My reading into Selangor state of affairs
Summary:
After two years of trying to prove that our local government is still largely incapable of delivering good services, I was shocked to find out that even within the hierarchy of PH parties, for example, no one cares about the state that Selangor is in now.
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With nearly six million people living in the State of Selangor, most political parties are interested in Selangor because of the great wealth that the state can offer.
In recent months, I have openly highlighted the sad conditions that Selangor is in. It is illegal dumps all over and facilities at the recreational parks managed by the local councils are in shambles. Two years ago, when I planned a campaign, it was to show that the local government has failed to deliver its quality of service despite 2+1 terms that the state has come under Pakatan Harapan.
What is shocking to me is not just the local council, but the state exco in charge of the local government in Selangor, Ng Sze Han and Menteri Besar, Amirudin Shaari himself who were just oblivious of the complaints on the ground.
Even the Member of Parliament, Tony Pua and state assemblyman, Elizabeth Wong were simply evasive, and even when complaints were brought to their attention, they were hardly on the ground.
I can understand that Pua may be a "geek" but that is no excuse and Wong, despite being much better during her first term has, in my opinion, slacked in the way she responds to complaints.
I started to wonder if Selangor has been too long under PH that people are starting to take things for granted.
This is why, from the time then Pakatan Rakyat (PR) took over the state of Selangor, I had given the coalition two terms to clean up the mess; after that, we expect to see improvement to the state. That is the reason why I am pissed with PH in Selangor state government.
While there are many good people in PH, my encounter with a few of the rotten apples was already bad enough that I decided to just snub them. Even within their party hierarchy, there appears to be no one interested in true reforms, especially in the local councils. For example, where is the promise of allowing people to elect the mayor, council presidents and local councillors?
Penang, which is also under PH, has seen improvement, but Selangor is still in a limbo, in fact, worse than before 2008. The question is: Why?
My Observations
From my observations, there are a few reasons. Since Azmin Ali's era as Menteri Besar, the state had already started to deteriorate.
The delivery of services by the local councils, which has always been bad, only got worse during the second and third term that PH is in Selangor. Meanwhile, some of the local councillors appointed to the job are incompetent and unable to manage their portfolio professionally.
After Azmin vacated the post, his protege, Amirudin Shaari was appointed as Menteri Besar to replace him despite others who had more experience than the young man. But after Azmin jumped ship, Amirudin and a few others may have remained in Selangor since there were still not enough people to form a new government.
After the Sheraton Move, we saw through Azmin's personal agenda in causing the collapse of the Pakatan government, but generally, people allowed Amirudin to continue running the state.
Sheraton Move, the Worst Betrayal in Recent Political Development
Of course, people like Saifudin Abdullah continue to cause eyes to roll. He even had the cheek to take a jab at Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh that she belonged to "a coalition whose federal government collapsed." Saifudin should be ashamed of himself, as he was one of the people involved in the Sheraton shenanigans.
Azmin, together with his gang, and Bersatu's Muhyiddin Yasin and Dr Mahathir Mohamad, are blamed entirely for the Sheraton betrayal for the collapse of the PH government, especially after the expose of an audio recording, putting Dr Mahathir on the spotlight that he had lied to the people about not knowing the plot.
To many of us, this was the betrayal of people's trust and mandate.
The mandate was given to Pakatan in 2018, never to Dr Mahathir, Muhyiddin, Azmin or any of their political parties. More parties including Parti Bangsa Malaysia are being launched as the platforms for these people to contest in the next general election. GE15 will, therefore, be something to watch as the nation is moving into unchartered waters.
So, unless the people are solidly with Pakatan Harapan, the chances of a takeover of Putrajaya will be slim. There will be a lot of split voting between the two currently very loose 'coalitions.'
It is also obvious to me now why we have so many issues on the ground - illegal dumps and heaps of rubbish, rumours of sabotages of water supply in Penang and Selangor, lapses in Templer's Park contract signed, and recent expose on Selangor State Government's attempts to de-gazette forest reserve land such as Bukit Cherakah and Bukit Lagong.
Let Me Elaborate Further My Observations
When we encountered issues with two DAP appointed local councillors, I had expected Tony Pua to respond to complaints, since these councillors are appointed by him. But, he hardly said a word. That is why these days I would snub him.
The same can be said about Elizabeth Wong, who is always evasive, showing to me that she has already become too complacent.
