Politicians can say the darndest things. Occasionally, they are humorous. More often than not, their glaring idiocy is evident by the ignorant statements that they issue and the desperate backpedalling to contain the damage afterwards. And then we have Penang State Traffic Management Committee chairman Dato’ Dr Teng Hock Nan who was reported by The Star to have said “buses with facilities for wheelchair passengers would have to stop longer for boarding and could disrupt arrival schedules.”

Hello Dr. Teng, what century are you living in? While many cities in other countries have already implemented inclusive transportation policies, here you are taking Penang and Malaysia back to the stone age of public transportation. Yabba dabba doo. Do you realise that bus schedules can be disrupted by many other factors including weather and traffic conditions, and buses breaking down? Why are you putting the blame on wheelchairs users only? Since you are so keen in ensuring that the buses keep to the arrival schedules, why not get cars, motorcycles, lorries and vans off the roads to eliminate traffic jams that Penang is now notorious for so as to ensure that the buses arrive right on the dot?

Dr. Teng, your logic truly baffles me. Let’s say there are ten people waiting for a bus at one stop. The time they take to board the bus will definitely be stretched by two to threefold as compared to the boarding duration of one or two passengers. Will this not disrupt arrival schedules as well? Is the bus going to pick these ten passengers up at the peril of messing up the bus schedule? Or are you only singling out wheelchair users for the delay because it is easier to victimise us?

Accessible buses have come long way from the early days when lifts were fitted to get wheelchairs into high-platform buses. Boarding a wheelchair-using passenger with the lift can take up to five minutes. The advancement in bus building technology and design has brought about the proliferation of non-step buses where unassisted boarding time for a wheelchair user was considerably reduced to less than one minute as compared to the thirty seconds taken by a non-wheelchair user. Therefore, your reasoning that boarding wheelchair users will delay the arrival schedule of buses is moot. How much headway can you gain from the extra thirty seconds?

You also said that “the state government will bring in buses equipped with facilities for wheelchair passengers once the new RapidPenang bus system is running smoothly.” How long will it take before the RapidPenang bus system will run smoothly? RapidKL has been at it since 2004 but the system is still far from perfect. What if the bus system continues to be plagued by kinks after ten years?

Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Dato’ Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil has stated that Malaysia will sign and ratify the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) with some reservations during a seminar on the Convention in March. She also informed participants that the Disabled Persons Bill will be tabled in the Parliament later this year. How will a statement by a top state government officer like you reflect on Malaysia’s commitment to both the CRPD and the Bill?

Article 9 in the CRPD states that “To enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, States Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas.”

Truth be told Dr. Teng, your statement reeks of discrimination. In the same breath, you said that “such buses do not fit into the first phase of the RapidPenang bus service system which we have to ensure runs efficiently first.” By saying that, you have effectively segregated disabled persons from mainstream society. Fifty years ago in the USA, people were segregated in public buses based on their skin colour. Fifty years later in Malaysia, people are being denied the use of public buses based on their physical impairments. The issues may seem different but in reality it is different sides of the same coin.

Our nation is celebrating her fiftieth year of Independence. If we still cannot get this right after fifty years, we have not progressed at all. Apakah maksudnya kemerdekaan sekiranya segolongan masyarakat masih sengaja disisihkan dari arus pembangunan negara? It is also ironic that we will soon have a Malaysian in the International Space Station 350km above us but a wheelchair user cannot even travel conveniently from his house in Gelugor to Gurney Drive which is a distance of about 20km apart only.

Disabled persons must be included in mainstream society. We are the public. We are you. Why are you treating us like second class citizens in our own country? Why must the needs of society at large precedes those of disabled persons? Can we not grow at the same pace? Disabled person are already lagging so far behind in all aspects. Now that the government has the opportunity and the resources to help bridge the gap, you are still not willing to do it. Why? These are questions begging answers. Public transport must be for all, not only for those who can walk. Apa macam Dr. Teng?

Nation
Thursday April 26, 2007

Buses for disabled later

PENANG: The state government will bring in buses equipped with facilities for wheelchair passengers once the new RapidPenang bus system is running smoothly.

The RapidPenang bus service is scheduled to start operations in August with 150 buses initially.

State Traffic Management Committee chairman Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan said buses with facilities for wheelchair passengers would have to stop longer for boarding and could disrupt arrival schedules.

