Compulsory inspection on cars above 15 years

At the time of writing this posting, many of us would have known that the government has reversed its decision to require cars above 15 years old to be inspected annually. The reason given is that the cost of such inspection will be a burden to the rural poor, which obviously makes up a strong voice in the election. I’m sure that the earlier proposal for the inspection is there for a reason and that is no other than to ensure that those older cars are roadworthy. Instead of backtracking, the government should have thought of ways to reduce the cost of inspection or better still, make it free but compulsory. Obviously, if there are costs involved in passing the inspection, such as those routine maintenance that is necessary to make that car a safer ride, this indicate that these cars are majority not well maintained at all, and I’m sure MIROS has data to support this before coming up with the proposal. Alternatively, why not try to make transportation more affordable to the rural poor, but that can never happen. Right now, in the quest to reduce the cost of transportation, safety has been compromised. Anyway, annual inspection for cars above 15 years old is not going to make a lot of difference in road safety and I would regard this as a very lenient policy compared to many other countries. The threshold should be 10 years old and in some countries, it’s only 5 years old.