selangor times dec 9-11, 2011 / issue 52
DESCRIPTION
Community paper in SelangorTRANSCRIPT
community December 9 — 11, 2011/ issue 52
Tamil school seeks return of land
What makes activists tick?
p 7 p 12 & 13
storms ravage kepong apartments
p 6
Profit from GLCs to help state schoolsBy Basil Foo
pUchong: A RM30 million education development fund has been made available from next year by Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim's administration for all Selangor schools that need assistance.
Vernacular, public and Islamic religious
schools facing financial constraints may apply for the Selangorku grant.
“The state recognises the importance of education in creating potential for our future development; that is why we are focusing heavily on it,” said the Menteri Besar.
Khalid made the announcement during a groundbreaking ceremony for the construc-
tion of a multipurpose hall in SJK (C) Sin Ming here on Wednesday (Dec 7).
The Selangorku grant can be used by schools for both infrastructure and education programmes.
Selangorku, unveiled during the tabling of the 2012 state budget last month, will fund various welfare programmes using dividends
Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim informing nursery operators and Yayasan Selangor officials that the state government will not hand out TOL for Green Lane.
Children playing with water before attending a mass circumcision programme at surau Al-Falahiah in Kampung Pasir, Hulu Kelang on Nov 27. • Turn To page 2
amounting to RM300 million from state-linked companies.
Schools that need new buildings to accom-modate greater enrolment, hire teachers, or run special classes for slower students can ap-ply for the fund.
The fund, which will be disbursed accord-ing to the needs of the respective schools, also moves away from the race-based quotas used for annual allocations to educational institutions.
Selangor currently allocates RM6 million to Chinese vernacular and Islamic schools, while Tamil vernacular schools get RM4 mil-lion annually.
Khalid pointed out that the RM30 million education development fund will be in addi-tion to the RM16 million allocated to schools here every year.
After his speech, he handed a cheque worth RM50,000 to SJKC Sin Ming’s board of gov-ernors chairperson, Chai Yoon Peng, for the construction of their multipurpose hall.
The school has so far managed to raise RM4 million through donations towards a construction cost of RM7 million, and is still seeking funds.
“With the construction of the hall, we will be able to add space for another 1,000 stu-dents to the school for both morning and af-ternoon sessions,” Chai said.
He said the school, attended by 1,750 stu-dents, had to reject the applications of 106 Standard One students for their 2012 intake.
The number of rejections from Sin Ming has been growing for the past two years due to shortage of classroom space and increase in population around the school.
“We previously did not even have enough
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EDITORIALCHIEF EDITOR KL Chan
COMMUNITY EDITOR Neville SpykermanWRITERS Tang Hui Koon, Chong Loo Wah, Gan Pei Ling,
Basil Foo, Alvin Yap, Gho Chee Yuan, Brenda Ch’ngCOPY EDITORS Nick Choo, James Ang
DESIGNERS Jimmy C. S. Lim, Chin Man YenADVERTISING Timothy Loh, Ivan Looi, Tony KeeADVISORS Faekah Husin, Arfa’eza Abdul Aziz
2 December 9 — 11, 2011
news
Federal govt told to respect residents’ wishes
Deal reached between state govt and private developerfunds to organise co-curricular ac-tivities, but that will change with the hall as a facility for students to do activities in,” Chai added.
The construction of additional facilities for cash-strapped Sin Ming was mulled during a visit by the Menteri Besar to the school two years ago.
Following negotiations between the state government and private de-veloper Bukit Hitam Development Sdn Bhd, a land deal was reached.
The deal consisted of the devel-oper giving up a 0.73-hectare piece of land adjacent to the school in ex-change for favourable development projects elsewhere in the vicinity.
Sin Ming will use 0.32 hectares for a car park, leaving the rest for fu-ture school expansions.
According to Chai, construction of the school’s new hall on 1.1 acres of the school’s existing 2.5-acre lot will begin immediately and is pro-jected to be completed in one year.
• From page one
Morning
Friday Saturday Sunday
afternoon
night
Selangor WeaTHer
Source: Malaysian meteorological department
By Gan Pei Ling
KUALA LUMPUR: Putrajaya is being urged to cease their attempts to compel 53 families at Kampung Kerinchi PKNS flats to move or have their land acquired.
Lembah Pantai Member of Parliament Nurul Izzah Anwar said it was unbecoming of the fed-eral government to threaten the residents with the Land Acquisi-tion Act.
“It [amounts to] interfering with the ongoing negotiation be-tween the remaining residents and the developer,” she said at a press
conference yesterday.The low-cost flats at Kampung
Kerinchi have been earmarked for redevelopment under the urban renewal scheme.
Some 403 flat owners have agreed to move, but 53 remain dis-satisfied with developer Suez Do-main Sdn Bhd’s offer.
Balik Pulau MP Yusmadi Yusoff said the government and developer need to respect the rights of the remaining flat owners, even if they are in the minority.
The majority of the flat owners who had agreed to move have been relocated to PPR Kerinchi, and
their rent for the next three years will be paid by the developer to Kua-la Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).
They had signed an agreement with Suez Domain, and will be of-fered 860 sq ft medium-cost apartment units worth RM300,000 to RM400,000 at the same site once construction is completed.
The developer offered to buy back the apart-
Khalid handing the cheque to Chai (far right). Looking on are gobind, Kok, and Liu.
ment units at RM125,000 each if the flat owners do not want to move in.
However, 53 families do not want to move and do not agree with the redevelopment plan.
They fear that the redevelop-ment plan could be abandoned midway and they would be left
Syabas drops defamation suit against MBBy Alvin Yap
SHAH ALAM: Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) on Wednesday withdrew its defamation suit against Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim following a settle-ment by both parties.
“This [withdrawal of the suit] shows that our scru-tiny of the Tabung Budi fund programme was justi-fied. I’d asked Syabas to stop the programme because it’s wrong and not ethical," said the Menteri Besar in a press statement.
The Tabung Budi programme allows Selangor residents to forgo their free 20 cubic metre water worth RM11.40, and channel it into a fund to assist with arrears or for reconnection of suspended ac-counts.
The case went to trial for two days from Nov 25. Four plaintiff witnesses had testified before the case was dropped.
