KUALA LUMPUR (April 5): An opposition lawmaker has urged the federal government to defer the tabling of the Land Public Transport (Amendment) Bill 2017 and the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board (Amendment) Bill 2017, which include legalising e-hailing services.

DAP MP for Kluang Liew Chin Tong said the two bills were only tabled for first reading in Parliament yesterday, but they are expected to be passed in the current session, which ends tomorrow.

"I thank Minister in Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri for discussing the (Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board (Amendment) Bill 2017) with me and other parliamentarian colleagues yesterday. Nonetheless, it is still a 'parachuted' bill which only appeared for the first time in Parliament yesterday in its full format, but is scheduled to be passed either today or tomorrow, with very little time or less than 48 hours for MPs to study it and to consult industry stakeholders," he told a press conference at Parliament building today.

Liew called on the government to provide more time for public consultation and only push for second and third reading in the July sitting of Parliament.

He claimed that the government has decided on a model that depends on self-regulation of e-hailing companies where the authority only deals with operators like Uber or Grabcar while leaving the companies to manage their drivers.

"While it may be a convenient approach from a regulatory standpoint, the bill must include a 'bill of rights for e-hailing drivers', (that is,) the rights of the drivers must be spelled out from the onset and made known to them that there is a mechanism in which they can seek redress when their rights are infringed upon," he said.

Liew also called on the government to state clearly that its intention to legalise e-hailing services is not due to lobbying from Uber.

"The government should avoid such perception of conflict of interest, disclose its stake in Uber, and if necessary, direct Khazanah Nasional Bhd to relinquish its stake in Uber," he said.

Early last year, Khazanah director Mohd Raslan Md Sharif was reported as saying that the investment fund had taken an indirect interest in Uber Technologies Inc through global growth equity investment General Atlantic LLC. In September last year, Uber confirmed it had received an investment from KWAP, reported to be about US$30 million.

Liew also warned that legalising e-hailing services without a total reform of the taxi sector will kill the latter. Hence, it is important for the government to keep a fleet of sufficient number of taxis despite the availability of e-hailing services, he added.

"The business model of the current e-hailing services is highly dependent on stock market investors' funds to support cheap fares on the streets. Many in the financial sectors have warned of the long-term viability of such business ventures. We must ensure that in the event that such corporations fail to survive, Malaysians still have conventional taxis to turn to," he said.