GO-JEK Abang Said LTA Interview ‘Went Well’; Wife Has Asked Him to ‘Stay Low’

Lest you’ve forgotten, it’s “the day” for the GO-JEK Abang this morning.

He was supposed to meet up with an LTA officer for an interview regarding the viral video he posted on Facebook.

LTA has acted based on a complaint and they are investigating the incident. According to them, they’re looking “into the incident. To get a more comprehensive understanding of the matter, LTA will need to meet up with both the driver and the passenger to hear their respective accounts of the incident.”

The driver has posted this image earlier to inform netizens about his summon.

Channel NewsAsia was quick to get the latest deets on this incident.

No Conclusion Yet

According to the latest report, the driver, Mr Kamaruzzaman Abdul Latiff, attended the interview and there was no conclusion yet (well, of course).

He said, “What I can tell you is that the interview went well. LTA will make a decision after listening to the other party.”

The passenger was previously in Taiwan, but has not disclosed whether she was the one who made the complaint. However, this means that she was also summoned for the interview.

LTA Interview

In the interview with the LTA officer, the driver was asked on what happened before the incident, why he had driven to the police station instead of letting the passenger alight, why he had recorded the incident and of course, why he had uploaded the video on Facebook.

The driver’s wife has also told him to “lay low”.

But in the report by Channel NewsAsia, something interesting was also mentioned.

“You Video Me First, That Means I Can Video You?”

In the report, Channel NewsAsia spoke to an expert in personal data protection and we learned something new.

It’s clear that the driver might have done something against the law for filming the passenger without consent and uploading it on Facebook, but it turned out that there could be a possible exception.

If the passenger had started recording first, then we can argue that she has “given consent” because you can say that “Hey, you record me, so I record you also!”

But of course, that’s considering that the argument is valid.

Maybe what he needs is a good lawyer, no?

Why Abang’s Rice Bowl is at Risk

Every taxi or private hire car driver follows a system called the Vocational Licence Points System (VLPS), in which a driver cannot accumulate more than 20 demerit points in 24 months, or they’ll lose their vocational licence (note: it’s the vocational licence, not driving licence).

Some offences carry fewer points while some carry more points: for example, “Verbally insulting, intimidating or harassing a passenger in a sexual manner” carries 5 demerit points while “Driving chauffeured private hire car or taxi with expired vocational licence” carries 21 demerit points, which is an instant revocation.

The issue here is an act in the Road Traffic act: the penalty for filming passengers and uploading into social media is 21 demerit points, “which may lead to the revocation of the driver’s vocational licence under the Chauffeured Private Hire Car and Taxi Driver’s Vocational Licence Demerit Points System.”

Now you know why some netizens are praying that the argument of “You Video Me First, That Means I Can Video You?” could be valid.