High Court Judge Amelia Tee Hong Geok Abdul-lah heard testimony that the Tabung Budi fund had been set up by the Syabas Workers Union (Peka), while the running of the funds was managed by a separate secretariat led by Chief Executive Officer Da-tuk Roslan Hassan.
The fund was initially for the benefit of Syabas staff, but was expanded from October 2010 to assist the public.
The move to include the public as beneficiary of the fund required an amendment of Peka’s constitution, but this amendment was only passed in October 2011, the court was told.
Khalid was sued over statements made last year when he said the Tabung Budi fund was in violation of the water concession agreement.
Syabas claimed that Khalid had uttered defamatory remarks at a press conference in November 2010.
The statements reported in a news article by Ber-nama titled Withdraw Syabas License – Khalid were reproduced by Harian Metro a day later.
Syabas, in the details of the lawsuit, said the state-ments may be construed to mean that the Tabung Budi programme was cheating the public, and that the company was a hypocritical.
Khalid said Syabas had no grounds to pursue the defamation suit as it was a public entity, and that he was not responsible for news reports made by third parties.
The Ijok assemblyperson also maintained that the statement was fair comment.
“I hope the development of the new block is hastened to accommo-date more students,” Khalid added.
Also at the groundbreaking cer-emony were state executive council-lors Ronnie Liu, Teresa Kok and Ean Yong ; Puchong MP Gobind
Singh; Petaling Jaya Selatan MP Hee Loy Sian; Subang Jaya Munici-pal Council president Datuk As-mawi Kasbi; Sepang Municipal Council president Mohd Sayuthi Bakar; and Kinrara MCA service centre chief Dr Kow Cheong Wei.
with no homes.Their confidence was further
eroded by the fact that the redevel-opment plan was first proposed by Umno, instead of DBKL, in 2007.
The Kampung Kerinchi low-cost flats were built by PKNS in the 1970s. Most of the flat owners are senior citizens.
Yusmadi Yusoff
nurul Izzah
SELANGOR TIMES ⁄ December 9 – 11, 2011 ⁄ 3
4 december 9 — 11, 2011
news
EVENTSBenefit concert
Epic Collaborative, a non-governmental organ-isation, will organise a concert to raise funds for the building of Orang Asli homes. Titled “EPI-Concert”, the concert aims to raise awareness and fund Epic’s outreach programmes that fo-cus on housing for the Orang Asli. The concert will have a 90s theme featuring Tamagotchis, Gameboys, yo-yos and good 90s music. The event will be held on Sunday (Dec 11) from 3pm-6pm at The Stage@Publka Square, Solaris Dutamas, Jalan Dutamas 1, Kuala Lumpur. For details, call 017-332 8956 (Karen) or visit http://tinyurl.com/epiconcertrsvp.
Greeting Santa
Visit Santa Claus at his North Pole hideout at Sungei Wang Plaza on Dec 10,11,17,18, 24 and 25 at 4pm. He will be meeting and greeting children at the concourse level of the mall. Visit www.sungeiwang.com, www.facebook.com/sungeiwangplaza, or call 03-2117 0288.
Youth leadership programmeExtol Toastmasters Subang Jaya will hold its Youth Leadership Programme for students aged 12-18 from Dec 16-18 at No 2, Jalan SS19/1G, Subang Jaya. For details, call 019-2319800 (Kwa Ngan Eng), 012-2323578 (SK Ratnam), 016-2160632 (Patricia Tan) or email [email protected] or [email protected].
Family DayThe USJ 1 Angsana apartments will hold a Fam-ily Day on Dec 10 from 8am-3pm at their prem-ises. Highlights will be a cooking contest, sports competitions and health checkups. The event is jointly sponsored by USJ1 Al-Irsyad mosque and the area’s resident committee. Call 019-355 5555 for details.
International Arts FestivalSasaran Art Association is holding an Interna-tional Arts Festival from Dec 8-20 at No 11, Ja-lan Dato Tan Teng Kuay, Sasaran, 45800 Jeram Selangor. The event aims to promote the under-standing of art and cultural exchanges between Malaysia and other countries. Highlights are A Campfire Today (Dec 9) at 7pm, children’s open art painting competition on Sunday (Dec 11) at 10am, fashion parade and cultural night on Sat-urday (Dec 17) at 6pm and exhibition road show on Sunday (Dec 18) at 7pm. Visit http:/sasaran-art.gomalaysia.com.my/en/news/13042 or call 019-6639 670 (Mr Lo) or 012-3343 075 (Mdm Lai) for details.
PUCHONG: A new recreational spot has opened for residents looking to spend family time in a wide-open space with a panoramic view of the city.
The Worldwide Landfills Park, accessible via Lestari Puchong, is a 40.5-hectare plot that sits on top of the reclaimed Air Hitam sanitary landfill.
Its bicycle tracks, gazebo, golf putting green, trees, and tufts of grass are all rehabilitation efforts by state-linked company Worldwide Holdings (WWH) Sdn Bhd.
“The landfill was closed in December 2006 after 11 years in operations, and rehabilitation works were carried out since then,” said WWH chairperson Datuk Mohd Arif Rahman.
He was speaking at the foot of the hill before a Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) cycling team took a five-minute ride up to the park to mark its opening.
In a separate corner of the park sits an electricity gen-erating plant, which collects underground methane gas emitted by the landfill.
The plant has an average electricity production of two mega-watts – enough energy to power about 2,000 homes per day.
The electricity produced will be sold to Tenaga Nasional Bhd by channelling it back to the electricity grid.
“The issue of waste management has always been discussed, with landfills emerging as a better solution compared with in-cinerators,” said Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.
The Menteri Besar, who made some shots on the putting green, said the public feared incinerators for possibly emitting cancer-causing by-products.
He lauded WWH for not only turning the landfill into a park
useable by surrounding communities, but also for adopting green practices by harnessing renewable energy.
“It may have been controversial when this landfill was carved out of the Air Hitam forest reserve years ago, but the park will now return the land to its former ‘green’ state,” he said.
WWH also received an award from the Malaysian Book of Records for the nation’s first two-megawatt electric-generating plant using a gas landfill.
Also at the launch were state executive councillors Teresa Kok and Dr Xavier Jayakumar, and MPSJ president Datuk Asmawi Kasbi.
