SHAH ALAM, 23 Oct: The proposal to cancel all outstanding summonses of the Automated Enforcement System (AES) by the acting Minister of Transport, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, only adds confusion to the already burdened people.
The idea by the Barisan Nasional (BN) Government is claimed to be unfair to the people when they proposed to cancel summonses issued prior to 18 September and will only reduce the compound from RM300 to RM150 after that date.
The Legal Adviser for the Anti Postal Summons Campaign (KASE), Zulhazmi Sharif said that the government should wait until a comprehensive review on the implementation of the AES by the AES Steering Committee is complete before issuing any misleading statements.
“The proposal is premature and unfair. This is because the comprehensive review of the implementation of the AES is still pending and is incomplete. The announcement is only to reassure the people who already burdened and confused with the implementation of the AES since 22 September 2012,” he told TVSelangor today.
He was commenting on a statement made by Hishammuddin that there are other options that will be forwarded to the Cabinet by the Ministry of Transport to give justice and public interest on the issue of AES summons dated before 18 September.
At the House of Representatives yesterday, the ministry stated that 882,298 AES summons have been issued, and 91,457 from the amount has been paid involving the collection of RM27.4 million as of 8 October.
In relation to that, Zulhalmi said all summonses issued since 22 September should be cancelled and the entire execution should be halted until the review is completed by the committee, if the AES is to be cancelled.
“When all the summons are cancelled, the amount of compound fees and fines that have been paid should be refunded to recipients of the summonses. Until now, BN has failed to respond to my challenge to prove that there is a line in the AES summon, or the Road Transport Act 1987, that states that it is mandatory to pay summons and compounds.
“If there is, I will pay all the summons. But the government should cancel all summons and refund the collected money when it is proven what is claimed is true,” he said.