29 August 2007

 By : S.M. MOHAMED IDRIS for Consumers’ Association of Penang

WE congratulate Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail for proposing that the no-fault liability scheme be implemented in respect of motor vehicle accidents.

Such a scheme is long overdue. We had called for it as far back as the late 1970s and again in the early 1990s. The idea was to get accident victims compensated quickly.

Under the no-fault scheme, it is irrelevant who is responsible for the accident. It assumes that accidents are, by and large, accidents, not intentional.

Therefore, society’s efforts should be aimed at helping victims. Under no-fault liability, injured accident victims will automatically be entitled to compensation at the time when they need it most.

At the Tun Hussein Onn Memorial Lectures in 1995, the late Tan Sri Harun Hashim, a former Supreme Court judge, spoke of the need for a no-fault liability scheme.

He suggested that the scheme be funded by a compulsory contribution, which would be included as part of the driving licence fee.

The contribution, collected by the Road Transport Department, can then be forwarded to the Social Security Organisation. Socso will then administer the no-fault liability scheme as it is familiar with dealing with personal injury claims, dependency claims and death claims.

As the schemes provided by Socso are no-fault insurance schemes, we hope the attorney-general will look into the suggestion that the scheme be run by Socso.