From landfill to park
Khalid (third left) launching the Worldwide Landfills Park in Puchong. Looking on are Arif (second left), Xavier (second right), and Kok (far right).
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By Brenda Ch’ng
MONT KIARA: Over 100 Malaysian and expatriate residents living at three condominiums in Mont Kiara staged a protest recently over the development of a commercial block nearby.
“Our condominium alone handed in a petition of 300 names calling for the proposed development to be stopped,” said La Grande Kiara condominium chairperson Terry Openshaw.
Openshaw and his neighbours joined others from the nearby Kiaraville and Tiffani Kiara condominiums to object the City Hall (DBKL) development.
The proposed 26-storey office block will be built on a plot of land, which has previously been gazetted for institutional use, beside Solaris Mont Kiara.
Condo owners were informed by DBKL that the mayor has received planing permission for the commercial development.
The proposed development includes one 26-storey block of offices with a six-storey podium, as well as a three-storey base-ment.
“We’ve conducted a study to show that there isn’t such need for an office block in our residential area,” said Openshaw.
He pointed out that there was only 60% occupancy in Solaris Mont Kiara, while 70% of office space in Solaris Dutamas and Menara Mont Kiara remains unoccupied.
Any new development will also worsen the traffic congestion in the area, Openshaw said.
Residents had highlighted their concerns during a meeting with DBKL on Nov 16 and a press conference with Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng on Dec 1.
Despite their objections, residents have been kept in the dark about the development and are still awaiting a response from DBKL.
“If DBKL allows for this kind of building application, it completely destroys the basis on which Mont Kiara has been marketed as a premium residential area,” said Tiffani Kiara condo resident Roger Blackshaw.
He pointed out that in the future, many foreign buyers will take their investments to other countries because they don’t trust the city’s planning system.
“We hope DBKL will agree with these valid objections. By dismissing the planning application, they will reassure residents and investors that their safety is being protected,” said Kiaraville condo chairperson Caroline Choong.
Locals, expats picket over DBKL development
Protesters at the site on Dec 2.
SELANGOR TIMES ⁄ December 9 – 11, 2011 ⁄ 5
Daulat Tuanku
SELANGOR
Tingkat 25, Wisma MBSA, Persiaran Perbandaran, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor. Tel: 03-5510 7105 / 7233 / 7234 Faks: 03-5510 7232 / 5512 9528 E-mel: [email protected] Laman Web: www.pnsb.com.my
SEMOGA ALLAH LANJUTKAN USIA TUANKU
DULI YANG MAHA MULIA SULTAN SHARAFUDDIN IDRIS SHAH ALHAJ IBNI ALMARHUM SULTAN SALAHUDDIN ABDUL AZIZ SHAH ALHAJ
D.K., D.M.N., D.K. (TERENGGANU)., D.K. (KELANTAN)., D.K. (PERAK)., D.K. (PERLIS)., D.K. (NEGERI SEMBILAN)., D.K. (KEDAH)., S.P.M.S., S.S.I.S., S.P.M.J.
SULTAN DAN YANG DIPERTUAN NEGERI SELANGOR DARUL EHSAN SERTA SEGALA DAERAH TAKLUKNYA
Sembah Tahniah Dan Ucap SelamatSempena Ulang Tahun Hari Keputeraan Yang Ke 66
Duli Yang Maha Mulia Sultan Selangor Pada 11 Disember 2011 Bersamaan 15 Muharram 1433 Hijrah
Sembah Takzim Daripada
6 December 9 — 11, 2011
NEWS
Storms ravage Kepong apartments
By David Ng
PETALING JAYA: Apartment owner Chong Yoke Leang was in tears when describing how her roof was ripped off during a thunder-storm last Sunday evening (Dec 4).
“It happened at around 5.30pm. We noticed water entering through the windows. Suddenly, there was a loud bang! Before we realised it, our roof had been blown off,” she said.
Chong said her family had bought the medium-cost apartment unit in Puncak Desa from develop-ers Mega Mall Sdn Bhd six years ago with their hard-earned savings.
“Now, it’s giving us nightmares,” she said.
The mother of four said their roof remained unrepaired, and she and her family would have to prepare for the worst if it rained again as they have not moved from their home.
“What if the disaster happens again and one of my children is killed?” she asked, adding that a representative from management company New Light Century Sdn Bhd had promised to help relocate her family.
Strong winds during a heavy downpour last week wrecked the rooftop of the 17-storey apartment block, as well as that of an adjoining low-cost apartment.
Another tenant, Mohd Fazli Mohamed, said his entire apartment was flooded and the rainwater de-stroyed many personal belongings.
“We were in the living room when we heard a sudden gush of wind, and before we knew it, the roof in my master bedroom had caved in,” said the 25-year-old.
Fazli and his family, who hail from Kedah, had lived at the apart-ment for barely six months.
Eyewitnesses said the heavy downpour ripped the roof apart and blew debris as far as the KTM Ke-pong Sentral Station, some 300m away.
Residents association president Go Ah Wah said this was the second time that part of the roof had been blown away.
“Something like this happened three years ago,” said the 53-year-old, pointing to the roof of a bad-minton court that was damaged by roof debris.
Go also urged the management office to repair a second lift in the low-cost apartment that has been out of service since Jan 8.
Bukit Lanjan assemblyperson Elizabeth Wong, accompanied by Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) councillor Lee Khai Loon, visited the apartment on Monday after-noon.
They had to walk 17 flights of stairs to get to the top floor because the lifts had been shut down.
Wong said local authorities had been instructed to do everything they could to help the storm victims.
“I have also instructed the local authorities to get the developer and
management office to repair the roof as soon as possible,” she said.
Officers from the Gombak Dis-trict Office, MPS, Selayang Com-mission of Buildings, and Gombak Social Welfare Department were also present.
However, no representatives from Mega Mall or its management agent New Light Century were present.
When contacted, a staff member from New Light Century, who wanted to be known as Prakash, said repair works could only start after insurance officers visited the site.
From The Board of Directors and Management of
With Utmost Sincerity
Heartiest Salutations And CongratulationsIn Conjunction With His Royal Highness’s 66th Birthday
On 11th December 2011
Go pointing to the part of the roof that had been ripped apart by heavy winds last Sunday.
