Daulat Tuanku
I received a message from one of the proprietors of the Kopitiam there at Batu Caves Industrial Estate, thanking the workers of the contractor appointed to repair the drains in front of his restaurant.
The pictures were sent into a chat group which I created, “Banjir kilat dan Longkang sumbat Batu Caves Industrial Park.”
Kepada yang berkenaan,
Dimaklumkan bahawa kerja-kerja semasa sedang dijalankan. Pihak Han’s Kopitiam ingin memberikan minuman teh susu ais kepada para pekerja tuan/puan sebagai tanda penghargaan semasa cuaca panas ini.
Selain itu, kami ingin memohon jasa baik pihak tuan/puan untuk memindahkan tong sampah (dump bin) ke bahagian tepi dan bukan di hadapan pintu masuk utama, bagi memudahkan pelanggan kami meletakkan kenderaan.
Kerjasama dan pertimbangan pihak tuan/puan amatlah dihargai.
Sekian, terima kasih.
As I read his.message, tears rolled down my cheers, as I feel humble to have my blog noticed by Tuuanku Sharafuddin, the Sultan of Selangor. I am just an ordinary Malaysian, who saw the need to highlight the issues faced by people on the ground. In fact, I started this blog with the intention of showing the Selangor state government, in particular the Menteri Besar and the state exco member in charge of local government the lackadaisical attitude of our local council Majlis Perbandaran Selayang (MPS).
For over 30 years since the first YDP, Tuan Kasjoo Kadis, I have been dealing with MPS. it has not improved. I wanted the state government to know they have to do something to revamp the entire council, keeping only the good staff, but instead of showing the state government how much our living condition in Selayang has gone from bad to worse due to poor delivery of services, I discovered to my horror that the state government appears to be the one lacking in interest to solve issues.
The former state exco member has moved on to another portfolio, but now, even the new state exco appears to ignore issues highlighted to his attention except for this one in Batu Caves because of the Sultan’s intervention.
It may appear that I am badmouthing the state administration and the local council, but there is sufficient evidence in this blog especially the pictures to show how, if there indeed an index to measure the living conditions for Selangorians, I am sure it would have called from 8 or 9 on a sclae of 10, to only about 2 or 3.
Sometimes, I feel embarrased when driving a guest to have a decent meal in my own area. Even complaints to former MP Tony Pua and now Gobind Singh Deo have often failen on deaf ears.
Tuanku is right that it was truly out of desperation that i wrote the open letter to Tuanku in my humble blog, originally intended only to the menteri besar.
All, as rakyat Selangor, we want is a more decent state, where we can enjoy cleanliness and good facilities where we do not need to complain so often.
A big contrast I want to show you is to let all of you know that it is the leader who makes all the difference. In one of my WhatsApp messages to the mayor of Petaling Jaya, I wrote jokingly, “Datuk, I drove along Jalan Dato’ Abu Bakar, to avoid hitting one of the manholes along the road, and lo and behold, all the manholes are repaired! Today my complaint, Dato’, IS I have no more complaints to send to you; hence, in itself, please take my zero complaint as my complaint today.”
The attitude of Datuk Zahri Samingon is what I consider to be one of the best Datuk Bandar MBPJ has, besides someone like Datuk Nor Bador whom I could also joke with quite easily. Once I was told by Datuk Nor Bador that Persiaran Cemara had not been handed to MBPJ. Jokingly, I said: “Datuk, please close down the road. I support, and I will help to call the press. Together we create a scenario to apply pressure on the developer for failing to hand over the road officially to the local council after os many years.”
My biggest regret is that my housing estate did not come under MBPJ, but remained under MPS for all these years.
It goes without saying that Persiaran Cemara in Sri Damansara used to be under MPS. There were no streetlights yet there were no attempts by MPS to force the developer to install the streetlight before handling over. After it was handed over to MBPJ, I spoke to then Bukit Lanjan state assemblyman the late Dr Pius Martin (Gerakan).
Unlike the current and previous MP of Damansara from DAP, within less than a week, we had a whole stretch of streetlights installed and trees planted along Persiaran Cemara; today, the trees have grown bigger and taller, giving the feel of a greener township instead of the barrenness which was our landscape back then. One can only wonder if MPS had monitored the work of its developers back then.I am glad that Persiaran Cemara came under MBPJ and it was lighted up, whereas part of Persiaran Perdana in Aman Puri is still in the darkness despite complaints being made previously .
