1.0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
2.0 INTRODUCTION
Sustainability. Upon hearing the word sustainability, the first thing that would popped into the mind would be green environment or green transportation system. But, it also can represent a bigger picture than that. When we are talking about sustainability, we are also talking about whether the policy that have been formulated and implemented by the government or the authority will still be relevant for the next 10 or even 20 years. Do we have a sustainable policy in place or will it become obsolete in just a few years?
The Centre for Sustainable Transportation define sustainable transportation as to allow the basic needs of individuals and societies to be met safely and in a manner consistent with human and ecosystem health, and with equity within and between generations.
3.0 POLICY
3.1 NAP 2014: Energy Efficient Vehicles (EEV)
The National Automotive Policy (NAP) was put forward in the year 2006 in an effort to revamp the automotive industry. NAP 2014 focal point is on green initiatives. Some of the objectives of NAP 2014 taken from Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) are as follows:
• To establish a more competitive and able domestic automotive industry
• To establish Malaysia as the region automotive hub in Energy Efficient Vehicle
• Develop domestic capabilities while increasing value-added activities in a more sustainable way
• To increase the number of vehicles, components and parts exported
• To increase and encourage the involvement of Bumiputera companies in the local automotive industry
• To protect consumer interests by tendering safer and better quality products at a more affordable and competitive price
The main objectives that have grabbed many people and also carmakers attention was to make Malaysia as one of the automotive hub in Energy Efficient Vehicle in the region. Malaysia Automotive Institute have defined EEV as any vehicles that is producing carbon emission within the range specified and also vehicles with an efficient fuel consumption which is measured by litre per kilometre.
3.2 Malaysia’s Master Plan
Many countries are embracing the concept of moving towards a more sustainable environment and Malaysia is not exempted from it. If one were to compare Malaysia 10th Master Plan with the 11th Master Plan, there is definitely an improvement in the awareness of achieving a more sustainable future. One of the strategies in the 10th Master Plan was building an environment that enhances the quality of life with initiatives such as developing a rakyat-centric public transport system and valuing the nation’s environmental endowments. In this master plan, sustainability can be considered as not a critical issue or is not considered as a top priority in the development of the country.
However, one of the six strategic thrusts in the 11th Malaysia Plan is to pursue green growth for sustainability. The plan clearly stated that it is more critical to go after development in a sustainable way from the beginning rather than the normal model of grow first and clean up later. One of the way towards achieving a sustainable future is for people to shifts from using private vehicles and utilising public transportation as their main source of transportation. The current modal split of Malaysia is 17:83 whereby only 17% of the population uses the public transport while the rest prefer to use their own private vehicle.
The master plan does make sustainability as one of its main focal point, however transportation seems to be given the back seat in the process whereas it is the transportation sector that is one of the main contributors toward the deterioration of the environment. Instead, the plan focuses more on retrofitting building governments to be more energy efficient. The plan should focuses more on seriously improving public transportation system as the first step towards achieving a sustainable future.
3.3 National Land Public Transport Master Plan
The Land Public Transport Commission of Malaysia have developed the National Land Public Transport Master Plan which have been released in December 2011 as a step forward to improve the declining usage of public transportation.
The main objectives of the National Land Public Transport Master Plan is to establish a more effective programme that will hopefully improve the public transportation system not only in the short run but more importantly in the long run. The plan have a goal of providing the nation with a better quality and more sustainable public transport in the next 20 years. Public transportation is considered as one of the main drivers for the nation to achieve the Vision 2020 and 1Malaysia ambition.
The National Land Public Transport Master Plan is a following a guidelines which is to improve accessibility and connectivity, and also to increase capacity and to improve the overall quality which have been deteriorating as the years passes by. This will hopefully encourages private vehicles users to shifts to public transport which will provide them with economic, social and also environmental benefits.
The National Land Public Transport Plan will also complement the current New Economic model (NEM) whereby one of the goals of NEM is inclusivity. Social exclusion can be tackled when the issue of inclusivity is solved and public transportation is one of the main solution to this issue. Achieving a high income status is also one of the goals of NEM whereby the average income per capita will be $15,000 – $20,000. A good public transportation system can helps in achieving this goal as people with a low income job will have access to a higher income job. If the current private vehicles users also shifts to public transport, they will save more and thus, have more money to spend on other important aspects of life such as better accommodation and this will improve their standard of living.
4.0 PROCESS & INSTITUTION
4.1 Levels Of Government
There are three levels of government in Malaysia namely the federal government, state government and also the local government which is the lowest level of the government system. However it should be noted that eventhough the local government is said to be the lowest level, it does not mean that it is less important than the federal and state government. Currently, four types of local government exists in Malaysia which is:
City – City Hall (Dewan Bandaraya) or City Council (Majlis Bandaraya), e.g. Kuala Lumpur City Hall
Municipality – Municipal Council (Majlis Perbandaran), e.g. Ampang Jaya Municipal Council
Rural area – District Council (Majlis Daerah), e.g. Hulu Selangor District Council
Special and modified local authority – Corporation, Development Board, Development Authority or simply Pihak Berkuasa Tempatan (e.g. Putrajaya Corporation)
It is important to understand these various level of governments as planners could plan and formulate many policies that is needed for the country growth, but if there are no political willingness to execute this plans, then the plan will remain forever only as a plan and nothing more than that. The government willingness is vital in the transport industry as it is one of the industry that requires heavy capital investments that in most cases could only be funded by the government.