Part of a roof that tore off and flew on top of an adjacent roof at the Puncak Desa apartments.
7december 9 — 11, 2011
news
By Alvin Yap
PETALING JAYA: SRJK (T) Effingham wants MIC to return a plot of land that was originally allocated to the school, but was transferred to Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu and others to hold in trust.
The overcrowded primary school lies on just three acres with no room for expansion.
The school’s Parent Teachers Association (PIBG) gave the press engineering plans obtained in 2009, which showed that the school was originally allocated six acres to cater for in-creased enrolment.
“The school is existing under cramped conditions. We want MIC leaders to hand back the other three-acre plot of land to us,” said PIBG committee member S Yelomalai during a press conference here on Tuesday.
He said the space constraints could be addressed if the adjacent three-acre land, currently vacant, was returned to the school.
The committee pointed out that the former MIC president and other party leaders should hand back the adjacent land as it was meant for public use.
MIC leaders had maintained that an administrative error led to their name being listed on the land grant.
The committee is willing to raise money and reimburse MIC for land premiums paid to the state by the party over the years.
But Yelomalai urged the party to first agree in writing to hand the land back to the school.
“It might cost close to RM1 million, but I know the Indian community will raise the funds,” he said.
Yelomai said the land should not have been divided, sold or transferred to individual names or political parties.
According to plans sub-mitted to the Petaling Jaya Land Office and obtained by the PIBG committee, MIC is proposing to build a party office and an orphanage there.
Currently, the school has 34 teachers and almost 500 students who have to put up with a shortage of space.
At the press conference was Subang MP Sivarasa Rasiah, who pointed out that the school has been forced to have two separate recess peri-ods for the canteen to accom-modate all the students.
The PIBG wants to build a multipurpose hall above the canteen because any expan-sion would encroach into the school’s small field.
The first-term lawmaker said students there have nev-er run a straight 100m race track as the field is only 75m from end to end.
“As such, the PIBG committee members plead with the leadership of MIC and their ordinary members to return the land to the school,” the lawyer said.
He said the academic performance of the students would be affected by the lack of space.
The six-acre plot was originally owned by Bandar Utama
developer See Hoy Chan, who had returned the land to the state to build the Effingham Tamil school.
The change in land status from private to public was ap-proved by the State Executive Council in 1999, under the administration of former Menteri Besar Tan Sri Dr Abu Has-san Omar.
Effingham Tamil school was originally an estate school, built 75 years ago at a rubber estate in what is now Bandar Utama, before being moved to its current location.
Tamil school seeks return of land
Sivarasa (left) and Yelomalai.
8 December 9 — 11, 2011
News
Cheong (far left), Jenice Lee (second right), and Lee (far right) holding up photographs of units.
End to Kg Sungai Terentang problem in sightBy Gan Pei Ling
RAWANG: Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s (TNB) stand-off with villagers over high-tension towers here may end today (Friday) if findings by an in-dependent consultant are accepted.
Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim is sched-uled to meet TNB officials at the Selangor Economic Action Council (MTES) this morning to discuss the report by AECOM Australian Pty Ltd.
The consultant had evaluated TNB’s original route and two pro-posed alternative routes, and sug-gested a fourth route to redirect the 275kV transmission line away from the highly populated Kampung Sungai Terentang.
“The advantage of this route is that it diverts the transmission line from the highly compact residential area to a wide-open corridor (Rawang High-way), which reduces the impact on residential properties and has a lim-ited impact on commercial busi-nesses,” said AECOM in its report.
It wrote that it is feasible to move the Central Area Reinforcement (CAR) project to be aligned along the 40m-wide Rawang Highway corridor using existing road reserves.
“The proposed monopole struc-tures can be installed on the slow-traffic side of the road. This will not affect major traffic along the high-way, and the kerb and the trees would act as a barrier to avoid the monopoles from being damaged by traffic,” it said.
Three petrol stations and two multistorey commercial buildings along the highway would be affected, but AECOM considers the impacts “manageable”.
This latest alternative route would cost an estimated RM17.5 million, less than TNB’s original route cost
Residents see red over huge signboardAMPANG JAYA: Residents of Taman Cempaka are threatening to take to the streets if the construction of a large billboard near a school here is not halted.
“We are ready to protest until the project is cancelled,” said busi-nessperson Hashim Johari.
During a press conference yes-terday, residents claimed the sign-board could collapse in a storm and endanger students of Sekolah Agama Jalan F.
“The structure is too near the school, and the signboard’s base will narrow the road here,” said the 56-year-old.
Residents want the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) to in-struct the owner of the billboard to
cease work on the public land in Kampung Pandan Jaya.
The residents had sent a memo-randum to MPAJ two weeks ago to highlight safety concerns.
Hashim said residents would give MPAJ two weeks to set up a meeting with the owner of the signboard.
The site, opposite Tesco Am-pang on the other side of the Middle Ring Road II, is adjacent to a row of furniture and car-accesso-ry shops.
Residents have also sought the help of Cempaka assemblyperson and state executive councillor Is-kandar Samad, who says he is ready to support their case if it is reason-able.
of RM18.6 million, and the state’s proposal of constructing an under-ground cable, which would cost RM225.3 million.
The consultant said the residents’ proposal to realign the transmission line along Jalan Rawang Perdana is actually the cheapest option, but it is not recommended as the road is highly congested.
“This traffic flow would increase the risk of the transmission-line structures being hit and damaged by the large number of truck move-ments,” said the consultant.
The CAR project has been stalled
Lower water rates for shoplots following interventionBy Alvin Yap
PETALING JAYA: Occupants of shoplots in Pandan Perdana will soon be paying residential rather than commercial water tariffs, thanks to a local councillor.
“The water concessionaire said they would revert to residential rates for units that showed proof that they were occupied by families,” said Ampang Jaya Municipal Councillor (MPAJ) Dorothy Cheong.
This followed a meeting between her and Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) to iron out problems faced by residents on Jalan Perdana 4/5 three weeks ago.
On Dec 2, Cheong got those affected to submit photographs as proof that they were residents and not businessowners.
The photos will be handed over to MPAJ’s Commis-sioner of Buildings (COB), who is working with Syabas officials to review the water rates.
