Afiq Redzuan, chief operating officer of My Mobility Vision, told FMT the repeated breakdowns raised a host of questions, including whether the airport operator had measured success ”by completion time”.
The aerotrain service broke down yet again on Tuesday, which MAHB attributed to a power system malfunction, forcing passengers to walk along the tracks in the dark while carrying their luggage.
Transport minister Loke Siew Fook has since ordered the Land Public Transport Agency (Apad) to investigate the matter, while the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said it was prepared to probe any allegation of corruption or misappropriation involving the aerotrain project if a report is lodged.
Tuesday’s breakdown was the second in under two weeks, following an earlier disruption on Oct 15.
The aerotrain, which shuttles passengers between the main and satellite terminals, previously broke down on Sept 4 due to a similar fault. It had only resumed operations on July 1 this year, after being out of service for 28 months.
Given the spate of issues plaguing the service, Afiq wondered if the decision makers thought that “almost ready” would be good enough.
“Quiet compromise was what failed us — more than any cable, software glitch, or power distribution fault,” he said.
Afiq warned that such disruptions will persist until the country sheds its culture of prioritising launch over reliability, and ceremony over competence.
“We will continue to build infrastructure that looks impressive but performs inadequately, that promises transformation but delivers disappointment, that starts with fanfare, but ends with apologies.”
Afiq welcomed MAHB’s decision to appoint an independent assessor following the initial disruption, but insisted that transparency was vital in getting to the root of the problem.
He said the public deserved to know not only what went wrong but how governance would change to ensure it did not happen again.
“The public is concerned about whether lessons will finally stick, whether accountability will finally mean something, whether ‘independent review’ will be truly independent or just another box-checking exercise,” he said.