A Stupid mayor With Stupid Proposal

Kuching
Thursday, 8th April 2010

Stupid Mayor With Stupid Proposal Came Under Fire By DAP Assemblyman

Kuching City South Mayor James Chan's plan to collect parking offence compounds and overdue parking notices and linking it to a 'freeze' on offenders' properties has come under fire.

In a press conference Wednesday, Chan said there would be a linkage with relevant authorities and departments on parking compounds. If people want to sell their properties, they would be in for a hard time if they have outstanding parking fees to be settled.

The plan for such a move did not auger well with Wong King Wei, Special Assistant to MP Kuching, Chong Chieng Jen.

Wong, in a press conference this afternoon, hit out at such a ridiculous idea and urged Chan to drop such plans.

Wong said parking compound may range from a few ringgits to a few hundreds but to ‘freeze’ one properties to force the people to pay would be too much.

“Some properties are worth ten of thousands if not millions,” he said. He said it was such an abuse of human rights.

He added that based on the principle of law, a personal debt did not allow the creditor to caveat even the debtor’s land.

Citing an example of the Miri Municipal Council's suggestion to the Road Transport not to renew a driver’s road tax if he has outstanding parking coupon debts, Wong said such ruling was against the violation of Article 13 of the Federal Constitution.

Outstanding traffic summons

He cited a court case - Leonard Lim vs Director of JPJ - two years ago when the latter prevented Lim from paying his road tax due to outstanding traffic summons.

The High Court ruled that by blacklisting the road user due to an unsettled traffic summon is tantamount to compelling him to admit to the alleged offence and is against the principal that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The High Court further decided that to deny a person of a motor vehicle licence is to deny the person the use and enjoyment of his motor vehicle which is in contravention of Article 13 of the Federal Constitution.

Wong said the judge further stated that the applicant was alleged of a traffic offence which is criminal in nature. He said in the unsettled parking coupons, it is not even a criminal allegation, it is a merely an unsettled debt. The city council should not force the people to admit to the unsettled debt unless they chose to do so in free will. To recover the debt, the city council should take civil Court action before a person can be adjudged as a debtor.

Asking the Mayor and others city council to learn from the court case, Wong said they should think of other legal ways to collect the outstanding parking fees and not to resort to such action.

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