Tariffs for residents here were switched to commer-cial rates in March based on its land status, which was categorised as commercial.
But they decried the move, claiming the switch
should have been done on a case-by-case basis.
“We think it’s not fair for Syabas to charge us com-mercial rates as we are residential units and we don’t use a lot of water,” said Lee Siew Juan, 47, at a press confer-ence last week.
The accounts executive said she had been paying the minimum RM36 commercial rate every month, adding that her bill had been less than RM10 when her unit was classified as a residential user.
Villagers voting on Tuesday to get TNB to use alternative routes away from their homes.
for the past three years as villagers vehemently protested against the demolition of their homes to make way for the transmission line.
Residents are also concerned that the magnetic fields from the high-voltage cables would cause health problems among pregnant women, infants and children, in addition to students at the school located only 20-25m away from the line.
They took the matter to court, but the Federal Court ruled in No-vember 2009 that TNB could pro-ceed with the project by compensat-ing residents with RM10.4 million.
Subsequently, Selangor negoti-ated with TNB, and the electricity giant agreed to halt construction while an independent consultant was hired to conduct a feasibility study on alternative routes.
TNB’s attempt to resume con-struction last Thursday ended in a stand-off with villagers.
Selayang Member of Parliament William Leong and Rawang as-semblyperson Gan Pei Nei urged TNB to adopt the alternative route proposed by AECOM in order to reach an amicable settlement with residents.
She said 60 apartment units at Pandan Perdana received Syabas letters in March notifying them of the move. Only 26 units are occupied by families, while the rest are offices.
Lee said Syabas should have sent their staff to ascertain if the units there were all commercial users or household users.
She said due to the switch to commercial user status, households there were also denied the first free 20 cubic metres of water tariff, implemented by the state since March.
Teratai assemblyperson Jenice Lee said Syabas should not have charged the tariffs according to assessment rates.
Foundation work for the signboard.
Construction work was halted last week following a stand-off with unhappy residents.
SELANGOR TIMES ⁄ December 9 – 11, 2011 ⁄ 9
SelangorStateChristmas
Celebrations
SelangorStateChristmas
Celebrations
SELANGOR
Guest Of Honour:TAN SRI DATO’ SERI ABDUL KHALID BIN IBRAHIMChief Minister of Selangor
All are welcome!All are welcome!
10th December 2011, Saturday - 5:30 pm onwardsEntrance Of New Wing, 1Utama Shopping Centre,
Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya
Entertainment:Reshmonu, Francesca Peters, Selangor Philharmonic Choir, Deafbeat, 3rd KL Boys Brigade Company, Church Group Performances and Special Sabah Dance.
Free Food !!Burgers, Roti Canai, Rojak and loads of Malaysian delicacies.
Come join us to spread the Christmas cheer!
This event is organised by Selangor Pakatan Rakyat State Governmentin conjunction with thePetaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ), 1Utama Shopping Centreand Tourism Selangor.
10 december 9 — 11, 2011
news
By Basil Foo
KLANG: Persistent flash floods at neighbourhoods here have led resi-dents at Taman Chi Liung to form an action committee to tackle the problem.
“The committee will not only help out during floods but look for solutions on how to mitigate the problem here,” said Klang MP Charles Santiago.
The committee, comprising Klang residents, will include six main members with backgrounds in engineering and flood mitigation, along with a number of volunteers.
They will work closely with the Klang Municipal Council (MPK) to find long-term solutions to the decades-old problem.
“Whenever residents are expe-riencing any floods, they can call the committee to help them,”
Santiago said.He said some flood mitigation
work has been carried out since July when heavy rains submerged homes in Taman Chi Liung.
“Since then, MPK has carried out widening and deepening of existing drains and opening new drains in order for the water to move faster during heavy downpours,” he said.
While residents have reported that their homes now remain dry despite heavy rains, this solution is only a quick fix.
According to the experts on the committee, the temporary flood mitigation effort can only last for about a year before an underground pond will be needed to contain rainwater.
Santiago said attempts are also being made to reach an agreement with land owners around Harbour Place to redirect drains around the
Klang landmark.The problem currently arises
when drains flowing under Harbour Place turn 90 degrees, hindering rainwater from flowing smoothly and causing a backflow into Chi Liung.
Residents requiring assistance or with suggestions can contact the committee by calling 012-3030430 (Yoga), 012-2339544 (Teh), or 016-2619311 (Selvaraju).
Residents form committee to tackle floods
Santiago: Committee will not only help during floods but look for solutions.
Riverbank collapse cause of water contamination
By Gan Pei Ling
KLANG: Selangor has ordered all local authorities to clamp down on those profiting from subletting their licences to third parties, including foreigners.
Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim says the state is imposing a strict “owner-operate” policy.
“The licence holder must be one of the people run-ning the business; he [or she] cannot be a ‘tauke’ in name only,” said the Menteri Besar, when asked to comment on the mushrooming of foreign-operated stalls on Jalan Kebun here.
Khalid has instructed the Shah Alam City Council and Klang Municipal Council to investigate the mat-ter within six months.
He added that local authorities in Selangor have been conducting periodic spot checks on businesses and hawkers to ensure the licences are not abused.
“It’s difficult to completely eliminate the problem, but we want to reduce it,” said Khalid.
He spoke to reporters after launching a Selangorku Medicare programme at SMK Kampong Jalan Kebun last week.
State investment arm Kumpulan Perangsang Selan-gor Bhd (Perangsang Selangor) donated a van and a four-wheel-drive jointly worth RM200,000 to the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Abim) at the event.
Abim will use the two vehicles as mobile clinics to provide medical services in rural areas, as well as to organise health talks and educational programmes.
Perangsang Selangor managing director Suhaimi Kamaralzaman said this is part of the company’s cor-porate social responsibility effort.
Abim president Amidi Abdul Manan was present to receive the vehicles’ key replica at the launch.
Several activities such as a blood donation cam-paign, free circumcision for children, free clinical checkups, legal advice and health and Islamic kinship talks were also held on the same day.
(From left) Suhaimi, Amidi, Khalid and Kota Raja Member of Parliament Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud.
Selangor comes down hard on those who sublet licences
SHAH ALAM: Selangor-born children above one year of age will be qualified to register with the Selangor Children Heritage Fund (Tawas) from Jan 1.
