Gerakan vice-president Datuk Mah Siew Keong today urged the government to either stop or fine-tune the saman ekor system which has caused unhappiness to many motorists.

Mah said in line with 1Malaysia’s concept of People First, the government should review the system and come up with a better way to deal with traffic offenders.

“The government should seriously consider the ramifications of the system which is unfair to motorists as they have no chance to defend themselves,” said Mah in a statement.
Mah said there should be a transparent system to tackle traffic offenders, some of whom might not have an inkling that they had committed an offence.

“Further, the saman ekor could have been mailed to their old address and not having received the summonses, it is totally unfair for these people to be blacklisted by the Road Transport Department and other road enforcement agencies,” he said.

Mah lamented that some motorists had received multiple saman ekor involving a huge amount of money while others could not renew their road taxes.

Mah said feedback received by Gerakan showed a overwhelming majority of people were against the system.

The practice of sending out summonses to traffic offenders by post has been going on since the day the traffic police got hold of speed trap detectors and traffic cameras.

Speed trap detectors were used initially on federal roads but later extended to highways as it was thought to be more appropriate.

Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the government would consider public feedback on saman ekor before a decision on the matter soon.

He said the government would look at ways to tackle the issue effectively.