Meeting after meeting were held at MPS during Kasjoo’s era, but at times, we had to become ‘militant’ and marched to the office of deputy minister of housing and local government, (now Tan Sri) Azmi Khalid because meetings in MPS were getting nowhere, and the then Minister of Housing and Local government Ting Chew Pai was ignored the pile of letters and memorandum sent to him. This has been our journey living in this part of the town
As I write this, an imagery of Sultan Sharafuddin came to mind: I was told by the Harley bikers whom I used to hang out with after doing a Corportate Social Responsibilty project together, that the Sultan would ride his Harley around to personally monitor the condition in the state. By writing this, it should already be a strong reminder to our state administration that they too must understand the pulse of Sultan Sharafuddin. As state leaders, they should always be on the ground to look for themselves all the heaps of rubbish that are thrown by contractors and members of the public. Don’t wait for people like me to highlight them.
Each time I have to hiighight the illegal dumps around the places in my township before MPS would act. Their job is easy: use the KDEB as the scapegoat. But what then is their role? If we want to achieve Zero Complaints, I shared with the mayor of MBPJ: “MBPJ is so much better by comparison because your people antiticapte problems and fixed them before a road user lodged a complaint.” I pointed to him that the keyword is being proactive. Anticipate a complaint, fixed it first before peple complain. This was shared with him in the context of an anticipated major traffic jam expected from July onwards based on what I knew would happen.
Be Proactive: This I would like to say to MPS, KDEB as well as the state exco that they are duty bound to go to the ground to look at how dirty Selangor has become.
In my recent conversation with a new local councilllor for my area, I asked if his assistant could tell me what he noticed at the border between Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. He straightaway told me, at the Selayang wet market. Just to test him, I asked, “What did you notice?” Interestingly he said, over the Kuala Lumpur side, it is clean; instead on the Selangor side (under MPS), the rubbish is dumped here. So, I asked, “Why do you think this is the case?” I don’t think I need to repeat his answer here, as the reasons are obvious.
I hope with this, there would be a revamp in the entire hierarchy at all the local councils in Selangor if they cannot perform. It is not only in Selayang. It is also in Kajang. The problem is the state exco in charge of the local councils des not appear bothered to know what is happening on the ground. It is easy to block all sorts of communication, but not when the Sultan chooses to take notice himself of what this humble Selangorian try to highlight for the sake of seeing improvement in Selangor, where we live and die.
In the Batu Caves issue, the palace had to write to the state government to look into this issue in Batu Caves, before some serious efforts were being put into solving all the issues there. Prior to this, there was a lot of fingerpointing. For example, when I asked, Why there are pipes belonging to TNB across the monsoon drain? The answer is: “We will check with TNB.” Thereafter, nothing happens. At least now, after receiving the instruction from Tuanku, there are attempts to get TNB to shift their pipes away from the monsoon drain. The pressence of these pipes slow down the flow of rainwater, and rubbish is somehow trapped, too.
I have seen the letter from the pallace which confirmed Tuanku’s conscientious efforts to improve the facilities in Selangor. For this, we Selangorians are ever grateful because our Sultan cares for the ordinary citizens like us. I hope Tuanku reads this blog and realise that what matters the most is having civil servants with the right attitudes. If they have good attitudes to serve the people, we as residenfs of Selangor would not hace to keep condtending with them.
I hope with this post, it will bring some much needed improvement in the local councils in Selangor in both Selayang and Kajang. This is why, when the DAP leaders recently warned that they would withdraw from the Madani cabinet if the reforms are not delivered by one man, the Prime Minister himself, my retort to them was: “Selangor has come under PH since 2008. In the first term, we saw a lot of positive development, but subsequently, what happened? All the underperforming local councils are still not being reformed till today, despite being in government for the past 28 years!
How can you expect one man to deliver all the reforms within six months? Reforms is a collective effort at both federal and state governments. In Selangor, a member of the DAP is the state exco in charge of local government, and at the federal level, it is also under a DAP leader who is the cabinet minister. Where are the reforms in some of the underperforming local councils such as Kajang and Selayang?”
