NST Leader: Of boat and bus tragedies

New Straits Times

a day ago

BE it safety on roads or at sea, the Malaysian story is the same: a tale of repeated tragedies.
On Saturday, it was a boat tragedy off Pulau Perhentian. There, two children and an adult lost their lives when a boat capsized in stormy weather.
A child, who is reported to be in critical condition, is among 12 victims of the tragedy being treated at Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital in Kuala Terengganu.
The 22-year-old skipper of the boat, who has five drug-related offences to his name, tested positive for drugs. As if this wasn't bad enough, the travel agency and the boat operator were continuing to operate despite their licences having expired in April.
The skipper also did not ensure that the passengers wore life jackets. A. Sangeeta, who lost her husband and daughter in the tragedy, shared this with the New Straits Times on Monday on the passengers' request for life jackets: "My husband and his friends asked the boatman for life jackets, but he told them that they were wet and reassured us the trip would only take 10 to 15 minutes."
The plot thickens with the Terengganu Tourism, Culture, Environment and Climate Change Committee chairman Datuk Razali Idris revealing on Monday that the tourist boat had operated without night-time approval. It gets worse.
The boat was only allowed to carry 10 passengers, but it ferried 15. And this is just the preliminary findings of the Marine Department. Despite so many breaches of the law and regulations, it was business as usual for the two.
Why were they allowed to continue operating for so long? A case of enforcement gone wrong? Sure reads like it.
Looks like we need an enforcer to keep an eye on another enforcer, who in turn has to keep an eye on yet another, and so it goes on ad nauseam. After almost every tragedy, it is a replay of the same narrative. It is not as if Malaysia doesn't have laws and regulations; there are plenty of them.
The problem isn't with the laws and regulations, but with the enforcement of them, say lawyers. Is it so hard to throw the statute book at them? Or are there other factors at work here?
The Terengganu government is proposing that the Marine Department either revoke or suspend the licences of tourist boat operators and skippers who are found to be negligent.
But why must the regulators and enforcers wait for tragedies to happen before they invoke those provisions?
If at sea there is a lack of robust enforcement, it is similarly wanting on our roads. Road safety experts, like lawyers, express similar views about the status of enforcement in the country: nothing to write home about.
Take the seat belt rule for express and tour buses that came into force yesterday. The experts laud it, but at the same time, they worry about its enforcement.
They are not being worrywarts. They have seen it all before. The seat belt rule was in force in 2020 for new express and tour buses, but not strictly enforced. How about buses made before 2020? They will be given time.
Isn't five years enough time? Apparently not.