Malaysian government undaunted by cabbies’ threat to vote for Opposition

KUALA LUMPUR — Putrajaya on Thursday (Jan 11) said it will not be cowed by taxi groups’ threat to vote against the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition in the upcoming general election.

Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the federal government is making efforts to resolve issues faced by taxi drivers following the rise in popularity of e-hailing services such as Uber and Grab, and that it was not siding with the latter.

“I will ask Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai to meet them (taxi drivers). (Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department) Nancy Shukri, who oversees the Land Public Transport Commission, will also meet them to resolve these issues.

“There is no need for threats, we have never been afraid of threats,” he said.

Earlier this week, taxi consortium Big Blue Taxi Services founder Shamsu­bahrin Ismail declared that taxi drivers will give their votes to the Opposition if the government fails to address their concerns over the growth of ride-sharing services.

“We, the taxi industry, will give our full vote to PH in the next election if the government is not sincere, honest and transparent in looking into the issues facing the industry,” he said in a statement.

“Stop the drama because we know the election is around the corner, and prime minister, please be a man by keeping to your words. You promised in the 2013 elections that you would not betray the taxi industry and affect taxi drivers’ rice bowl.”

The Malaysian election has to be held by August.

This is not the first time Mr Shamsubahrin have made such threats.

In August 2016, Mr Shamsubahrin declared taxi drivers’ support for Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) if the government legalises Uber and Grab.

PPBM is the opposition party set up by former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad after the latter left the ruling United Malays National Organisation (Umno) over differences with Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Currently, there are about 77,000 registered taxi drivers in Malaysia, while there are no official statistics on the number of Uber and Grab drivers.

Malaysia’s taxi associations have been unhappy with the emergence of ride-sharing services, claiming they suffer big losses and face unfair competition.

Taxi drivers had held strikes against ride-sharing services, complaining that drivers from these services were “stealing” their customers.

There were also reports of intimidation and attacks by taxi drivers against Uber and Grab’s drivers. AGENCIES