Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen said Najib should do so if he was sincere about helping road users.
“If not, then his criticism of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad on toll highways is just a cheap political shot,” he told FMT.
Wong, who is PKR commerce and investment bureau chief, was commenting on Najib’s accusation that the opposition was being hypocritical by attacking his administration’s efforts to reduce or eliminate existing tolls on public roads.
He said the opposition showed hypocrisy by criticising and belittling his initiative while supporting and adulating a former leader whom he described as the “father of all tolls”, an obvious reference to Mahathir who now leads Pakatan Harapan and his own party PPBM.
Najib said this person was behind the lopsided deals that benefited some cronies, but brought losses and affliction to the people.
“The government has had to bear the burden of toll subsidies that only benefit certain areas and community groups.
“Such allocations could have been used in a better way for people’s welfare across the country,” he said in his blog yesterday.
Toll collections were abolished at four locations from Jan 1, following a decision announced by Najib when he presented the 2018 budget in the Dewan Rakyat last October.
Meanwhile, PPBM supreme council member Tariq Ismail said the highway toll strategy implemented in the past was aimed at obtaining funds with the lowest cost and to be paid based on future economic value of the infrastructure being built.
“Mahathir’s action with regards to this matter is accepted practice even by today’s standards.
“In fact, new approaches to public infrastructure development such as the public-private partnership model are constantly being reviewed and laws regarding it revised, even in advanced countries in Europe and the UK.
“Why? Because there is no viable solution to the economics of public infrastructure development and maintenance in the long term,” he said.
Tariq said it did not stop there, and noted that concession agreements on public infrastructure, although long term in nature, were open to reviews and revisions.
“It becomes the duty of the government to realign it, particularly if a previous government is seen to have erred in the negotiations of such an agreement.
“In fact, being a long term venture, the financial assumptions made during the initial stages of the infrastructure development should be periodically tested, and often, so as to gauge whether the financial viability of the project holds in the long run and to avoid expensive compensations,” he said.
To his knowledge, Tariq said, the last revision on the toll concessions was made by Najib soon after he assumed leadership.
The decision to extend the agreements was made during that review and any terms and conditions causing financial loss should have been addressed then.
“Unless Mahathir sat in on those revisions, any and all repercussions since only speak of a weak economic and financial governance.
“And really, this is why the rakyat are sceptical of the government’s intent in this instance. It had the opportunity well before elections to rectify the problem, but failed to do so.
“Instead, it chooses to demonise certain quarters and deflect responsibility,” he added.