Here’s something that’s bound to pique the Malaysian cynic in all of us. According to a survey conducted by the World Economic Forum, Malaysia has the one of the best network of tarmac in the world, ranked 19th, to be precise. Rated from a scale of one to seven, with seven being the best, Malaysia has been given a score of 5.6 – that puts it on the same tier as South Korea and ahead of Sweden and Denmark.
In fact, the rating puts Malaysia ahead of nations that are usually expected to possess better maintained roads such as Canada, Belgium, Australia and Norway. It has to be said that the assessments were based off a survey and not a systematic study – leaving plenty of subjective opinions to influence the outcome.
Top spot goes to the United Arab Emirates with a score of 6.6 while our neighbours down south, Singapore, occupy sixth place with a score of 6.1. Other top scorers include second-placed Portugal (6.3), Austria, France, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Japan. Using the same point system, how much would you rate our roads? Let us know in the comments below.
best network tarmac not best quality tarmac..so its true laa
Yeah, I second that.
Malaysia road infrastructure is miserable, thx for umno cronies pocket, no highway no access so you ‘pay’ more smooth road.
First our Ministers say Proton is at par or even better than Volvo and BMW
Then our Ministers say our institutions are at par or even better than Oxford University of the UK
Now, our Ministers must have paid for this to say, our roads are better than even Sweden.
UMNO is so stupid. Even lie also don’t know how to lie. Our roads are the worst in the world. Ask any Malaysian, they will tell you how their tayar either pancit or torn apart because of potholes.
Many of us have had a few tyres changed in a year because of potholes.
Infact, SPAD is so stupid that they don’t know, most accidnets are caused by people avoiding potholes and swerving into another lane and accident happens.
Tolong la UMNO, we are not stupid la.
Highlight me please. The statistic above was issued by Malaysian Govt or World Economic Forum?
Pothole can happen anywhere. Accidents happen because of driver’s attitude. Don’t blame umno as dap’s and pass’ and pkr’s controlled state have the same even worse problems. It’s not the party but mentality of human responsibled on it.
Tak tau baca ka? it is a published survey by WEF. Not by Malaysian government or minister. You view that our ministers bunch of idiots and incompetent, but seems that rakyat like you sama-sama bodoh.
Don’t you Malaysian Government famous for wasting hundreds of Malaysian ringgit to pay foreign PR companies to prep up Malaysia with global eyes. Imagine pay them hundreds of Malaysian ringgit to tell the world Malaysia has the best of this, best of that.
This, sure Malaysian Government paid for this.
UMNO is not stupid! They are just generating propaganda, and their main target are those naive and innocent ones.
Lets be fair, our roads are not the worst,the expressways are good, but not the municipal roads.
Stupid comment from a stupid citizen who only focus on politics rather than being responsible for your own country!!
Its easy to be responsible. Whenever you saw or go through potholes, sinking tarmac, or rough patches (usually @ manhole), you just have to write, or just call the authority. Be it ur local PBT, or your preferred political office, they will resolve the issue, some took slightly longer, but usually within a week or two.
Still better than you drive all-year through that potholes and do nothing about it, and just shout in auto blog, while doing your part condemning this & that political party.
Do your part and stop being mumblers.
What a stupid comment by Whathef. I have been calling DBKL for months about the potholes in my area, nobody has come.
hello BN Cybertrooper, get a life la.
Whathef which world are you living in? The Bercukur world?
UMNO is so dumb, they pay for false news or news that is unbelievable. Even white man come here, say roads the worst he has seen.
Even India has better roads despite known for having bad roads.
Typical Proton lifestyle: Sendiri Cakap, Sendiri Syok.
Malaysian roads are good? Why so many people buying our Toyota?
Because Toyota has the most reliable and comfortable suspension!!!
Blame that to state govt as they the one who suppose to manage their road maintenance except highway n federal road.
Today, this is the No 1 hottest topic. Everybody laughing at our Gomen
No 2 hottest topic is ask school boy to minum his own kencing.
No 3 hottest topic, two ladies asked to wear sarong in Selangor Gomen Department.
This what happens when you are lazy, always want tongkat, and don’t want to work hard. You tend to do stupid things.
Yea. Not ONE day anyone can get a pothole free drive, even if it is just down to the local shop. there will always be a new friggin hole, bump, crack or nail in the way. and on the driving line! and even if it is not on the driving line, some idiot is hogging the driving line! so u have to go around but waheyy.. there is another hole!
Second that. And not only potholes, cement mixers pour their good news all over the road when they drive around creating little concrete humps. Just check out areas near constructions. Good network maybe la, good roads?
Agreed. Keyword here is “network”. Jalan lubang different story.
Today kzm celebrate. Sure he say kita mesti bercukur and how good umno is. He has been going around telling people how our Proton is now better than Volvo and how Malaysia produces Euro 8 fuel ie the cleanest fuel ever. Even before Intro Euro 7.
