MGG Pillai Commentary View

<< Previous || Next >>

Touch 'n Go offers a new sure-fail Touch 'n No Go card

The Multimedia Super Corridor is not what it proclaims. Its hopes and intentions, in the hands of the bureaucrat and cronies of the establishment ensured it. Many high technology projects it started failed, running into debt of hundreds of millions of ringgit. No one talks of it, least of all he who wanted it to show Malaysia can be at the cutting edge of technology, the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed. So frustrated he is at it that he visited Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states in India, where modest computer cities packed with solid professionals have the world beating to its doors. In India, the best talent is sought; in Malaysia, the mediocre backed by a money-man crony who wants the quickest possible return. A high technology film village costing tens of hundreds of millions of ringgit is planned, the money now gone, the village back to the jungle it once was, and abandoned. One in Andhra Pradesh, built quietly and by a business man, mints money. A well-regarded high talent advisory board advises the Prime Minister on the MSC, but besides giving them a free trip to Malaysia several times a year, little is achieved. It failes because it revolves around Dr Mahathir. No one else seems to be interested, or is allowed to hog the headlines. And he retires next year.

This worldview seeps down. At the practical level, computerisation is a scam. It is so cronies of the establishment and others could make money at public expense. Let us take just one example: Touch 'n Go. This is touted as an easy way to not queue at toll booths. Just flash your Touch 'n Go card, and you drive through, with credit cards automatically topping it up when funds run low. Motorists did all that, but it failed, and when losses ran into the millions. It forgot to make deductions from credit cards automatic. That had to be done manually, and the paper work killed it. Motorists then had to queue at toll booths, and pay cash, to update their Touch 'n Go cards. Then other toll operators brought their own cards to be used only on its toll booths. When all is running well, the motorist caught in a traffic jam, because the special booths alloted to Touch 'N Go are full of motorists paying cash to go through. The Touch 'n Go user is in a traffic jam at his booth because it allowed all and sundry to clear it and pay cash, giving him no advantage or convenience for paying in advance. It failed, and deservedly.

Now comes Scam Two. The Touch 'n Go scheme is relaunched, with a much desired feature: Auto Reload. When funds run low, all you have to do is to flash your credit card at the booth, and it would be topped up. There must be a catch, and there is. About 30 banks, foreign and local, issue Master Card and Visa credit cards. But only three -- Affin Bank, Hong Leong Bank, and Bumiputra Commerce Bank -- have this feature. If you have cards from the other banks and financial institutions, which is the majority of highway users, you are out on your luck. You queue and suffer the penalty for not using the preferred card. Or apply for it if you must. The Touch 'n Go chief operating officer, Ms Swinder Grewal, is oblivious to it all. She waxes eloquent in a letter to Touch 'n Go card holders: she promises you peace of mind "knowing that you will always have sufficient funds in your Touch 'n Go card"; auto reloading via affiliated banks; and auto reload combined with a credit facility, "all in one convenience card". In other words, if you want to make full use of all these facilities, get a credit card from one of the three banks. Could she explain why?

But this is how it works in Malaysia. Your have to fit into the system, not the system adapting to your needs. Look at Identity Cards. A workable system is destroyed with a new "fool-roof" card. A few years later, the government decides, as usually without the usual care and planning, on a computerised IC, which contains all your personal details readily available to any one with a special reader. Can you imagine a clueless policeman pushing the MyKad into the reader, and knowing what your bank balance is? Or giving wrong information because the reader is faulty? Is a near-perfect system in place before such highly computerised data bases are encrypted into your identity card? No. Why then the MyKad? The nephew of a former Malaysian finance minister is chairman of the company that provides the cards. He exports this technology to Myanmar, but the guinea pigs are at home. The system is in place so it would crash. Like the computerised passports. And the new driving licenses. Like the high technology Express Rail Link and the driverless LRTs. A few years down the line, the promised safety precautions are hived off to a crony, if it not already is, and all promises then forgotten in a greedy rush to the bank. The government then steps in to bail them out. As it already has the crony-run bus companies. And the LRTs.

It is not in a scam, as the North South Highway is, for collections to be not. The cronies of the establishment ripped off the government and the public when they built it, made money hands over fist at every level of subbing contracts, loaded the huge unrepayable debts on to the toll concessionaire, floated it on the stock market for another killing, ensured they are home free while the companies they ran were bankrupt. And minor scams set up so money would roll in for three decades. Touch 'n Go is one. If efficiency and convenience is what it had in mind, why did it not ensure all credit card holders to avail of this Auto Reload? Why did it restrict it only to the three banks?

Why were Master Card and Visa, and others like American Express and Diners' Club, not asked to provide it so all card issuers could avail of it. If I can buy a book from New Delhi with a Master Card or Visa issued by a local bank, why cannot I use that same card to top up my Touch 'n Go card? Petrol stations can, why not Touch 'n Go? Why should one need several Master Cards and Visa credit cards, so one is never embarrassed or shortchanged over minor purchases? If supermarkets and restaurants had Ms Swinder Grewal as their chief operating officer, it would make bankruptcy lawyers very happy indeed. I called the Touch 'n Go Careline for further information: As with many a consumer infoline, the girl at the counter could not answer more than the basic question on how I could use my Affin, Hong Leong or Bumiputra Commerce credit card and how I could not use any other. As I expected. When I am told how easy it is to use, and pay, for, I wait to see how long it would take to fail. Look at Indah Water Konsortium. Twelve years on, it still has not found way to make me pay for a service I did not sign up for. Touch 'n Go will soon be a synonym for Touch 'n No Go.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my