Opinion
Thursday November 30, 2006
Time Government gives disabled another friendly nudge
YOUR report on the increase in toll fares come January 1 has naturally got many people worried, “Expect 10 sen to RM1 rise in toll rates” (The Star, Nov 29).
However, none are quite as alarmed and anxious over the news as the few hundred drivers with disabilities in the country.
Although little attention is given to them when our society thinks about motorists, theirs is a story that must be considered when the tolls go up.
Most handicapped Malaysians stay at home, not because they want to but because they have no choice.
Despite everything that has been said about how successful Malaysia is, public transportation is virtually out of bounds to them, with no buses to take in their wheelchairs and taxi services being too expensive for the handicapped.
The few lucky ones decide to fight fate, borrow or beg from kind souls and take all their savings to buy cars in a desperate attempt to get out of their homes.
They have to buy their own cars first before they can enter driving schools because these schools do not provide disabled-friendly vehicles at their premises.
Drivers who use wheelchairs still face a mountain of difficulties when they get out on the roads in their cars.
Able-bodied drivers still rudely honk or show the finger at them for not possessing lightning speed reflexes like them or pinch their parking slots from them.
The recent increases in petrol price practically grounded many disabled drivers.
Although the prices spiralled, the little that they earned did not.
Just before Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad left office, he scrapped the road tax for all disabled drivers in order to give them a little helping hand in life.
It seems to us that the Government ought to come around once again for the disabled and give them another push in life, this time with toll costs.
ANTHONY THANASAYAN,
President,
Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association,
Kuala Lumpur.
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