It’s S Samy Vellu again …

Early this month, the Coalition Against Toll Hike (Protes) or Gabungan Protes Kenaikan Tol revealed a copy of the agreement between the Government and Lingkaran Trans Kota Sdn Bhd (Litrak) to reporters.

In an immediate response, Parti Keadilan Rakyat information chief Tian Chua, who is also a Protes member, the Cabinet’s decision confirmed what the coalition had said earlier that the content of the contract was unfavourable to the public.

"The government needs to explain how and why this contract had been signed. Instead of being transparent, they (the government) have decided to declare this an Official Secrets Act document.

"It’s greatly unfair to the public as they are the ones who pay taxes and tolls."

On the other hand, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad admitted that the Cabinet relied on the senior government officers in the relevant ministry who prepared Cabinet papers for approval, minus details in fine print. Once the papers were presented by the relevant minister, the Cabinet merely approved them in principle.

“We did not have very much experience. We didn’t know about growth and reaction from people. Civil servants don’t think of reaction as much as politicians. They think they see a reasonable agreement and they send it to the cabinet and the cabinet okays it. And now we are stuck." [...]

"This is something we must correct."

Truth spoken, Tun suggested that concessionaires should reveal how much they have collected in toll to date so as to address people’s dissatisfaction over the recent toll hike.

"By right, the income of highway concessionaires should have gone up. So I think it is best that information on the collection is revealed."

"Toll could be increased but the rates shouldn’t be too high."

However, yesterday, Works Minister S Samy Vellu said that the Cabinet is not prepared to make public the toll agreements inked between the government and highway concessionaires and suggested that those who had revealed the agreement to be punished.

"I have also suggested that the Cabinet take appropriate action against the person (or persons) who had stolen and exhibited an agreement. The agreement is solely between the government and the company and it is a secret document,"

"It is classified secret … a restricted document of the government. It has been stolen by some people and we have suggested we are going to ask the Attorney-General’s office to take appropriate action against those who stole the document and exhibited it without the authority, and they have to pay for it,"

Instead of rectifying mistakes done and right what is wrong, apparently, the authority is still very much in controlling mode, evidently through the suggestion by Samy Vellu to punish parties involved in exposing an agreement which is not beneficial to the people of Malaysia, the people who’ve voted them into the administration.

However, the scariest part is, even though the underlying cause has been made known, void of action is one thing, the act of continuing to live in active denial mode is something that you and I needs to concern about.

Probably I should have thanked Penang Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon for reminding us to vote wisely. "No sympathy vote," he said.

True enough.