Malaysia is the best. Kita mesti bercukur.
Butul butul, kita mesti bercukur jambang, sudah panjang!
Please respect our culture of ‘bersyukur’. Don’t try your luck to put flames by purposely misspell it, thank you.
kita mesti bercukur Negara aman dan damai. Jangan complain banyak banyak. Jalan Raya Malaysia lebh baik daripada Sweden!
Totally agree. UK roads still aren’t as developed as our highways, you still depend a fair bit on B roads.
But the quality of their roads (supposed to be the worst in Europe) is still ahead of our Malaysian roads, especially their B roads with our city roads. On the other hand their A roads and highways are as good as our PLUS etc tbh.
UK road poorer than Malaysia?! I live there (a suburb village) for more than 10 years. What a joke this is
The same goes for quality of university in Malaysia.
Our local universities publish the most research papers in quantity but not in the quality of research?
Best network (with or without tarmac). We can have paths across the field / gardens, cars on pedestrian path and motorcycle running opposite way on walk path etc. These are indeed advanced sophisticated network! Vietnam is our next close competitor.
By the way, the voters are likely toured by our gov delegate on Jln Syioksendiri under NothingToHide initiative before WEF.
Fyi, WEF is not a reputable authority when it comes to rankings or ratings. They are akin to a NGO that is privately funded, most often by government’s and large multinationals, with the purpose of being seen in good light.
I wonder how much did Najib paid WEF to say this. According to PR macais our roads are worse than Zimbabwe, Somalia, and Talibanistan put together. This must be lie.
Why can’t be the PR that told us lies? I’m not supporting any political parties now, as NO political parties are trustable AT ALL. They always say fighting for the people but behind the scenes, all are money sucking bastards.
We like to say we are the best in everything. Actually, all lies. The only thing we are good at is kahwin empat and kongkek mistress. That Malaysia is the champion. Even top than Mat Salleh.
Malaysia Top Kahwin 4 Poor you…don’t get enough breastmilk from your mom when you were toddler? No wonder your brain didn’t work well
Keep it for yourself you only spit to sky
Whoa, i saw relation between kongkek mistress and potholes…
Woeful ignorance.
I am baffled. I drove across Germany, Austria, Slovakia and The Czech Republic back in 2009/10 and the roads, be it on the highways (autobahn) or even smaller B-roads were way better than ours.
First, Proton on par with Volvo, now road better than Sweden… Ini memang buat aku sakit buntut.
Yela. Somemore worse when it is said by Mat Salehs. Terus kena sula by their 10″, better than dear leader.
Malaysia boleh! But honestly, unfair to compare Malaysian road & Sweden/Norway/Canada roads which are in the snow belt, so their weather changes are more drastic from extreme cold in winter to mild warmth in summer. The thick & heavy snow sitting on the ground for months in winter eventually melt into mud in spring. I think that may just destroy roads. Having said that, we do have hot weather & heavy rain here (and loads of banjir in December/January). So, maybe we are good at maintaining roads after all. Haha.
damn……
i would rate it 3.5 out of 5 stars
The survey never ask us, Sabahan & Sarawakie.
Again, woeful ignorance.
Come sabah drive one round and rate again
The report is for extensive and efficient, which means Network and not potholes, uneven or hazardous roads, we could have roads flooded by river 6 days a week but still get a high rating due to our extensiveness, don’t forget that even unpaved, gravel and dirt roads are considered roads too. Not to mention bridges build by a couple of branches is also considered as extensive… I.E. this report in Malaysian context is absolute rubbish…
don’t make comparison with other country, just compare among malaysian states
I thought the headline says ‘Malaysia’s roads better than Sweden, Denmark – WTF’ LOL
You’ve been trolled. LOL
Utter horseshit!
The Malaysian roads are dangerous and totally destroyed my cars’ rubber, wheels, suspension, absobers, steering rack, and probably other hundreds of components that will lead to failure and $$$ outflow
Just because is published doesn’t mean is true.
And Idris Jala did say our crime rate is lowest… I suppose we have to believe also.
Certain roads only….how many riders and drivers had died because of our ‘road traps’!!!!! Dare to say better anymore!!!