4.2 The Environment Is Too Serious A Matter To Be Left To The Politicians
While the rest of the world is pouring their energy in an effort to promote a more sustainable environment, Malaysia seems to have taken a back seat on this issue. This does not mean that there any efforts by the government to address this critical issue, but the question is whether it is effective and worthwhile to do. Many issues relating to the environment have been popping up in the past few years such as Pahang bauxite mining, large deforestation occurrences, and also the national response to the haze issues that is worsening every year. It seems that Malaysia lacks the sense of urgency to face sustainable development.
Malaysia is more focus on signing international agreements such as the Trans-pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) or the Montreal Protocol just to name a few. Of course it is not the responsibilities of the government alone to promote a more sustainable development, but we need somebody to take charge, and has their own vision to make Malaysia a more sustainable nation. With the right leader, others will follow suit. The effectiveness of the current policy or plans to achieve a sustainable development will be discussed.
4.3 Energy Efficient Vehicle: Tax Free ?
It has been mentioned before that one of the main objectives that have captured people attention in the National Automotive Policy is regarding the Energy Efficient Vehicle (EEV).
Now what makes people so attracted to this objectives? Energy Efficient Vehicles is not a really a breakthrough to the automotive industry as it have been around for some times already (at least in other country). The reason is that the government is giving duty exemptions for CKD (Complete Knock Down) Hybrid cars. A CKD vehicles basically means that a vehicle is locally assembled using parts from the country of origin whereas the opposite of CKD would be CBU (Complete Built Up) whereby the vehicle is imported as one finished vehicle from the country of origin.
Under this NAP 2014, Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI), Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said that RM1 Billion has been invested by Honda for their plant in Malacca including a complete facility for hybrid cars and they are also targeting to double production up to 100,000 units per year.
It cannot be denied that this policy is a good move towards Malaysia achieving its sustainable transportation and sustainable environment goals as it can be clearly seen that there are many benefit will come from it.Then, what is the issue here?
The problem comes when we start to discuss about the sustainability of the policy. Would it be long lasting? The tax exemption policy on hybrid vehicles actually ended on 31st December 2015. A policy that only lasted for a year when carmakers such as Honda Toyota have invested billions for their CKD plants. Not to mention all of the citizens that have bought a hybrid car thinking that it would benefited them for the long term. But it seems that those dreams are shortwill. This is because with the tax exemption stops, hybrid vehicles and also the parts prices skyrocketed. As a result, people are staying away from hybrid cars as it would be cheaper for them to own just a normal car.
This sort of move also affected future investors view on Malaysia. there will be doubts as whether it is a smart move for them to invest or open their plants in Malaysia as the policy can easily change overnight. Who would in their right mind invest billions where the level of uncertainty is very high.
The Star newspapers have reported on Tuesday, 28 May 2013, Najib reiterates promise to reduce car prices. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said “As promised, car prices will be reduced in stages until 2017. Insya Allah I will ensure that every promise is fulfilled.” With this bold statement in mind, lets take a look at the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. International Trade and Industry Minister II Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan said that with the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, vehicles originating from the United States and also Canada will be tax-exempted for 12 years. He also said that it is important for Malaysia to be a part of this trend in order to compete with international market. The CEO of Malaysia Automotive Institute also shares the same view. However, Malaysia Automotive Association president, Datuk Aishah Ahmad have the opposite view as she said that cheaper cars for Malaysians seems to be improbable. This is because due to the foreign currency exchange rate, they are expecting the car prices to increase in 2016. Why would there be a conflict of opinions? There should be just one unanimous opinion whether the car prices should go up and down if proper studies have been done and not just by putting out statements to gain the people support.
If we were to look at this issue from the sustainable transport point of view, 12 years tax free for cars from US and Canada. Is that wise when the country is going towards a more sustainable future? That will jus increase the number of car ownerships and usage. Yes, our main objectives is to reduce car usage and not ownerships because when people buys any vehicle the government will benefited from the tax issued on those purchases. But we are talking about TAX FREE. What exactly is the rationale behind that in terms of promoting a sustainable future for Malaysia?
4.4 The Bigger The Projects, The Better It Is
There have been an improvement in the 11th Master Plan to address the issue of sustainability if compared to the 10th Malaysia Plan as have been stated before. However, does this improvement only looks good on paper?
Public transport should be treated as public goods like electricity or water. Meaning that it will be there for people to use regardless of whether there is a need for it or not. It should not be treated like a business that only cares about profit maximisation and cost minimization. Another problem is that Malaysians seems to think that traffic congestion can be solved by undertaking huge projects such as building more and more highways, or the building of Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) or Light Rail Transit (LRT).
