A taxi company has cried foul over the government’s move to enter into discussions with e-hailing service provider Grab to provide complementary transport services for MRT passengers.

Condemning the move as akin to the government unfairly “promoting” Grab, Big Blue Taxi Facilities Sdn Bhd questioned why other e-hailing services were not being considered.

It specifically blamed both Tony Pua, political secretary to the finance minister and Transport Minister Anthony Loke for their woes, calling for both to be removed from their posts.

At a press conference today, Big Blue Taxi company adviser Shamsubahrin Ismail also announced a demonstration will be held to highlight their concerns to the government.

“Before GE14, taxi drivers all over Malaysia changed their flags to Pakatan Harapan flags. Not even one of us flew BN flags or wore BN clothes unless they were BN cronies. Why do they (Harapan) want to ‘kill’ us now?

“[...] Today I am announcing that I am organising the biggest demonstration in Putrajaya to make sure the prime minister takes action against Anthony Loke and Tony Pua.

“I will have more than 3,000 drivers accompanying me to Putrajaya,” he said in Ampang, Selangor, today.

Shamsubahrin said he was upset with Pua for announcing a possible partnership with Grab and with Loke for the RTD’s apparent failure to enforce strict rules for both Grab and its drivers.

He said he will be notifying the police about the demonstration which he said was slated to take place either on Wednesday or Thursday next week in front of both the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Finance buildings in Putrajaya.

BN promoted Uber, Harapan promoting Grab

Shamsubahrin commented that Harapan was following in BN’s footsteps by promoting e-hailing services rather than looking out for the taxi industry.

“There is no difference between the time of (former minister in the prime minister’s department) Nancy Shukri and today.

“(In the past) Nancy promoted Uber, we were against it. Now, the new government is promoting Grab.

“So what is this?” he exclaimed.

He said he had thus lost faith in the Harapan government including its component parties except for Bersatu.

“Today, Malay-Muslim taxi drivers can only place their hopes on Bersatu.

“[...] Our last hope is only for Bersatu. We ask that Bersatu wake up,” he said.

Najib weighs in

Meanwhile, former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak also said he empathised with the plight of taxi drivers whom he claimed felt "cheated" by the Harapan government.

He said Harapan's talks with Grab proved that his wife, Rosmah Mansor, did not own the e-hailing service as previously claimed.

"After GE14, I managed to meet several taxi drivers and some of them apologised to me for having been influenced by the slander (that Rosmah owned Grab). Uber and Grab were the ones that disrupted their source of income.

"They said many taxi drivers had believed that the Harapan government would declare Uber and Grab illegal in Malaysia if they won (GE14). That is why many helped campaign for Harapan and criticised BN everytime they ferried passengers.

"[...] Today, many taxi drivers regret because they realise they have been cheated.

"Grab has not been outlawed as they hoped and the special assistance offered to taxi drivers during my administration has since been stopped," he said in a Facebook post.