“Aiya, don’t rush to pay for your traffic saman, wait for discount, sure got one lah.” You’ve likely heard the line countless times before, and for good reason, because that’s how it usually goes. No doubt, all of you should be familiar with the number of discount campaigns for traffic summonses that have come about over the years, the most recent being the one-month RM50 special payment rate announced last week.
Sure, one could argue that such campaigns generate revenue collection for the government that would otherwise be, well, lost or delayed, but the practice goes to show how most people don’t worry about the implications of committing a traffic offence, seeing that very few bother to pay up when they should.
The discount culture feeds this, and it’s something that needs to be stopped, according to a couple of road safety experts. As both put it, offering discounts on fines for such offences is counterintuitive and will simply make drivers disregard traffic laws further, as FMT reports.
One of them is Law Teik Hua of Universiti Putra Malaysia’s road safety research centre, who said that the approach of offering discounts for summonses dilutes the impact of law enforcement. “No one is going to respect the law if they know that, at the end of the day, the government will give a discount,” he told the publication.
Law said a traffic summonses were meant to be hard on offenders to deter them from breaking the law. However, the government viewed them as a way to earn revenue rather than as a penalty. He called on the government to enforce the Kejara demerit points system that was currently in place to discourage people from committing traffic offences, stating that the “pain” of having one’s driver’s licence suspended or even revoked would serve as a good deterrent.
Tengku Ahmad Marwan Tengku Mahmud, a road safety affiliate with the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS), agreed with Law that the demerit points system should be enforced, saying that it was lacking at the moment.
Pointing out that developed countries did not offer discounts on traffic summonses, he said that applying demerit points would work, but it had to be enforced in a thorough, consistent manner. It all comes down to authorities having the willpower to ensure that happens, he said.
“In the UK, people obey traffic rules because they know that even though they may be able to pay the summons, they will not be able to run away from the demerit points. So, even rich people over there are not willing to commit traffic violations because they know once enough points are taken off for the violations, their licence will be revoked or cancelled by the authorities,” he said.
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It is stupid to begin with
Next time,a dude commit crime intentionally,can ask for “rebates” from the hakim?
U pay $50 out of $300…how many percent rebate? Oh my..84%.
In other words,YAB Anwar PM..a dude no need feel any remorse by committing the blardy offence 5 more times.
Is this the MADANI concept of government?Far from it,Sir.
Correct. Anyone wud guessed the bajet is better spent to feed 70 totally imbecile & incompetent minister & Duta khas during 33mths of Malaysia dark era… using Saman money or not..
Obviously nothing beneficial to the rakyat was done by those clueless goondoos.. Lost of jobs & rezeki mata pencarian, some even Kibar bendera putih bcuz putus makanan. We even gotta dip into our hard earned Kwsp savings to survive. Luckily for us rakyat marhaen the corrupted rule of PNjana rasuah had ended for gud.
we luv malaysia. Since 20 years ago we had been enjoying annual discount festival to settle our road traffic samans.
full kudos to gahmen PH BN. People Happy , Better Nation..
Our culture is all about those 3.3 4.4 5.5 etc. discount days, no one bothers to buy stuff when they aren’t on sale, so this translates to saman too, lol
Penalty has nothing to do with poor or rich,
Only ignorance ppl not willing to pay even discounted, and finding more excuse and giving meaningless justification.
You see the poor police officer in crippling heat dishing out say thousands of summons in a month,only to realise a month later a smart chap at a ceramah,said oh..only need pay $50 per summon.What an injustice to the poor PDRM officer rain or shine.
Might as well dont have the road block..just use a blardy loudspeaker to warn people or use cctv to capture offending vehicles n mail them the summon.Make sense?
Most of the times, our kind & respectful police officer only set up roadblocks & gv nasihat to the offending road users esp when Hari raya is around the corner.. How d’ya Saman an underaged biker riding without lesen anyway.
hakikat nya Rakyat much happier now w the current ruling govt. Syabas to us smart voters!
I’ve been seeing this grammar mistakes quite a lot.
“Government urged to…” means the gov is urging someone. “Government was urged to…” means someone is urging the government.
Hope that this helps.
It’s just semantics bro
Probably one of those shitty things introduced during Mhateeer era.. Targeting b40 groups for votes
It’s our culture. The Prime Minister who abolishes it would be the one who would be booted out by the people.
Saman rahmah…
We have demerit system in place but never been used, what a waste. You can have money to pay summons but you have limited merit points to go with.
If they follow demerit system, then no more offenders left on the road. Which means no more summon and no income for JPJ / PDRM
Instead of discount, why don’t they increase the penalty for those late payers, say 10% per each delayed month. Means if you delayed in for a year, you’ll have to pay additional 120%.
Agree. And those pay early should get discount. Late payer should be panelized more.
I was just thinking the same thing. Maybe even a discount if settled within 10 days, then penalty after the grace period.
But alas, the demerit point system makes more long term sense in changing behavior.
I nak bayar pun tak boleh… takde saman langsung,.. aiks tak untung la cam ni… orang buat salah untung, i tak buat salah tak untung langsung.
pergi la buat saman kalau nak bayar , elstupido
Government need to stop this unhealthy discount practices.
I would recommend ; government need to stop renewing road tax and licence if the traffic offender not settling the summons before the next renewal of his road tax or licence.
This will ensure them to pay summons timely and will stop go against traffic rules in future.
Law Teik Hua must be fun guy to have at parties
It’s human nature to take the easy way out, same goes to the government. As you rightly pointed out, implementation of demerit system will entail too much hard work and perseverance which is akin to mission impossible given the current work culture of government staff. A total reset is required. Given too the mentality of Malaysians, who is say they won’t continue to drive without a valid licence. To enforce obedience of demerit system will be another huge mountain to climb.
I agree with fellow netizens. Government should stop giving discounts to traffic offences so that, they won’t repeat the same mistake again and obey the traffic rules. If possible, increase the traffic summon rate from RM300.00 to RM1000.00.
Even you video camera 4k record the offense they also don’t bother to take action now!
for me, give only discount to people who have cumulative summon amount less than rm500. more than rm500 dont give discount.
Pls give discounts. It is given to our fellow
Malaysian. Live and let live. Can all of us be united on this and stop playing judge!!
too many stupid dumbass people comment here, i suspect they are walanon gay supporters.