KUALA LUMPUR: The Railwaymen Union of Malaysia (RUM) today launched an official protest of the Transport Ministry's restructuring of Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) via the Railway Assets Corporation (RAC) Transformation Plan.
Describing the plan as a move that will 'destroy KTMB' and rob the nation off a 135-year old heritage, the RUM in a joint-press conference with the KTMB Executives Association (SOA) called for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's intervention.
RUM president Abdul Razak Md Hassan claimed that various discrepencies in the dealings regarding the procurement of assets and the transfer of existing KTMB assets to the RAC had raised questions and fears over the future of one of the country's oldest companies.
RUM secretary general R. Subramaniam read out the union's official statement in which it also raised questions over the direction the Transport Ministry was taking in implementing the transformation plan.
Also present were representatives of the SOA, headed by its president Dr Ibrahim Abd Aziz.
"We do not see the relevance of the RAC when all this while KTMB had its own department in charge of assets. Thus we are calling for the government to consider placing the RAC under KTMB, which is more than capable of managing it," said Abdul Razak.
He also questioned the procurement of assets such as locomotives, ETS, SCS, OMC and others, apart from those handed over to RAC.
"With the assets now being under RAC, KTMB is reduced to being mere operators. Thus what happens to all the expertise we have? We are voicing our concerns because we don't want KTMB to turn into another Malaysia Airlines where thousands were retrenched."
The RUM and SOA also stated they were acting in unison with the management of KTMB and in support of the KTMB Tranformation Plan introduced by its president Datuk Sarbini Tijan last year.
"We fully support the president as we are already beginning to see the results of his transformation plan. We have full confidence in the reforms being put in place by the KTMB management which are aimed at ensuring the company becomes self-sufficient within the next three years," said Abdul Razak.
"But just when everything starts moving, we have this RAC plan coming into place and putting thousands of jobs in uncertainty. Not only that, it is going to reduce KTMB, which is a 135-year old company that is part of the country's heritage, to virtually nothing."