When we guiding a tour, we frequently engage in lively discussions with our tour members about the significance of observing local customs and progress. We emphasize that a reliable indicator of the civility and modernity of a society lies in the cleanliness and maintenance of its public restrooms. Additionally, the presence of potholes on the asphalt roads serves as a valuable gauge of road safety and infrastructure development, bad or good.
Coincidentally, I once read on Tip-Top that tourists visiting Malaysia should beware of two things that could be deadly: first, lightning and thunderstorms, which can lead to tragic accidents; and second, road accidents, as roads safety in Malaysia are in poor condition and may cause serious injury or even death.
Indeed, according to the Global Burden of Disease Report 2024, Malaysia ranked third globally for road accident fatality in 2021, with 23.7 road accident deaths for every 100,000 people. By now, and maybe worsen by ranked the 1st or 2nd?!
The Straits Times reported on March 21, 2025 that one road user died every two hours in a road accident in Malaysia, citing official statistics.
In other words, road accident fatality is an issue more than just about the attitude of road users, it also brings out a crucial question of the country’s road quality. Is the quality of our roads far below international standards?
Even driving in Klang Valley, I am pretty sure many road users will feel worried about the safety of our urban roads. We are getting so used to motorists and cars are not turning on their signal lights when switching lanes, or deliberately stopping on the roadside to create unnecessary congestion!
These aside, our roads are known to be habitually submerged in floodwaters owing to clogged drains after a heavy downpour, resulting in massive traffic standstill. Of course, our badly potholed roads cannot be spared of the responsibility for all these urban ills!
Many, I assume, can only helplessly accept such anomalies as norm in Malaysia. But what about our public works department? Are they going to take things for granted, that this is all they can do? Or do they still embrace the lackadaisical “jangan kerja rajin” work attitude?
As a matter of fact, many frontline workers have privately admitted that the poor quality of Malaysia’s roads is not a consequence of technological inadequacy but rather mismanagement and lack of supervision, or a result of cutting corners on the part of contractors.
If this is the case, what does that mean? Could it be the ratio of gravel, sand and tar getting tampered? Or the standard materials substituted with inferior alternatives? Otherwise, how could a newly paved road become so badly potholed merely after a few months? Don’t squarely blame the rain!
I happened to come across then mayor Ko Wen-je in a street in Taipei several years back. He was heading a technical team studying the morning peak-hour traffic patterns in the capital city. The team discovered that a slightly elevated road shoulder at a road junction that caused turning vehicles to slow down by an average of five seconds, had eventually caused a remarkable 10 to 15-minute traffic hold-up!
This discovery prompted the city government’s traffic design team to modify the road design to optimise traffic flow efficiency. Notably, even though Taipei already boasted some of the best road quality in the region, the city authorities still spared no effort to make the city’s traffic flow smoother and safer for road users.
Countries around the world are putting a lot of effort into improving the quality of their roads. I visited many developing cities in the last few months, including Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City in ASEAN, as well as Kampala and Windhoek in Africa, and found that the quality of their roads had improved significantly, especially the asphalt road surface using EU-standard black bitumen which is highly durable with lasting road markings.
I have also seen large sprinkler trucks spraying the road surface to keep the roads clean in many cities across the world, so that gravel and garbage will not clog the drains and cause flooding.
By comparison, our roads in Kuala Lumpur are said to be among the most unsightly among major capital cities of the world.
Even in some of the so-called “garden” housing estates, the asphalt road surface, road shoulders and back alleys are often in a sorry state of disrepair. Even a freshly paved road could be pockmarked with potholes in just a few months’ time.
So, who should be held accountable for such a phenomenon? Perhaps the relevant authorities should send their people to Vietnam and see how they build and maintain their roads!
Be it public roads or railroads, excellent infrastructure plays a pivotal role in spearheading a country’s economic development, and is a long-term investment to lift the living standard of its people. Most importantly, it also reflects a country’s international image and competitiveness.
A country needs to improve its roads before it can get rich, and I hope our government will come to realise this point.
Sadly, our government not only seems to bother very little about the quality of our roads, it also fails to ensure the safety of our water supply.
Perhaps they have spent way too much time on racial issues and populist measures that they fail to come to terms with the reality that “cutting corners” in public works is one big real problem that plagues our society with far-reaching effects.
The recent implementation of visa-free entry policy by the Chinese government has provided unprecedented convenience for international travellers. If you happen to visit China, do take a good look at their public roads, railways, urban greening initiatives and infrastructure. A local guide told me that a road construction contractor in China can face legal sanction – even imprisonment – if found guilty of cutting corners resulting in road accident casualty.
It is time for us to tighten control over the open bidding of road construction projects as well as work supervision!
High-quality roads not only help improve traffic flow, minimise exhaustion and enhance efficiency, they also effectively reduce the incidence of road mishaps.
This is the single most important task for any government, but unfortunately asphalt roads across Malaysia are full of potholes, posing tremendous risks to road users.
Ironically, even though road repairs, unclogging sewers and keeping our cities and towns neat and clean are the most fundamental responsibilities of municipal authorities, often these problems will be left unsolved until we seek help from our YBs!
To reduce road accident fatality, we will need to first get our roads properly paved. I wonder whether those in power actually see this!
