Kopi-o driving licences will soon be a thing of the past – new transport minister Anthony Loke has stated he will get tough on bribery, and plans to eliminate the practice in the acquisition and issuance of driving licenses in the country.
News reports had reported Loke as saying that Malaysians will no longer be able to bribe their way to a driving license. He said that from now on, anyone who fails their driving test will simply have to retake it.
“I will be tackling this problem,” he said in a speech he delivered at Road Transport Department (JPJ) appreciation dinner over the weekend. He said that he had received multiple complaints and requests regarding the department, even before being sworn in.
He acknowledged that the practice has been around since the time he himself obtained his driver’s license and pledged to spend time studying the issue. The move to clean up the act was welcomed by the Associations of Driving Schools/Institutes Malaysia (Perpisma), which said that eliminating bribery will help rebuild the image of the industry.
Occasionally, the ‘sale’ of driving licences lands corrupt officials in hot soup. In 2016, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) detained 14 people in Sarawak, including three JPJ officers, to facilitate investigations into illegally obtained licences, in which those for various vehicle classes were issued without the need to take a driving test.
Everyone has heard of the ‘kopi-o’ driver’s license culture in Malaysia, where student drivers pay extra money so that the invigilators will close one eye during their driving exam. This corrupted practice has been around for decades, but our former deputy Transport Minister said that he has never heard of such a thing.
Responding to an inquiry by Sinchew, Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said that during his term as the deputy Transport Minister, there was no such culture, and that all the officers followed the rules to the letter.
He said that even if there were officers violating the law, those were just isolated cases, and the situation is not as bad as everyone thinks it is. He continued, saying that if any of the officers are found guilty of accepting bribe, they must face the law.
Apparently he’s heard of fabrication of fake driver’s license but never the ‘kopi-o’ driver’s license. “Just like ICs and passports, the driver’s license has also suffered the same problem of falsification,” he said.
Everyone has heard of the ‘kopi-o’ driver’s license culture in Malaysia, where student drivers pay extra money so that the invigilators will close one eye during their driving exam. This corrupted practice has been around for decades, but our former deputy Transport Minister said that he has never heard of such a thing.Responding to an inquiry by Sinchew, Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said that during his term as the deputy Transport Minister, there was no such culture, and that all the officers followed the rules to the letter.
He said that even if there were officers violating the law, those were just isolated cases, and the situation is not as bad as everyone thinks it is. He continued, saying that if any of the officers are found guilty of accepting bribe, they must face the law.
Apparently he’s heard of fabrication of fake driver’s license but never the ‘kopi-o’ driver’s license. “Just like ICs and passports, the driver’s license has also suffered the same problem of falsification,” he said.
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