Local councils are notorious for their lackadaisical attitude. Not only in my area, but elsewhere, the local councils are not delivering good services. Sadly, the state government (meaning DAP's Ng Sze Han who holds the portfolio of local government) is not firm enough to take action on poor delivery of services at local councils.
While writing this piece, a friend sent this video to me, with a short line, "Strange that several 'manholes' have no covers in Taman Ampang Utama." Ampang comes under Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya (MPAJ). During my days stringing with Malay Mail on top of my day job, MPAJ was also notorious for its poor services.
As the state exco in charge of the local government, I would expect Sze Han to look into the complaints but, despite one of his seniors (all the way from Ipoh) trying to organise a ground visit, he refused to come down to the ground and look for himself all the problems faced by the people.
Even complaints and suggestions on how to improve the local government went to Amirudin for the past two years, but he just ignored the complaints. That's why I snub these politicians these days.
Cherakah and Lagong Saga
When Cherakah and Lagong issues erupted, things became very clear why Selangor is now in such a bad state that someone even jokingly called it "Selangor, Darul Sampah." This was after she looked at the pictures in my blog accumulated over two years.
Thanks to the expose by Rimba Disclosure Project on the Bukit Lagong forest reserve, where 887 ha of forest reserve will be parcelled out to 27 quarries, now we are beginning to see what is happening behind the scene.
Based on information I received from Otai Reformis, some of these companies are shell companies with very low paid up capital that had its secretary, Abdul Razak Ismail asking, "How can these companies even afford to buy a tractor when the paid up capital is only RM100 or less?"
I laughed. My contention, of course, was that these are just shell companies, which will eventually be bought over along with the licenses by other quarry owners with the experience to do the job.
But then, this raises another set of questions why these shell companies are given the license when their experience in quarrying is questionable?
Was there even an open tender and why out of the 27 companies awarded the license, three of them are state-linked and only three or four companies have paid up capital of over RM1.5 million and the necessary quarry experience?
Why did the Menteri Besar and state exco award the licenses to these companies? This is a question I would like to ask Amirudin who has been evasive from the press.
Just saying that "Hee has explained" would not do, because after Hee gave his press conference, there are more questions that the NGOs have raised. Many of these questions were also not properly answered in the state assembly according to feedback I received from members of the Selangor state assembly.
I pity these quarry owners who are doing a genuine job but they are now in a quandary and asking for an extension of the quarry period. Why are they not given the direct licenses? Instead, the licenses are given to companies that appear to be shell companies?
Is Selangor under Amirudin practising what we all know as Ali Baba companies? Malaysiakini and several news portals have attempted to ask Amirudin to explain, but he merely snubbed them.
Hee Explains
Even though I had read Hee's explanation, I found his explanation to be amusing. I wonder how "around 28 percent of the Bukit Lagong forest reserve (which) is set to be quarried," can remain "without the land being excised from the reserve."
In other words, you alienate the piece of land within a forest reserve for quarries, and this is still considered part of the forest reserve.
On paper, this is possible, but it would mean that, despite a 25-year moratorium on logging from 2010 until 2035, some 887 ha of forest reserve will not be the same anymore after quarrying work begins, which is the reason why environmentalist have expressed concerns.
At best, the way I look at it, this is just a way to circumvent the moratorium so that 'small licenses' can still be issued and Selangor's so-called 'Forest reserve' status remains intact. This is how Hee explained it. He may beg to differ but this is how it has come across to me.
Within the forest reserve is such a great biodiversity that, once you destroy the habitat, it will take many years before the land can be re-forested. Doesn't Hee see this?
Puzzling Indeed
This leads to my next question, why is Hee's portfolio covering all four areas - Environment, Green Technology, Tourism and Indigenous Affairs?
In handling the issue, I wonder which cap is Hee wearing, and how quarrying in a forest reserve can serve the purpose of protecting the environment. Or, how quarries can be a tourist attraction (perhaps, hikers would be able to answer this).
Moreover, since no one else is in charge of indigenous affairs but Hee himself, has anyone even asked the Orang Asli whether their livelihood will be affected as a result of the quarry work?
Just less than a week ago, I was mistaken that Hee was with the DAP, but in reality, he is with PKR, which makes it even clearer to me now what may unfold before us in a matter of months, if not days.
PKR president Anwar Ibrahim has to once again tread carefully so that he is not being portrayed again as a dictator, when the truth is so obvious to me now.
I rest my case.
https://surat-terbuka-mb-selangor.blogspot.com/2022/09/amirudin-owes-selangorians-explanation.html
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