I read with amusement that Mahathir the former PM of our neighbour is at it again, this time trying to get the construction of his aborted pet project — a new causeway bridge — restarted.  On 17 December he blogged (http://test.chedet.com/che_det/) :

1. The Star reports on the traffic congestion at the new Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex in Johore Bahru. Most of the congestion was caused by traffic from Singapore entering Malaysia.

2. At the risk of boring visitors to my blog, may I point out that the idea of a bridge to replace the causeway, connected to the CIQ building by an elevated highway was in order to avoid the traffic congestion. Replacing the elevated highway with a road at ground level must cause a clash between traffic to end from Singapore and the Johore Bahru east / west traffic.

3. The problem can only get worse as more and more cars will take to the road in future.

4. But we must endure these jams because we must not annoy our neighbour.

His persistence is commendable and his jab at Singapore ("we must not annoy our neighbour") as usual funny.  I guess he must really be irritated with the congestion whenever he drives back into Malaysia from Singapore, hence his heartfelt concern that Singaporeans are being held up at the causeway. 

The outpouring of ayes by Mahathir’s fans (posted as comments on the blog) is also touching.  Except that no one seems to have noticed that the congestion seems to have been caused at least partly if not entirely by the incompetence of those responsible for the project.

In this connection, the Star (a Malaysian paper which Mahathir mentioned in his blog) reported

"The first day of operations at the new Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex was marred by massive traffic congestion.  The two-hour-long crawl saw traffic into Johor snaking all the way to Woodlands in Singapore during peak hours due to motorists being caught off guard by the cashless toll collection system at the complex. … Singaporean businessman John Tan, 45, said he only found out about the cards when he entered Johor via the new complex. … Fellow Singaporean Tommy Ong, 40, said the authorities should have made the public more aware that Touch ‘n Go cards had to be used."

Well, maybe Singaporeans are stupid because they failed to read the notices about the cashless toll collection system — I suppose like how we sometimes fail to read exam instructions properly before attempting the questions.  But what about this article from the Straits Times ?

MALAYSIAN police were called in on Thursday to keep crowds in check at the new Johor checkpoint as chaos reigned.  Thousands of Malaysian bus commuters pushed, shoved and beat on bus doors, trying to get a seat on a bus travelling to Singapore.

…

At the former Johor terminal, Singapore-bound commuters just walked through a single-storey facility to get to their buses.

The towering Sultan Iskandar complex however, has commuters climbing to the third storey for immigration clearance, a trip which takes about 10 minutes.

Immigration clearance takes less than a minute, but commuters hit a bottleneck when they get to the bus depot as there are not enough buses to move the number of commuters.

The option of walking across the Causeway, which was possible at the old terminal, has gone so more people rely on buses to cross over to Singapore.

…

According to Malaysian news agency Bernama, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad attributed the congestion to the haphazard entry and exit points at the complex. ‘I feel the impact of its opening should have been envisaged and better preparations made to deal with the possibilities,’ he said.

‘If we don’t plan carefully and think that a walk-through or simulation is enough, problems may crop up and that’s what has happened at the CIQ complex.’

Poor design, lack of planning and lack of preparations, and not the lack of a new bridge, appears to be the real cause of the congestion.  If the management of the bridge project is no more competent (assuming one is built) than the CIQ complex, why should anyone expect a better result than what we have presently ?