DEAD WOOD IN DBKL NEEDS TO BE REPLACED WITH YOUNGER AND MORE HARDWORKING OFFICERS

 

NEARLY two and a half months and a series of blog posts and articles were published, this was how long DBKL took to start paving the junction between Jalan Lang Emas and Jalan Bukit Maluri.

Technically, this should not even involve the ministers and MP. They have more important things to take care, but when the mayor Datuk Seri Kamarulzaman Mt Salleh appointed to the job shows a lackadaisical attitude towards complaints, who else can an ordinary citizen like me turn to?

Appointed by Tan Sri Zuki Ali, the chief secretary to the federal government, Zuki should take note of the complaints in the press. His job is not just to put people to warm the seats. His failure to appoint the right people to the job is a major issue that we have noticed. And when he does not even bother about all the complaints in the press, should he cling on to his position as chief secretary? 

Finally Fixed, After Two and Half Months since Nov 21, 2023

I have someone who has direct access to two ministers and the MP of Segambut. Once they were alerted, they immediately took action, but should this always be the case? They may be Madani (civil), and it may only take one directive from them, but this is the job of the LOCAL GOVERNMENT. 

Less than 24 hours, part of the road was re-paved properly. I hope to see the other side of the road repaired by tomorrow.

But this is not the only stretch of road. No thanks to DBKL, many roads in Segambut and Kepong are badly maintained. This is one reason why I started this blog. This is also the reason why I started to string with The Malay Mail some 30 years ago! 

Those were the days when I had my camera with me, and doing this additional part time job to earn some additional income. But it taught me a lot about the quality of service of our local government which has never improved, especially DBKL, Majlis Perbandaran Selayang and Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya. 

         

More Input from Tan Sri Lee 

Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, a long time friend from those days when I was stringing for Malay Mail, just called me to clarify a few matters:

(1) He was not appointed to the job as chairman but ELECTED by people who frequently use the Pudu Ulu Recreational Park. From the photographs, the park is beautiful but just read the article in Star Metro Oct 12, 2022. Over a year has lapsed, but what has DBKL or the park manager, Khairul done to solve the problems?

(2) The association, known as  the Friends of the Pudu Ulu Recreational Park was, in fact, set up by DBKL under the Registrar of Societies (ROS) to help monitor the park and provide feedback to DBKL. The then mayor, who was later appointed as Secretary-General of the Ministry of Housing & Local Government, had foreseen that DBKL officers would not carry out their job unless there is public pressure.

(3) The previous secretary, one Puan Azian was also the manager of the park. According to Tan Sri Lee, Puan Azian was a very good manager of the park and she did a great job throughout the four years that she was the park manager.

(4) However, last year, she was replaced by one young man, Encik Khairul whom Tan Sri Lee described as a non-performing manager. This new appointment was made by the director of landscape, Hj Zulkifli Endut. Khairul's failure is also Zulkifli's failure.

(5) As secretary, En Khairul has FAILED to even call an annual general meeting (AGM) despite reminders by Tan Sri Lee to convene the meeting. Khairul just ignored Tan Sri Lee. Tan Sri believes very soon the ROS will be sending them a notice. 

Here we will soon see a government agency having to write to another government agency for its failure to comply with the requirements under the law. 

Enough is Enough 

Over the past 30 years, I have not seen much improvement in the way DBKL carries out its work.

In fact, DBKL's services have deteriorated over the years. Its Public Relations director, Zurida Hashim, for example, after nearly 20 years of being on the job, has never improved. Perhaps, she too is having problems with the Heads of Department, but being the PRO, her complaint to the editor of a news portal is uncalled for ESPECIALLY when DBKL failed to deliver its services.

In those days, The Malay Mail did a great job in applying pressure on DBKL. Anyway, after Malay Mail "died" that was when the local councils continued to deteriorate in their services. (read the footnotes)

A Matter of Appointing Good People to the Job 

It is hoped that the newly-minted Minister of Federal Territories Dr Zaliha Mustafa and Minister of Local Government Development Nga Kor Meng read this blog post. 

Dr Zaliha has done a good job when she was the Minister of Health. For that reason, I believe Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has a lot of faith in her doing a good job with DBKL. She has to be firm, and anyone failing to do the job should, after a few "Ingkar Perintah" be shipped out of DBKL to a small local council in a remote place. 

I remember in those years when Tan Sri Kamaruzaman was mayor, he had a personal assistant who was known as a "tigress." I was in touch with her via SMS. Any complaints that I received on DBKL, whenever it was forwarded to her, she immediately solved it. It ended with me not having many stories to write about DBKL. For the time spent solving people's problems, I ended up writing a couple of articles, "A bouquet for DBKL" instead. 

Humongous Task

Both Nga and Dr Zaliha have a big task to clean up the local government throughout the country. 

This may be a humongous task, but with the help of Members of Parliament and State Assemblypersons, I am sure the good people can be identified and given the opportunity to do a better job. 

In a recent debate between a politician and Chief of Criminal Investigation Division, Datuk Seri Shuhaily Md Zain, I concur with Shuhaily that the local town planners have often failed to carry out their jobs to get the feedback from the police. Citizen Nades, formerly with Malay Mail, has written a very insightful piece regarding the heated debate. 

The bulk of the task is upon Nga whose ministry was renamed Ministry of Local Government (emphasis, mine), but if he continues with his "business-as-usual" approach to handling the local government, he will be a failure to the Madani government just like his counterparts who handle the State Exco position in Selangor in charge of local government. 

I may be a supporter of DAP (of Seng Giaw and Lip Eng, in particular) but it does not mean that I will hold back the brickbats from any non-performing DAP person, especially having experienced the poor performance of Ng Sze Han, Tony Pua, Gobind Singh and two of their DAP local councillors in my zone. 

But credit to whom credit is due. If they do a good job, they will get the applause from me but not after many rounds of "nagging" from me.

When they play dumb until the general election is around the corner that will be the end of my support for them. In the last general election, many of us still voted for Gobind because we wanted Anwar as PM. 

Footnotes:

I was saddened when the Malay Mail "died" under the care of one editor who turned the paper into a "sissy" paper for young people. 

Unlike his predecessors like Fauzi, Nadeshwaran, Yusri, Boon Siew, Daniel Chan, this guy was totally unapproachable. I wanted to sound out to him my observations, with the hope of saving whatever that was left of Malay Mail when it was under his care.

As a marketing person, I was laughing to myself that this was a "silly" decision as The Malay Mail's brand is unsuitable for university students and young people. He should have created a totally new brand. The late Daniel Chan shared my view.