In a statement today, he said Dego’s success in Kuala Lumpur was proof that the government had failed to ensure enough public transport for Malaysian commuters.

“Deputy Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi, in answering a question today in Parliament, is right that first world countries do not have motorbike taxis, and that is because first world countries have good public transport systems,” he said.

Aziz, who is deputy transport minister, had said big cities, such as New York and Tokyo, did not have motorcycle ferrying services like Dego. He also said that Malaysia wanted to be on par with “developed nations, not follow cities that have not been transformed”.

In order to reach that goal, Rajiv said the government must do more to improve Malaysia’s public transport.

“Everyone should be able to walk not more than 400m to a train station or bus stop, a situation that we do not have today.

“Buses must be more frequent, as no one wants to wait more than 15 minutes for a bus, let alone 30-60 minutes as is the case today.”

On top of that, the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) needed to triple the number of buses on the roads in the Klang Valley to bring Malaysia close to the number of buses per capita in cities such as Tokyo and New York, he said.

Although a few rail projects had been announced, Rajiv said these were not enough as all the MRT projects “will not even cover a fraction of the Klang Valley population”.

He added that Dego served many commuters well and should not be penalised if the transport ministry failed to put in place a functioning public transport network.