“We want these children to enjoy the resources which are meant for all citizens of Selangor,” said Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.
The Menteri Besar said this at a public dialogue at Dewan Beringin in Taman Seri Gombak on Dec 2.
Currently, registration with Tawas is only open to children young-er than one year old.
Registrants will each receive a savings fund of RM100 and will stand a chance to get RM1,500 in revenue when they turn 18.
Up to September, the state has allocated more than RM2.7 million to 27,212 children.
During the dialogue, Khalid also warned developers whose previous projects were still incomplete or faulty that the state would stop the current construction of projects that failed to meet the terms of their sales and purchase agreement.
“We will not allow these developers to do business in Selangor because the people’s welfare comes first,” he said.
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Tawas application to be more flexible
(From left) Suhaimi, Amidi, Khalid and Kota Raja Member of Parliament Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud during the Selangorku Medicare launch.
By Brenda Ch’ng
SHAH ALAM: A collapse river-bank at Sungai Kerling has been identified as the cause of contami-nation that threatened water sup-ply to Klang Valley consumers early this week.
Turbidity of over 6,000 NTU (Nephelometric Turbidity Units) at Sungai Selangor – compared with 300 NTU normally – af-fected water production at four water treatment plants.
“One collapse happened about 2km away from Sungai Kerling’s mini-hydro power station, near the border of Selangor-Pahang,” said Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.
The Menteri Besar was speaking to reporters after receiving a report from the Selangor Water Manage-ment Board (Luas).
The collapse was caused by heavy rains, and not from illegal sand mining or tree felling in the area.
Luas, along with other agencies, will be monitoring the riverbanks to ensure the problem does not recur.
The state has proposed for raw
water to be stored in a retention pond before going to the treatment plants as a contingency plan.
“If enough water is stored, then we wouldn’t have water disrup-tions if it happens again. This can be a solution to our problem,” said Khalid.
Earlier this week, the state moved to appoint operational au-ditors from international consul-tancy Halcrow, along with an in-dependent regulator to investigate the source of the contamination.
On Monday, production of water from four treatment plants declined from about 2,460 million litres daily to only 1,000 million litres due to the problem.
This caused fears that over three million residents in the Klang Val-ley could have faced water disrup-tion.
Khalid had urged Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) to be prepared to face any eventuality to ensure non-disruption of water supply.
Syabas on Wednesday said that the four affected treatment plants had resumed operating as normal.
SELANGOR TIMES ⁄ December 9 – 11, 2011 ⁄ 11
With Utmost Sincerity
Heartiest Salutations And CongratulationsIn Conjunction With His Royal Highness’s 66th Birthday
On 11th December 2011
12 December 9 — 11, 2011InsIght
By Gan Pei Ling
Most children grow up writ-ing essays about becoming lawyers, doctors, engineers,
ballerinas, footballers and even ac-countants. Few aspire to be tree-hugging activists.
Yet, when you attend pickets, ral-lies and the occasional forum, there is an increasing number of young adults who aspire to become career activists.
However, it does not help that activists generally have a bad name among the Malaysian public. They have been con-sistently vilified by governments, and sometimes the media too, as “troublemakers”.
But are they really? What do full-time human rights advocates actually do?
Selangor Times spoke to three young activists to find out why they choose human rights activism as a career, rather than join the paths of most of their peers and the challenges they have encountered.
Passion and not pay
“Activism is not a job but a passion for me,” says Lau Shu Shi in a phone interview.
While she concedes that her salary may be moderate compared with her peers – around RM2,000 plus per month – Lau draws motivation from her belief that her work will eventually contribute to building a more democratic, inclusive and just society for everyone.
The 28-year-old currently works for election watchdog Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0).
Lau, a business administration graduate from Uni-versiti Sains Malaysia (USM), knew she was not cut out for the dog-eat-dog corporate world as soon as she completed a compulsory internship with a holiday resort in Pahang.
“I saw how the management [mis]treated the workers, especially the cleaners and security guards, regardless of whether they were locals or foreigners.
“Their pay was low but they had to work long hours and were not given sufficient annual leave,” recalls Lau, whose political consciousness and activism began in university.
During her second and third years in USM, she became a coordinator for the Malaysian Youth and Students Democratic Movement (Dema) – a hotbed for student activists until today.
Lau says it was her seniors who guided and exposed her to various issues, including how oppressive the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) is.
After graduation in 2007, the Miri native joined
Penang Suaram, and would move to Kuala Lumpur three years later to work as a programme officer in local feminist organisation All Women’s Action Society (Awam).
Lau left Awam in June 2011 to take up the new challenge of work-ing as a training and awareness pro-gramme officer for Bersih 2.0. Now she organises trainings and public forums nationwide, including in rural areas, to publicise Bersih 2.0’s eight core electoral reform demands to grassroots communities.
Not all about protests
Similarly, Maisarah Muhd Najib usually has trouble explaining to friends and relatives what she does for a living. The soft-spoken Kelantanese has worked as a full-time human rights activist since early 2009.
“For most Malaysians, when they think about NGO (non-governmental organisation) work, they think it is charity work. The concept of advocacy [or activism] is almost nonexistent,” she said.
“I took up activism because I want to create better awareness of human rights issues.”
Maisarah joined national human rights organisa-tion Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) three months ago as an outreach and events coordinator. She works together with her colleagues to run campaigns, train-ings and forums.
“Activism isn’t all about protests. It is just one of the tactics we use to advocate for better laws and fairer policies,” she says.
“My typical workday is like most people’s: attend meetings, deal with emails, organise events – except when we have to leave the office to do some picket-ing lah. For example, to protest against the Peace-ful Assembly Bill last week in Parliament,” says the 26-year-old.
This week, she is preoccupied with preparations for Suaram’s annual human rights award, which gives recognition to local movements or community groups that consistently struggle to defend their human rights.
Among the nominees for this year’s award are Kuantan-based Save Malaysia Stop Lynas group; or-ganisers of annual sexuality rights festival Seksualiti Merdeka; and the Kuala Lumpur Legal Aid Centre.
“It is important to recognise their struggles, espe-cially of community groups that are fighting for issues that impact their very lives,” notes Maisarah.
