consume so much of petrol products.

Public transportation in most countries are subsidised by the government but it is clearly not the case in Malaysia, he told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur to announce the party's nation-wide protests against the recent fuel price hike on May 8.

Also present at the press conference were the party's Seputeh MP Teresa Kok and Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun.

Lim said because of the poor public transport system, owning a vehicle has become a necessity for Malaysians.

"From a total of 3.6 million registered vehicles in 1987, the figure has risen to a whopping 14 million. Every year, Malaysia sees about 500,000 new cars entering its heavily congested roads. This is extraordinary as the population of Malaysia is only about 25 million."

According to him, the vehicle per 1000 people ratio in the Klang Valley is only marginally less than that of the US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

"Klang Valley has more vehicles per 1,000 people than that of Western Europe despite the fact that Malaysia is still a developing country. At the same time, the utilisation of public transport has declined from 34 percent in 1985 to 16 percent currently," he revealed.

Lim pointed out that the DAP feels strongly against the recent price hike because the move was not in the interests of 25 million Malaysians especially when Petronas can record huge profits.

He also asked why the government was reluctant to use the huge profits of the national oil corporation as a buffer from the movement of international oil markets.

Lim said that the authorities should 'compensate' consumers' loss due to the fuel price hike by providing better incentives and alternatives.

"The time has come for the government to introduce a complete package of abolishing the dual pricing of road tax and introduce a uniform road tax price for all vehicles of equal engine capacity as well as reduce the highway toll rates to reduce the impact of fuel increase," he added.

Urgent matters

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang urged Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to call for a special three-day parliamentary sitting to settle the Dewan Rakyat's RM80 million leakage as well as to discuss the petrol price hike.

On April 28, the House ended prematurely due to the leaking roof in Parliament. Three bills, six Treasury motions and the motion on Burma's Asean chairmanship in 2006 were not tabled.

According to Kit Siang, the daily expose of the shoddy and sub-standard workmanship, supervision and use of materials in the RM85 million Parliament renovation is an urgent matter which must be debated.

"Besides the leaking roof incident in the Dewan Rakyat, two chairs occupied by two Umno senators also came apart when the Dewan Negara sat for its first session on May 3 after the renovation.

"Then, there was the ceiling leak in the media centre in Parliament, frequent power breakdown in the meeting chamber and the 18-storey tower block and the disgraceful condition of the women toilet highlighted in the Chinese media today," he revealed.

Kit Siang also claimed that Works Minister S Samy Vellu and the Public Works Department seemed to be treating the renovation scandal as a joke, if not a circus.

According to the opposition leader, PWD director-general Zaini Omar admitted last Friday that it was a "catastrophic oversight" that no one in the department had spotted "the potential for disaster" while Samy Vellu had on Tuesday described it as "a small problem and should not have been sensationalised".