Sure, the development of MRT and LRT will benefited the people greatly as they can move from one places to another faster and cheaper (hopefully). However, if there are no efforts in improving the first mile and the last mile of the total journey, then people will still be reluctant to use the services provided if they had other choices such as their private vehicles. Instead, these multi-millions or billions projects will only be used by those that does not have any other option but to use public transport.
More efforts need to be put in to change the public perception of public transport. At the moment, people who uses public transportation is viewed as those with low income and does not have sufficient funds to buy their own private vehicles. And those who are using public transport are thinking everyday while they are sitting on the bus or riding the train that “I will work hard and start to save more so that I will be able to buy my own car one day”. We need to drastically make an improvement to our public transportation system (I cannot stress this enough!) so that those negative perceptions or thinking can be change. People who are using private vehicles should think “The public transport looks more affordable, efficient and safe. I shall try going to work using public transport tomorrow”. And those who are already using the public transport should think that “Why would I waste my hard earned money on a private vehicle when public transport can comfortably satisfy my needs of travelling”. If these sorts of thinking could be adopted into Malaysian’s mind, I honestly cannot wait to see what will happen to Malaysia.
Datuk Paul Selvaraj, CEO, Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association said that right now the main problem is public transportation. People should make cars or private vehicle as a choice rather than a necessity. The MRT Project is good, but the more critical issue is the last mile. The focus on the government should be to fix these “petty” issues before moving on to a massive projects.
4.5 Premium Electric Vehicle
On 18th February 2016, New Straits Times including many other newspaper have reported that Malaysia to allow imports of 100 Tesla electric cars. These 100 cars will imported here on a duty-free basis, and will be only available to Government Linked Companies (GLC) to use as official car. Prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said “We want to create a more sustainable environment. Tesla is a leader in electric vehicles and they have achieved many milestones with the Model S.”
Is it really sustainable environment that is the focus point here? Many Malaysians including myself yet to find closure and clarification behind this “move”. Malaysia will have to spend approximately RM50 million to import these 100 units of Model S as the price of one unit ranges from RM450000 to RM500000. If the government is really serious on supporting sustainable transport they should push forward cars that are more affordable to a wider range of people instead of just those with a high income. There are many other options available such as the Nissan Leaf, Kia Soul or if you want a little bit more luxury there’s always the BMW i3. Even though those cars would still not be as cheap as maybe a Myvi or Axia, it is still a lot cheaper than the Model S.
If the main objectives is to create a more sustainable environment, then there should no be restrictions to only government linked companies. It should be open for consumer use. How many cars does the government needs for their official use anyway? Instead of spending RM50 Million on only 100 units of cars, it could be spend on increasing awareness among users. One of the way is to educate Malaysians on sustainability issues especially youngsters that are still in school or colleges as it will be easier to mold them rather than trying to change those with a fix perception already in mind.
4.6 A Controversial Budget
One of the main controversial point of Budget 2016 was the toll free 2083 km Pan Borneo highway. Many are wondering why is it that a stretch of highway that long could be toll free while here in Peninsular Malaysia there will be a toll booth every few kilometers. It would certainly help the people as it would reduce their transportation cost but there is also a major setback to this toll free highway. The ownership and private vehicle usage in Sabah and Sarawak is lower than Peninsular Malaysia. By giving the people a toll-free highway, it would just encourage the people to own a private vehicle and would rely less on public transport. Car ownership would likely to increase drastically and thus, the deathly cycle of congestion, building of new infrastructure, then congestion again, will just keep repeating over and over without any solution in sight.
5.0 RECOMMENDATION
PUBLIC TRANSPORT: It can be seen clearly in this paper of my perception on the importance of public transport in achieving a more sustainable future. Instead of building more and more new public transport infrastructure, focus should be on improving the current public transport that is already in place with exception to those areas that do not have any public transport system. But majority of the urban areas already have a usable public transport system but it is not efficient enough to attract private vehicle users to use it. Rather than building new transport system that does not integrate with the existing transport infrastructure, more efforts need to be put in to ensure a more seamless journey of the first and last mile.
ACCESSIBILITY: To improve accessibility to goods and services, but at the same time minimizing the needs for movement and transportation needs. Government might be able to come up with some sort of incentives for company that could efficiently deliver their products or services directly to consumers doorstep. This would be great for short distance purposes as many people still use private vehicles to go to a distance that could be easily walked or cycle.
POPULARITY CONTEST: The government need to stop participating in this “Popularity Contest” whereby only initiatives that will have the people supports them are implemented. There are many unpopular but needed policy that could be formulated. Such as congestion charging that have been implemented in various countries all over the world. But one condition, it all comes back to the public transportation system. It needs to be efficient and reliable.
6.0 CONCLUSION
As a conclusion, sustainable transport needed to be treated as a critical issue in Malaysia. If not, we are most likely going to run out of land spaces long before we run out of oil. There need to be a drastic change to see an improvement in Malaysia’s achieving sustainable transport. But these changes must first come from the government level. If there are no political willingness from the government, then no major improvement will take place whatsoever. The important thing is to make a logical and rational policies. Because eventhough the policies might pe unpopular amongst people, they would still be able to accept it if there are able to understand the purpose of the policies formulated.
“A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars, it’s where the rich ride public transportation.” – Mayor of Bogota