CAUSEWAY TOLL: Tit for tat — the people are trapped!

SINGAPORE - To be honest, I’ve been trying to avoid this subject. For the last few weeks I’ve been hoping this tired issue would resolve itself and that sanity would somehow prevail.

But as images of commuters and workers, stranded by striking bus​​es, trudging on foot along the causeway began appearing on my social media streams I knew it was time to address the mess at our borders.

Malaysia has now raised fees for private cars crossing from Singap​ore to Joho​re​ to RM9.70 (from RM2.70) and imposed a tariff of RM6.8​0 on crossing from JB to Singapore — where previously there had been no char​ge, ​so​ t​he cost of a round tr​i​p has risen from RM2.90 to RM16.50; a staggering 600 per cent increase.

The tar​i​ffs for buses and lorries have also risen drastically. Such a sudden and significant increase would have been deeply unacceptable if not the for the fact that Singapore recently increased its​ VEP, charging Malaysian vehicles entering the city-state S$35 (about RM90), up from S$20, and raised the monthly cost of a cross border goods vehicle permit from S$10 to S$40.

In fact, regardless of the pathetic “they started it” going on between the two governments the situation is unacceptable.

The citizens of our two nations are connected by deep historical, familial and economic ties — the ease of movement across our frontier is a basic right and we’ve now seen government bickering or worse — indifference, impinge on this right.

Singapore’s LTA has announced they are likely to match the MHA’s tariff increases, while Malaysia has pledged to introduce its own VEP. By year’s end, a​ round trip across the causeway could cost upwards of S$20 — plus VEP fees burdening commuters with a 1,000 per cent plus effective increase in costs.

I​f​ you look at this just in terms of the S$15 ​rise ​in Singapore’s VEP, for thousands of Malaysians who cross the causeway every day for work in a private vehicle, this means at least S$4000 (260-280 working days a year) in extra costs, and most of those who do make this journey aren’t high wage earners, in SGD terms.

On the Singapore side in the last week, since the new charges were announced, I’ve seen family and friends, people who have invested in Iskandar and the prospect of deeper co-operation between our countries, see their lifestyles become unviable. At the sharp end, therefore, this latest cross straits spat is damaging lives.

But even to call it a spat is to give the two parties too much credit. The PAP and BN are no more enemies than Tom and Jerry — they are a long-playing double act. The current generation of leaders know each other perfectly well.

Bilateral trade between the nations now stands at almost S$100 billion; Malaysia is Singapore’s largest trading partner. Our respective national leaders therefore aren’t rivals but partners, and at their worst collaborators in various bids to inconvenience the people of the Malaysian peninsula.

The toll tiff is really a matter of rank indifference. The LTA could and should have discussed its proposed fare increase with the Malaysian side before any final decisions were made.

I agree that the VEP and bridge tolls aren’t directly comparable and that increases in the COE and gantry charges have made the S$20 foreign vehicles pay to use Singaporean roads unfair.

However, this fare increase could have been staggered and not introduced without consultation forcing an inevitable, but still cack-handed, response from the Malaysian side.

Understandably, these actions have drawn varied reactions. Yet the sort of blasé response from Facebook nationalists — we just won’t go there anymore — misses the point; thousands of us live across borders, we have businesses, schools​, jobs,investments across the causeway and don’t really have choice.

A​s​ for the other argument — if you can’t afford it just take the bus and ease congestion. This is a view that can only come from people who have never taken a rush hour commuter bus over the causeway and it is particularly grating that authorities on both sides have suggested the price increases are a means of reducing congestion ie. getting more people on buses.

As someone who has travelled frequently between the two nations by rush hour bus I can say confidently the current cross-straits public transport system is severely lacking and not a viable means of transport between two serious economic partners.

Which bring us back to the main point; in reality, Singapore and Malaysia, their peoples and governments have a deep and complex relationship that should very easily allow the smooth management of two bridges.

VEP rises, therefore, should have been announced well in advance and launched in tandem with an improved bus system. While modest tariff increases on both sides could have been introduced with significant increase in the number of manned immigration booths as a means of reducing congestion.

Personally I’ve long believed in a permanent foot/cycle crossing and even a ferry crossing until MRT services materialise. Ultimately and evidently the solution to the recurring causeway conundrum is practical affordable steps that make it easier for people to move between our countries.

However rather than bringing people together, our rulers are driving them apart. But I’d like to believe — one positive of this ongoing tit-for-tat affair is this: our people are uniting with a shared goal to get to the other side. -Malay Mail