“Such buses do not fit into the first phase of the RapidPenang bus service system which we have to ensure runs efficiently first,” he said.

Dr Teng said another 100 new buses with facilities for wheelchair passengers would be brought in.

He said the 150 buses for the first phase were equipped with special seats for the elderly, pregnant women and children.

“They are low-floor buses, meaning that the elderly and pregnant women do not have to climb many steps to board them,” Dr Teng added.

The state government’s decision to bring in non-disabled friendly buses has drawn flak from the Barrier-Fee Environment and Accessible Transport Group (BEAT).

Its coordinator Christine Lee said cost should not be a justification for not bringing in such buses.

The Support Group Society for the Blind of Malaysia secretary Abdul Karim Stuart Russell wrote to The Star suggesting that the Penang government used buses equipped with all the necessary facilities for everyone to use.

Disabled persons in this country are hard-pressed to believe that the government is concerned with the challenges they are facing. Despite countless pleas not to be left out in the nation’s progress, they are still struggling to cope with environmental and attitudinal barriers all the time. To add insult to injury, past mistakes are recreated in the present.

Rapid KL made a major blunder when they never took the needs of disabled persons into account and acquired non-accessible buses in 2004. Three years down the road, RapidPenang is making the same mistake when Penang State Local Government and Traffic Management Committee Chairman Datuk Dr. Teng Hock Nan announced that “for the time being, we will not be having special buses for the disabled who use wheelchairs.”

In respond to Dr. Teng’s statement, the Barrier-free Environment and Accessible Transport Group (BEAT) called for a press conference on April 14 to dispel the misconception that disabled persons and wheelchair users need special buses. These so called “special buses” are in reality non-step buses that are widely used as public buses in Japan, Australia and Hong Kong. Apart from being accessible and having places for wheelchairs inside the buses, it is just like other regular buses that the public can use.

It will be a grave mistake and an act of discrimination against disabled persons on RapidPenang’s part in not providing such accessibility. Public buses have a lifespan of between ten to twenty years, depending on how well they are maintained. Do disabled persons have to wait another ten to twenty years? Why is the government not making an effort to get it right from the beginning now that they have the opportunity to do so?

North
Tuesday April 17, 2007

Don’t leave us out, urge wheelchair-bound commuters

WHEELCHAIR users do not want to be left behind when RapidPenang’s 150 buses ply the streets in Penang in August.

Barrier-Free Environment and Accessible Transport Group (Beat) coordinator Christine Lee said that non-step, low floor buses should be made available for the public, including senior citizens and wheelchair bound commuters.

She expressed concern over a statement by State Local Govern-ment, Traffic Management, Informa-tion and Community Relations Committee chairman Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan that the state would not provide special buses for the disabled who use wheelchairs.

She pointed out that the statement contradicted Transport Mini-ster Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy’s announcement that the transport needs and interests of disabled persons would be included in the public transport master plan, and Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop’s assurance that new buses in Penang would be ‘disabled-friendly’.

Beat, a coalition of 16 NGOs for disabled persons, urged Rapid-Penang, Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad to consider “every Penan-gite’s right to accessible public transport, irrespective of the person’s condition”.

“Non-step buses are already widely used in other countries such as Japan and Australia. They are convenient for senior citizens, pregnant women and adults with prams,” Beat assistant coordinator Peter Tan elaborated.

He said that he had no problem moving around Japan on public transportation when he was there, despite being wheelchair-bound.

“Costs should not be a justifica-tion for not bringing in accessible buses. It will still cost the state government to do so in future. Wheelchair users who are denied their accessibility to buses may not be able to go to work or participate in various activities.

“They’ll be further marginalised from mainstream society,” Tan added.

The day came and went. I was busy with something else. It had dragged on for so long that waiting a little longer did not matter anymore. The deadline was April 24. I could afford to wait for another week or two. Nevertheless, Harcharan called last Friday evening to tell me that one of the major outstanding matters in Mum’s estate had been resolved. The immensity of it did not hit me until early this morning.

I am glad that one of Mum’s final wishes had been fulfilled. Although this load had been taken off my back, it was one that I was willing to shoulder no matter what. The times that I had failed Mum are innumerable. It is such irony that I am determined to fulfil her wishes only after her death. This was the last instruction that she had entrusted me with before she passed away. The only right thing for me to do is to execute it.