Loke said a majority of the 14,000 'lesen terbang' holders are Malaysians, adding that a significant number of the remainder are foreigners living here. ― Picture by Azinuddin Ghazali

PUTRAJAYA, Sept 13 — Motorists who bought their driving licences without sitting for the exams have one month to voluntarily relinquish their “lesen terbang”, Anthony Loke Siew Fook announced today.

The transport minister said his ministry has identified 14,000 such licence holders issued in the last two years by the Road Transport Department (RTD).

“Volunteer and come forward with the ‘lesen terbang’ that you bought. We have your details, and the data. Our system has all information of when, when and who, so it is not hard for us to reach you,” he told a press conference here.

Loke said internal investigations by the RTD showed that a majority of the 14,000 “lesen terbang” holders are Malaysians, adding that a significant number of the remainder are foreigners living here.

“As for the foreign nationals, the highest number of purchases are Chinese nationals, followed by Japan, Singapore and Brunei,” he said.

“When I took office, I warned driving schools to stop offering ‘guaranteed to settle (pau kautim)’ arrangements for students RTD licensing tests but this ‘lesen terbang’ is a bigger matter,” he said explaining that “lesen terbang” refers to the driver’s licence issued to those who did not take the required examination and did not attend any road safety courses.

Loke said that what is worse are the agents and runners involved in the “lesen terbang” syndicates openly offering their sale of such licences over social media accounts like Facebook.

He said as much as the RTD officers who issued the licences have committed an offence, those who purchased them are also equally liable.

“Those who come forward will not have any action taken against them, as they may be assisting the ministry as witnesses,” he said.