Before joining Suaram, Maisarah worked for com-munication centre Pusat Komas and helped to run its annual human rights film festival FreedomFilmFest in 2009 and 2010. She organised screenings around
What makes activists tick?
cities and towns nationwide to promote the films and the issues they raised.
“It was fun, I learnt a lot, but most importantly I be-lieve what (Pusat) Komas stood for. It made me pas-sionate about what I do, and I don’t really see it as a job per se,” she says.
The sociology and anthro-pology graduate from Inter-national Islamic University Malaysia adds that another important life lesson she has learnt from being an activist is to be patient.
“We’re living in a quick-fix society, but changes in society rarely happen instantly. So it is important for us not to lose heart and continue to build awareness and work towards the changes we hope to see,” says Maisarah.
Living up to, and for, ideals For Suaram coordinator E Nalini, activism began
when she was studying in university.The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia political sci-
ence graduate used to volunteer for one of her varsity welfare groups called Jawatankuasa Kebajikan Maha-siswa-Mahasiswi, going into Orang Asli kampungs and plantations to provide free tuition for children.
“Growing up under the (former Prime Minister Tun Dr) Mahathir (Mohamad) era, I used to admire him and believed everything was quite fine in this country.
“But the experience opened my eyes. I realised then that many communities continue to be marginalised by our government, and how corrupt the [political] system was – enriching only certain parties while neglecting the needy,” says the 29-year-old.
Nalini joined Suaram in 2006 and has since been advocating for the abolition of preventive laws such as the Internal Security Act (ISA) and Emergency Ordi-nance (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) [EO].
One of the familiar faces in civil rights protests and candlelight vigils, Nalini’s work includes providing
legal and counselling support for families of ISA and EO detainees, to fight for the detainees’ right to a fair trial.
“I wish our government would really listen to the peo-ple and respect our constitu-tional freedoms: to have a fair trial, to speak up – even if it’s against the government – in a peaceful manner,” says Nalini.
She strongly believes that the rakyat should have more
say in how the country is being run, and is determined to dedicate her life to empower ordinary Malaysians to bring about a better Malaysia.
She is inspired to see more and more Malaysians aware and concerned about issues like freedom of expression, detention without trial, and clean elec-tions, including taking to the streets to make their voices heard.
“I think Malaysians deserve better – a clean and democratically elected government, without corrup-tion and cronyism; a just and equal society, to live without discrimination and peacefully among one another,” says Nalini.
Capable of change
Apathetic or cynical individuals may scoff at their ideals, but at least these young activists are attempting to address the issues plaguing the country.
Furthermore, history has shown that social move-ments can and have changed governments and socie-ties worldwide. The civil rights movement in the US successfully fought racism and ended many forms of discrimination against African-Americans.
Similarly, feminists fought and continue to fight for women’s rights to vote and equal opportunity in work and education. And in some countries, the right to drive.
As the much-celebrated American anthropologist Margaret Mead once said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
This Dec 10 is human Rights Day. it is celebrated internationally to commemorate the historic proc-lamation of the Universal Declaration of human Rights (UDhR) on Dec 10, 1948.
The declaration came in the backdrop of the Nazis’ horrific massacre of over six million Jews, gypsies, gays and people with disabilities as well as other war crimes during World War ii.
Governments subsequently set up the United Nations to promote peace, and the UDhR was drawn up to set universal human rights standards in a bid to protect citizens from government abuses.
Article 1 reads: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brother-hood.”
Made up of 30 articles, the UDhR guarantees a citizen’s fundamental liberties, including the right to life, work, vote, education, healthcare, to
be free from slavery, torture and arbitrary deten-tion, as well as freedom of expression, thought, conscience and religion, among others.
And Article 2 states that everyone regardless of “race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” is entitled to the rights and freedoms set forth in the UDhR.
Although the UDhR is not legally binding, it is accepted as customary international law and its principles have been incorporated into many countries’ constitutions.
While governments accused of human rights abuses may decry human rights as a “western” concept, its core principles such as equality, freedom and justice for all can be applied across the board regardless of nationality and religion.
The full UDhR is available at http://www.
un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml.
A universal concept
Lau: Activism is not a job but a passion.
What makes activists tick?
legal and counselling support for families of ISA and EO detainees, to fight for the detainees’ right to a fair trial.
“I wish our government would really listen to the peo-ple and respect our constitu-tional freedoms: to have a fair trial, to speak up – even if it’s against the government – in a peaceful manner,” says Nalini.
She strongly believes that the rakyat should have more
say in how the country is being run, and is determined to dedicate her life to empower ordinary Malaysians to bring about a better Malaysia.
She is inspired to see more and more Malaysians aware and concerned about issues like freedom of expression, detention without trial, and clean elec-tions, including taking to the streets to make their voices heard.
“I think Malaysians deserve better – a clean and democratically elected government, without corrup-tion and cronyism; a just and equal society, to live without discrimination and peacefully among one another,” says Nalini.
Capable of change
Apathetic or cynical individuals may scoff at their ideals, but at least these young activists are attempting to address the issues plaguing the country.
Furthermore, history has shown that social move-ments can and have changed governments and socie-ties worldwide. The civil rights movement in the US successfully fought racism and ended many forms of discrimination against African-Americans.
Similarly, feminists fought and continue to fight for women’s rights to vote and equal opportunity in work and education. And in some countries, the right to drive.
As the much-celebrated American anthropologist Margaret Mead once said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Maisarah: Full-time human rights activist since early 2009.
Nalini: Activism began when she was studying in university.
14 december 9 — 11, 2011
feature
By Allison-Murugesu Ghani
Life has always been good. Well, pretty good anyway, all things considered.
We live a comfortable life, have a decent roof over our heads, and enjoy holidays locally and abroad. In many ways, we are the typical Malaysian with the atti-tude – I am okay, so what the heck?
My first encounter with the Orang Asli of Malaysia was in 1994, when my late husband and I joined a group of friends for a weekend trip to Tasek Chini in Pahang.
It was a very touristy introduction, and we never really gave a second thought about our indigenous brothers and sisters until 16 years later.
We left home when Ghani decided to study law as a mature student in 2000. After living abroad for eight years, we decided to give up the rat race and return to Malaysia. We took two years off to track our way home via the scenic route on land in our trusty 4×4.
