I can't care less now for Petaling Jaya

 


Many of you have asked why I no longer help to highlight and provide feedback to the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) on issues I encounter while driving around the city, such as potholes, faulty traffic lights, broken lamp posts, clogged drains, and other public infrastructure problems.

The reason is simple: I do not wish to waste my time now that a new Datuk Bandar has taken over from Datuk Zahri Samingon, who has since been promoted to Director-General of the Department of Human Resources (Jabatan Tenaga Rakyat).

In fact, I told Datuk Zahri I am not going to waste time - often having to stop the car by the road side to take a photograph or asking my children to take the photograph to send to the mayor. I did all this voluntarily with the hope that the maintenance of public facilities can improve in Petaling Jaya, but some of you think I was trying to boost my ego. Let me put it straight: since I saw that the former mayor was always wiling to solve the problems on the ground, my time and effort was worth the while. But, why should I be bothered to do it now for the new mayor? He should go down to the ground himself to see if there are things to be fixed before they become complaints, and major issues that have to be highlighted by the press. 

The new mayor is not unfamiliar to me. He previously served as the President of the Selayang Municipal Council. His appointment raises a question that I have often asked: why does the Chief Secretary to the Government continue recycling individuals who, in my opinion, have delivered less-than-satisfactory performance? It is certainly not because there is a lack of information about their track record. In fact, my blog, Surat Terbuka kepada MB Selangor, was started during his tenure as Council President.

At the time, I only knew him by name. All my official communications were sent via email for record-keeping and formal correspondence, while urgent matters were brought to his attention through WhatsApp. Unlike Datuk Zahri, who was generally responsive, this individual rarely acknowledged communications and failed to implement many of the corrective actions that were requested.

The only occasion I can recall when he reacted swiftly was after an issue involving boom gates in our housing estate received coverage in Sin Chew Daily. Enforcement officers were subsequently sent to dismantle two boom gates, one managed by our Residents' Association and another by the Residents' Association of a different precinct within the same township.

Ironically, in our case, the boom gate was installed to control both entry and exit points to the neighbourhood, forcing residents to use a route determined by the chairman of the Residents' Association. It was under this arrangement that the so-called one-way street effectively became a two-way route, depending entirely on his whims and preferences.

The experience left me with little confidence that reporting local issues would lead to meaningful action. As a result, I no longer see the point of spending my time documenting and forwarding such complaints to the council.

If you live in Petaling Jaya, my suggestion is to register an account with SISPAA and channel all your complaints through the platform. Every report, whether it concerns potholes, drainage issues, street lighting, traffic management, or other municipal matters, should be formally recorded. 

Over time, the accumulation of these complaints will provide a clear record of recurring problems and the council's response, or lack thereof. More importantly, it will serve as evidence that can no longer be ignored, compelling the Chief Secretary to take action rather than allowing the situation and residents' quality of life to deteriorate further.

It is a bitter lesson when the Chief Secretary fails to take the performance of civil servants seriously in making promotion decisions. As I have often said, one of Malaysia's enduring challenges is that the civil service operates as a highly top-down organisation. 

If a complaint comes from the Chief Secretary, or a Minister, it is attended to with utmost urgency, almost as though one were serving a king. Yet ordinary citizens can lodge the same complaint a thousand times, and still nothing seems to move. Until accountability and performance become the primary considerations for advancement, the gap between public expectations and public service delivery will continue to widen. MBPJ's road repair team appears to be among the best of all their repair teams, but the worst is both its traffic light and lamp post units. 


Over a month now, the issue remains
unsolved despite informimg even Datuk Zahri several times and recently also
lodged as a complaint in SISPAA 





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