Not All Are Giving A Deaf Ear to Complaints

By Stephen Ng


Lim Yi Wei deserves a round of applause as she proves that there are still some Yang Berhormat who listens to the people's complaints.

I came to know about one couple who used to sell socks in SS2 Market. Because of the renovation, they were left out in the wilderness.

It was a friend of mine who told me about it. He does not visit the place often, until one day, he went there to look for a few pairs of socks.

This was when he met the couple. Their stall was in a secluded place somewhere a distance away from the wet market.

It was only after my friend persuaded them to talk, they finally opened up.

"During the General Election, Tony Pua was here," the husband told my friend. "After the election is over, he hardly comes to SS2 to even understand our plight."

When I raised the matter with YB Ronnie Liu, he gave me the contact of YB Lim Yi Wei.

Within just one day, she reverted to say that her councillor, Billy Wong to look into the complaint. Although she did not know me personally, her response deserves our thumbs-up unlike some YB who does not even respond to complaints.

Communication is where Lim has done well. Her response clearly shows that she cares for the couple:

"Ok. Thanks Stephen for highlighting this, we'll check this out.This is the morning market yes?"

A day later, she called up to explain that the wet market arrangement is temporary.

If she had just kept quiet or worse, block the channel of communication, people would have cursed Pakatan Harapan.


End.

Simple Road Safety Measures is All We are Asking for

By Stephen Ng

These days, Local Councillors and Selangor State Assembly persons including State Excos do not respond to complaints.

I am not surprised that Selangor may fall in the next general election, if Barisan Nasional puts together a team who can do a better job than the existing people helming various positions. However, I would be the last person to hope such fate for Selangor, especially when the BN Component parties themselves have not gone through internal reforms.

This is my observation: There is such a vast difference in the present batch of Pakatan politicians compared to the first batch of councillors that I had dealt with. I used to cheer when Pakatan appointed its first batch of councillors - people like Chan Chee Kong and Lee Khai Loon, as they were so much more hardworking than former BN Councillors.

Chee Kong and Yee Ling rushed to the site despite of the heavy downpour to look at a sinkhole. That was back in 2008/9. As time passes, when complacency creeps in with one batch after another of the local councillors, this is where things go bad.

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On 26 July 2017, a resident living in Bandar Utama BU6/6 wrote a letter to the Petaling Jaya Municipal Council President, Azizi Mohd Zain.

It was bad enough that Azizi never bothered to respond or at least, I am not aware of any response from MBPJ.

She highlighted the need for traffic safety measurements at Lebuh Bandar Utama next to SJKC Puay Chai 2. In early part of the year, the school's PIBG had also written to MBPJ.

Its councillor Tang Fuie Koh was informed of the need. There were only promises that work would begin soon, but nothing happened. This was the reason why the BU6 resident followed up with her letter.

I have also personally whatsapp to MBPJ mayor, Mohd Azizi Mohd Zain about this issue.

More than a year has passed and there is still no news from both MBPJ and the new councillor, Danny Chan Pak Keung.

The matter was raised with Bandar Utama State Assemblyman, Jamaliah Jamaluddin in August 2018. It is now October 2018, yet nothing has been done. My enquiries sent to both Danny Chan and Jamaliah's whatsapp went unanswered. There is no update as to what would be done to solve the safety issues.

I have given four points to MBPJ last year:

(a) Speed breaker to slow down the traffic. This is a school zone and there is not even a signboard asking motorists to slow down as they approach the school.

(b) Pedestrian crossing for children who need to cross the road. I have seen a secondary school kid trying to cross this road on a busy afternoon traffic.

(c) A traffic light to control the flow of traffic. Accidents have happened here before as cars trying to exit Jalan BU3/1 are hit by on-coming vehicles speeding on Lebuh Bandar Utama.

(d) Besides the traffic management, I have also suggested to replace the monsoon drain with concretized drain to create more space for parking. Because there is a mosque nearby, on Friday afternoons, it is madness here, with cars parked on the road leaving behind only one lane for the traffic flow. The Muslim prayer hours happen at the same time when parents' cars are parked here to pick up their kids.



Instead, I hear from my sources that MBPJ is planning to build an overhead bridge across the road.

I wish to remind the councillor and the state assemblyman that a similar overhead bridge is built at Yuk Chai, but I still still a lot of parents and their kids walking across the road.

So, please revert to the simple things in life than to build another white elephant at the expense of assessment rate payers.

This area is under Tony Pua (Member of Parliament), Jamaliah Jamaluddin (State Assemblyman) and Danny Chan Pak Keung (MBPJ Councillor).

END.

Tell me, why shouldn't I be angry?

Since winning the General Election, Pakatan Harapan leaders need to put in more efforts to improve the services to the voters.

In the past, we have criticised the way how Barisan Nasional politicians have ignored people's complaints, but now, we are seeing some of our local councillors not responding to complaints.

When complaints were raised with the Selayang Municipal Councillor, Ng Wei Keong (DAP) on Sept 12, 2018 regarding an abandoned car which has occupied a parking lot for over a year, there was no response.

The matter, however, was handled by another MPS councillor, Ng Kok Chuan. Within a week or so, MPS tow truck came and removed the old jalopy. Thanks to Kok Chuan for covering for his colleague.

This is not the first time that the DAP  Councillor failed to carry out his job. Despite numerous complaints raised with him, nothing was done. Here is another example where a resident had sent him a message to him about basketball nets.

@Councillor - Ng Wei Keong  - Mr Ng this matter takes way too long! My 1st report was on 12th June followed by another one on d 3rd Aug. Can you help to look into it! 

Nothing was done. I had to finally whatsapp the Council President, Tuan Suliman Abdul Rahman. Within two days, he sent his men to fix new nets for the basketball court. The neighbourhood kids finally had a proper basketball court that they can play every weekend.

Lack of supervision on the ground is what turns the zone he is in charge of into a dumpsite.

 

I have been monitoring the area for some time as a watchdog. After each picture of the illegal dump is highlighted, KDEB immediately cleans up the place. For that, I must thank Faisal Zakaria.

Different people have from time to time helped to capture pictures of illegal dump, but whenever the matter is highlighted to the councillor, there is nothing but silence. Despite being the frontliner, I think he has failed in his job.

NOW, this is the most recent problem that was highlighted to his attention, and nothing has been done yet to clean up after an MPS contractor completed the drainage work. Some decent landscaping would at least make the place look more proper.

I do not have to say much. Pictures paint a thousand words. You can see for yourselves:

This matter has just been brought to the attention of MPS President, Tuan Suliman on October 2.

So, what do you do when a councillor is ignoring complaints? In the first place, he should be on the ground to make sure that the local council and its contractors do a good job. When others are doing the job by taking pictures for him, at the very least he should follow up on the complaints.

This is how efficient the drainage is, and this is in fact, the third time the drainage has been done.

What the councillor is more interested in is to install CCTV cameras at illegal dumpsite. I challenged him with two questions:

(a) He was told who dumped the polystyrene boxes near Vergine Restaurant in Desa Aman Puri. So, what did he do about it?
(b) I also posted a picture showing him who dumped the rubbish in Jalan 3/7. I asked, "What can you do about this picture?" No answer!

The complaint has been raised to Lim Lip Eng, Tony Pua, Ng Sze Han, Ronnie Liu, Tan Kok Wai, Lim Guan Eng and Lim Kit Siang. Except for Ronnie and Lip Eng, the rest just remained silent.

This area is under Tony Pua (as Member of Parliament) and Elizabeth Wong (State Assemblyman).

END.