Keyword – based off a SURVEY and not a SYSTEMATIC STUDY
#Facepalm
Who cares, Same Lorrrr also can create more facts – based on his ‘genius’ thinking
those surveyor conduct their test in sepang circuit?
ask them to drive in Kota Damansara then only judge
And the road of Cheras as well
I been once accident in the tunnel next to the curve there. a big and deep pot hole there and no light. I am new to that area and cannot skip it due to right hand side has a lorry. so, i just let the car go in the big pot hole which i assume should b swallow. how I know it was about 6 inches deep? my sport rim, drive shaft, absorber all gone immediately and tyre flat. lucky my car never turn over that time. FYI i am driving 50kmh only. fxxk it
Lubang Jaya (SJ)
Usual Sickening Jam (USJ)
Come and try(drive!!) here, and see how many times you can skip the traps…you think playing games, have lots of life to spend!!!!!
been to a couple of asian, australia and europe countries, i can say this report is rubbish
the survey is base on money spent on network and maintenance (our maintenance suck big time, fix ala-kadar so you can fix it again)..all base on paper.. money + corruption = peanut
Pen malaysia maybe yes i guess?? but not sarawak and definately not sabah roads
What is this story about?
“Best network of tarmac road” or “better maintained roads”?
Both are 2 different thing. One is about coverage while the other is about quality of the road.
how much they get paid to get this result?
All I know is: Sini ada Lubang,,, tampal. Sana ada lubang,,, Tampal…
Then kereta also kena tampal….
from a scale of 1-7, I would give our road a 3. And for goodness sake, please increase the height of manhole on the road as the road is re-tared. This can pose a danger to motorcyclist.
FYI Taiwan is Taiwan. It’s not under People republic china
F.Y.I Taiwan is not a country… Why they called chinese taipei not taiwan?
I wonder how is the survey done…because no way our road condition is top 20 in the world..blocked drainage after heavy downpour causes flood, stones everywhere, unclear lane painting,terrible signage (usually right in front of the exit) and many more
Tarmac at what price read toll.
We use the road everyday, is the result true or not, we know better. Our road system is not bad, just corruption that makes the road:
1. sinks due to insufficient ballast (Cutting from 60mm to 30mm).
2. always in need of repair due to favoritism when choosing contractor for road maintenance.
Wait, i got a doubt with world economic forum survey over best tarmac road quality. This is so wrong and in fact Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea road system is far way superior than any countries.
no wonder they build Volvo’s there!
My car tire burst after hitting a pot hole. Is it possible to claim from kerajaan negeri or majlis bandaraya? Has anybody done this?
If its BN states, go ahead claim due to Gov fault.
If its PR states, no claim due to user problem. PR is perfect just ur driving sucks.
under the MARRIS system, road maintenance of no longer handled by JKR. the federal government pays rm1200 per km per year to each PBT and it is up to the PBT to maintain the roads under their jurisdiction.
so, if your tires get damaged and you have sufficient proof go ahead and lodge a complaint. they have the budget to spare.
problem is, sometimes they don’t have the manpower to check each road. how can one fix something if you don’t know it’s broken, right? ranting online isn’t enough, it needs to be an official report.
another problem is the higher ups have a tendancy to choose the same contractor despite a history of shoddy workmanship. i refuse to comment on that here.
Yes. Malaysia is among the top because government is superb in “everything to hide”.
Everything to hide…. You mean road also can hide?
Oh not really. My driving is perfectly fine. It’s the poor road condition with the pot hole right in the middle. I was avoiding this motorcyclist who swerved out from a T junction without stopping with no regard for his own safety. The pot hole was there and claimed my front right tyre. I was cursing that biker like mad, LOL! Had he followed the traffic rules, none of this would have happened.
If compared paid highway with the world highway. Yes is on the correct rank. But if compared to the town in malaysia. Eg kuala lumpur. Then the ranking is lower.
Not i like see malaysia in low rank but the truth is too many potholes in malaysia road. If the town/city council really work hard to keep maintain. Then we should be on the very high rank.
Then we should proud at.
i can confirm roads in UK especially in MAnchester is horrible..pot holes everywhere in the city centre. bumpy as hell.. the only well maintained roads probably are in central london..
try to ride and drive at old klang road until kinrara, then people will know how bad our road was built and maintained. Maintenance of road in local governments term is, make it worst. When there is a potholes in a road then after numerous reports to local gov, they will do maintenance. The very next day we can see a new speed breaker emerged in the middle of the road suddenly where the maintenance has been done for potholes. Magic oh!!!
some how i found this rating stupid, malaysia got no.19?
Must be a joke ~
Malaysia government and non-government bodies never connect with each other about the roads, you could see some people work under the government pave the road earlier but few days later, you will see digging happens, either its syabas, indah water, tnb or Tm or other company or bodies, but they never contact with SPAD
if their working speed of digging good, the hole can be pave on the same day, if not weeks or month we have to suffer…
if he hole pave in the same day, it could be worst, paving the road need time to flatens the soil below but what they do was just simply put back the soil and pave the tar, either the soil sink after the few days of the tar later break off, no people give a damn afterward…
Duh, a lot of money were spend on making the road smooth, although there are still some potholes on the road, but overall malaysia’s road is quite smooth
Give some credit to the authority of Malaysia, please.When getting some positive feedbacks on Malaysia, you tend to have some reservation on it’s credibility, if given any bad reports, we aren’t happy either. Come on Gregory Sze, let’s give ourselves and the people of Malaysia some credits. Everybody in Malaysia works very hard too. The road system and the bitumen road network in Malaysia is as good, and in some area is better than in Western Australia, as far as I am concerned. If you take into consideration the total distance in kilometer of 4 lanes or 6 lanes of highway or expressway, Malaysia wins hands down as compare to New Zealand or Australia. I have been working in both countries for 15 years now.
