Motorists with disabilities want the Road Transport Department’s (JPJ) new rules for renewing their driver’s licence to be scrapped immediately.

Over 20 wheelchair-bound representatives from four organisations for the disabled, said they had to make five or six separate visits to a government hospital doctor to prove they were disabled before being allowed to renew their driver’s licence for free.

“I never had a problem in the past when renewing my driver’s licence.

“I am permanently disabled. Why do I need to go through a series of medical checks each time I want to renew my driver’s licence?

This new regulation is unreasonable,” said Petpositive president, Anthony Thanasayan.

He was joined by representatives from Independent Living and Training Centre (ILTC), Malaysian Spinal Cord Injury Association and Adult Blind Association Selangor in holding a peaceful protest outside the Wangsa Maju JPJ branch.

The group held banners and in a mock act, made the gesture of throwing their Welfare Department cards into a dustbin to symbolically show that even though they have been recognised as disabled, government departments are discriminating against them.

ILTC president Francis Siva hoped JPJ and the Transport Ministry would be more considerate to the estimated 1,000 disabled road users in the country.

“We cannot renew our driving licence at any regular post office.

“When a driver for many years becomes permanently disabled, he is still forced to go through the driving test.

“There are also strange regulations about disabled parking spots.”

“If JPJ is unable to understand the problems we face, then please engage the Welfare Department or get input from disabled associations,” he said.

At noon, a uniformed JPJ officer who declined to be identified, collected a memorandum from the group and promised to look into the matter.