Kota Kinabalu: It was a huge relief for Md Qayyum Haziq Ag Jamal when he finally got his licence to ride a motorcycle – thanks to the MyLesen programme initiated by the Road Transport Department. The 17-year-old student from Putatan obtained his licence three months ago, but had been riding without one since Form Three.
"I used to ride my father's motorcycle without his knowledge but was always afraid of getting caught by the authorities because I had no licence," he said.
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"When I heard about the MyLesen programme, I decided to give it go, it is better to have a licence because it shows that you are really qualified to be on the road," he added.
Md Qayyum was among 10 students presented with a giant replica of their B2 class licence during the launch of the MyLesen programme at KK High School, Wednesday.
The programme was organised Winajasa Driving Institute (IMW) and officiated by the Road Transport Department Director-General Dato' Sri Ismail Ahmad.
The MyLesen programme is a collaboration between the RTD and driving institutions, which allows those above 16 to only pay RM299 for a B2 class licence to ride a motorcycle under 250cc instead of the normal RM350 fee.
"We have more than three million people in the country who need driving licences and a majority are students and youths, these are our target groups," said Ismail.
"We take this seriously because there are many students who travel from their homes to school on motorcycles despite having no licence, in some cases they have no choice because of the lack of other mode of transport such as buses or taxis," he said.
"They are not able to get their licence perhaps due to financial constraints, that is why we have this programme so that more can afford it."
A total of 65,000 youths obtained their B2 class licence under the first phase of the MyLesen which was launched last September and 5,000 are in Sabah.
This time around, the department hopes to get 85,000 youths registered under the MyLesen programme.
"We hope to register more participants under the MyLesen programme and expect to launch the third phase by September this year," he said.
On another note, he said, the department recorded a total of 6,706 road fatalities last year and out of the figure, 30 per cent involved those below 25.
"Out of the 30 per cent, almost 60 per cent are motorcyclists," he said, adding that the figure showed that there are about 18 road fatalities daily.
On cloned cars in the State, he said, there has been no reports received so far in Sabah or Sarawak.
Cloned cars are vehicles which have been smuggled into the country without paying customs tax, not registered and have false registration numbers.
"These cars are actually brought in from Singapore to the peninsula, because in Singapore they have a policy where cars above five years old will be disposed of.
"They will smuggle these cars into the peninsula and sell them at a cheap price on a cash basis, even luxury cars such as Mercedes would only cost between RM30,000 and RM40,000," he explained.
Also present were State RTD Director Shuhaili Mohd Taufek, IMW Chairman Dato Yusop Awang Besar, IMW Managing Director Wong Cheu Kheng and Persatuan Pengusaha Institut Memandu Sabah Chairman Willie Sondoh among others.