No kidding s***t!
We have the worse road, end of story, and I never believe internet news anymore.
If you believe dear leader and Bersih, you can believe anything on the internet. LOL
Joke of the year I guess they did not factor in the roads in Sabah and Sarawak!
how about in sub-zero temperature?
r m’sian roads better?
Another shiok sendiri kind of report…U know…if every month they publicise something like thing…over and over again…even a lie can becomes truth…this they really make my day :)
I still can remember the last time my town council re-tar the road at my place here due to Hari Malaysia Menteri Besar visit. All road the road route taken by MB is new.
Usually, local town council will re-tar road whenever election is coming, or by election and visited by MB or PM.
Rakyat need to voice up to urge current Gov to allow Rakyat to elect local town council that really serve Rakyat and not just sitting in aircon room enjoying life wasting tax payer money.
i just wished current Gov would have the courage to come out with an Apps(GST got MyKira) that allow smartphone use to take photo, post, make report on bad road, dangerous road, so user can avoid or be cautious about the road condition(of particular concerned route)
also we can see IF local town council or JKR is working or sleeping!
I am a Malaysian living in UK and just got back from Belgium and I must agree the roads in Malaysia are actually quite nice and smooth compared to the two countries mentioned.
Invite them for a short drive in subang Usj and see!
Invite them for a short drive in subang USJ and see….if they made it alive!
playing the blame game feels good but will get us nowhere. if there is a pothole is your area, Google up the phone number of your majlis perbandaran. better yet, their unit kejuruteraan. Lodge a formal complaint, worth complete details eg location, severity…
based on my experience, you will usually see it fixed within a month.
before anyone here scoffs in disbelief, i would like to remind everyone that the contractors fixing that pothole get paid. easy money, they *want* the work. and the person in charge also wants to fulfill his annual kpi and get a better promotion.
win win. all you have to do is Google and make a phone call…
Paul Tan that stupid survey forgot the other half of Malaysia on Borneo Island I dare you to drive from Sibu to Bintulu.
Oh c’mon, don’t say Europe, just Asia and look at our neighbor Thailand they have better roads than us no kiddin’. (Well road cleanliness in Thailand is another thing since it’s no in the topic so…)
Wake up Malaysians don’t get fooled
Gregory Sze, you are just writing this crap article…!! So obvious that you do not know majority overseas road condition and dare to write this article ? Go do your research better before you come out with this ranking… shame on you…!!
Did this surveyor also get “paid” by the govn ? I think nowadays everything can be buy not only Malaysian but also foreigners.
rubbish. been to denmark. the roads there are much better than ours
Please come see yourself the rural road condition in East Malaysia. Sarawak in particular.
Even Sawarak road is better than KL
Maybe they did survey at our highway or putrajaya. If the survey is in rural sabah or sarawak the rating scale surely not that good. Or they can try survey the motorcycle path at the intersection of jalan 222 pj/federal highway, where during raining season if motorcylist do not go out from the path, their motorcycle will be submarine already, tenggelam dalam tunnel ma!
Think this survey was mainly done in the Peninsular..
Who knows what effect on the ratings will be if roads in Sabah Sarawak were taken into study
Those pavement at every entrance of every construction site, not sure what it is for but those are always terribly done.
This report goes to show that not all reports are accurate, sure it’s ranked 19 and not 91?!?!?
Which WEF report you are referring to? I need your assistance to get the right WEF report. Thank you
seriously, our road not bad but if those dept no simply outsource contractors with no quality or their inside kaki, maybe our ranking is not #19.
I fall down from my chair having read this article.
Northsouth plus highway
Certain Stretch but all no road marking, poorly reflected marking or bend guard rail
Uneven paved road, and repair plus poor tarmac surface
Lead to the road accident.
Federal and state road, pot holes are every where…construction works everywhere which lead to a poor maintained road..
Now is better then Sweden?
Not agree and biased
now, let’s do a research which country has the most potholes. let’s see where malaysia rank.
to be able to compare, you must experience other road condition and compare apple to apple with other countries. you cant decide based solely on your perceive quality of our roads.
Better than Sweden, Denmark? Do you just always look back? While you get a grade of rank 49 in school, would you tell your dad and mom that, “I am better than the 50 one”?
Sentiasa bershukur…