There was obviously silence because none of the DAP leaders could prove to me that they have reformed the local concils all these years. Pictures on my blog would prove them otherwise. My intention was not to shame anyone but to put some common sense in the DAP leaders themselves so that they remain together in the Madani government since they also rode on Anwar’s reformasi movement to win the federal government. It is not a marriage of convenience between DAP and her suitor. They have to be more mature now instead of dropping out of the coalition that they have joined since 2005 after pulling out from Pakatan Rakyat. After 20 years together, by right, they have to be more mature politically. I won’t elaborate on my long lecture to some of them.
Back to the issues we encounter with local couuncils in Selanogr. I feel comforted whenever I see that the state assemblyman of Kajang David Cheong also encounter the same problems with his local counci. See his TikTok channel:
Please do not misundertand my intentions: I prefer to have a PH government, even in Selangor over one that is led by PAS or Perikatan Nasional, but I want to see change in the line up in the current state government, especially with those who are “floating in the air” and hardly on the ground to solve people’s problems.
If not, the very people who are not doing their job should be changed, whether at state or local government level. No one is indispensable, but as Selangorians, we will remain as residents in the State of Selangor and we want to see the best for everyone now and fo our children growing up here. Much to his credit, I hav to mention that one of the best improvements that I see under Nga Kor Ming (Minister of Housing and Local Government) is the refurbishment of the recreational park not only in my housing estate but in many other parts of the country. However, I want to see closer monitoring of both Selayang and Kajang because many of the issues ar not solved properly unless there is pressure from the top.
Recently the director of MPS in charge of landscape, Mokhtar Affendi (fortunately, we still have one good director at MPS) told me that he is looking to refurbish another recreational park using the budget allocated by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. I believe within the next few months, we will see another recreational park created for the residents of Vista Saujana.
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| Previously, it could be easily mistaken as a paddy field |
From road humps built to hit the lower deck of your car to one-way streets, which simply makes no sense, for example, this is unfortunately what MPS is to me. Take for example, this one junction in front of Bistro RBS in KIP, the junction turning into Persiaran KIP 2 is exactly the same as the one at my housing estate. It is, in short, also dangerous. The exit to my housing area is not particularly busy; therefore, if MPS claims that they have carried out traffic studies, and found the junction to be dangerous, I would like to see the report.
(I use this junction every day for the past 30 years, not a single accident, yet with MPS, everything they claim they have “studied” the traffic condition, but when I asked why the traffic from the service lane in front of Bistro RTS can make an exit at the traffic junction which is even nearer to the main road, why did their traffic design allows to use that exit?
This is what I recently pointed out to the new local councillor; he just could not answer, meaning a proper traffic study had not been conducted but the one-way streets were implemented by MPS hastily. The junction turning into Persiaran KIP 2 is just as dangerous due t a similar design, yet, the design of the traffic allows cars to turn from the service lane into Persiaran KIP2. In short, the one-way streets were implemented on ad hoc.
Hopefully, the new local councillor sees my point. If the junction at our exit juntion has a blind spot due to the bushes, then the only logical thing to do is to clear the bushes. Blindspot is the excuse, but even after I pointed out to the same engineering director regarding another blind spot, he chose to ignore it. This blindspot may lead to a major accident someday even leading to death of children walking on the road.
That’s why I am fed up having to contend with these LittleNapoleons. I do not have to even contend with the Petaling Jaya mayor who takes my feedback as a form of my service to MBPJ as an additional pair of eyes! That’s the difference in attitude that I want to point out — and why I u urge the state government to revamp MPS and MPKJ, and not even a mention is made about reforming MBPJ.
That junction which is not even busy throughout the day is for better traffic dipersal. What was meant to be a two-way street should not be turned into a one-way street just to accommodate someone’s whims and fancies; at night, the one-way streets can suddenly turn into two-way streets because house owners are not allowed to enter at the same junction. In my opinion, MPS has turned this place into a cowboy town. This delivery lorry for example, has already reached the junction but not allowed to exit through this junction. Instead, he has to drive around the block just to return tho this same junction to exit the housing estate. Reason the guards had to give to the driver: it is an instruction from the resident association chairman. He has cordoned one of the lane to turn into a carpark, but hardly anyone uses it as it is inconvenient to park there. In fact, I have lodged a police report for his intimidation when he kicked my car with a group of his friends. When the engineering director came to the site to look at the two humps that gave problems to the residents, his men echoed in support of him: “There are no problem with the humps.”
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