In 2008, we left London when our son, Adrian, was three years old and arrived in Malaysia just in time to celebrate his fifth birthday. We had travelled through 46 countries on four con-tinents.
During our travels, we made a point to experience as much of the local lifestyle as possible, especially in A f r i c a . F o r f i v e months, we camped in tribal vil lages, and were often welcomed into the homes and hearts of total stran-gers. We were offered food by families who could barely afford to feed themselves, and were shown such warm hospitality that I can’t even begin to describe how humbled and grateful we felt.
Upon our return to Malaysia, we settled back into a non-nomadic lifestyle with some difficulties. Not only did we have to inte-grate ourselves back into a society we had been away from for 10 years, but we also had to deal with certain health issues faced by Ghani.
We realised that our travels had totally changed our mindset and outlook of life.Our involvement with the Orang Asli com-munities began in early August 2011, when Ghani saw an Al Jazeera report on television titled “Malaysia ethnic tribes ‘forced to convert’” one evening.
I was in the kitchen when Ghani called for me to come to the living room and watch the feature. He was gobsmacked by what he saw and heard on the television.
There we were, looking at villages in Ma-laysia, somewhat similar to those we saw in Africa. Surely this was not happening in Malaysia, and surely the report was not true? The only way to know the truth, Ghani thought, was to find out for ourselves.
We lived just 15 minutes down the road from the Temuan Orang Asli Village in Sungai Buloh. One Sunday morning, we took a drive out to the village and spent the
morning chatting with the villagers. This gave us a much deeper insight of
some of the issues faced by the Orang Asli not just in the rural interiors, but also the urban fringe villages that are within close proximity to the city. They live without electricity, basic amenities, and still depend on gravity-fed water supply.
We also found that in this particular vil-lage, healthcare services were poor despite being so close to the Sungai Buloh Hospital. The local government-run clinic did not seem to take their ailments seriously. A two-year-old toddler, with pus oozing out of his
ear, had been given only eardrops for the past four months. Eardrops alone would not have helped to clear the infection as the wound needed cleaning too.
It was our fate-ful encounter with Kedang Pil, broth-er of the village matri arc h , that drove us to do what we could for the Orang Asli com-munities.
K e d a n g h a d spent the past few months in and out of the local Klinik Desa, with complaints of pro-longed cough, fever, chills and lethargy. Each time he visited the clinic, he was prescribed paracetamol, cough mixtures and painkillers.
He was told to go home and rest.One morning I got a call from Kedang’s
niece saying that her uncle had collapsed and was admitted to the Sungai Buloh Hospital.
He was placed in an isolation unit, and his family did not know what had hap-pened to him.
G h a n i a n d I rushed over and were informed that Ke-dang had been diag-nosed with tubercu-
losis (TB), and that he was in very critical condition.
Kedang passed away two days later. Trying to get his body released for burial was a chal-lenge. Kedang was a Malaysian. He was no
When life changed for Ghani, Adrian and me
Adrian playing with other OA children.
Pus oozing out of the ear of this toddler.
An elderly Orang Asli man being given first aid.
Kedang Pil fighting for his life.
There we were, looking at villages in Malaysia ... surely this was not happening in Malaysia, and surely the report was not true?”
15december 9 — 11, 2011
feature/news
different from me, and yet, because he was an Orang Asli, a different set of rules applied. I left feeling perplexed.
The release of his body for burial was delayed, as we first needed clearance from the Jabatan Hal-Ehwal Orang Asli (Orang Asli Welfare Department) and was questioned re-peatedly about his religion and which burial rites should apply.
This was followed by yet another challenge to get the other villagers tested for TB, as they had lived in close contact with Kedang. The children, some of whom were coughing themselves, had been exposed to other children in the local schools.
Our frustrations were brought to the attention of Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, the Chairperson of the Malaysian Bar Council’s Committee on Orang Asli Rights (COAR). She surprised me with a phone call one evening asking details of the issues faced by the village, especially in relation to their healthcare. She then brought this to the attention of Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican, the then director-general of health.
This marked the beginning of Ghani’s, Adrian’s, and my active involvement in working with different Orang Asli communities. We served as observer members of COAR and co-founded a community support group with some members of COAR and leaders of the Orang Asli network.
The support group seeks to provide school supplies, guid-ance and support to several community-run pre-schools in Orang Asli villages. The pre-schools are set up and facili-tated by the Orang Asli themselves. The aim is to give each child an opportunity for literacy and not to be at a disadvan-taged position once they start their formal education in government-run schools.
Since Ghani’s passing in March this year, Adrian, who is now seven years old, and I have carried on with our volun-teering work with the Orang Asli Learning Centres Com-munity Project, COAR, and other initiatives involving Orang Asli communities.
All these are carried out on a pro bono basis, something we have always been grateful for. We have been blessed in life, and this is just a small way for us to give back to society.
Volunteering our time and energ y has benefited us greatly. Very often, we find that we receive much more than we’ve given. We have much to learn from our indigenous brothers and sisters, even simple life’s lessons on humanity, humility and the grace of giving when you do not have enough for yourself.
Many have asked how I’ve managed to drag Adrian along on field trips to the interior villages, sometimes up to four days, with no proper water supply, electricity, sanitary fa-cilities, access to medical amenities and often without sub-stantial food.
Well, we manage. You learn to live without the mod-cons we have in our everyday life; and more importantly, we learn to appreciate what we do have, knowing how fortunate we are to have them when others at our doorsteps are living without.
Adrian spent two of his most formative years living a nomadic life, travelling overland through different countries, experiencing different cultures with different traditions and belief systems. He adapts as all children do when given the opportunity to experience different environments. He plays with the local kids, and they look out for him. He joins in their traditional celebrations, and can Sewang as well as any
Orang Asli can.As a mother, I cannot be more thankful for the experience
Adrian gets from our work and the wealth of knowledge shared with him by other volunteers, field workers and local villagers we work with. The world has always been his class-room and it continues to be so.
There is still so much to be done. There are still so many wrongs to be corrected and so many issues to be addressed – from land rights to just basic human rights. From creating awareness amongst the communities, advising them on their rights as Malaysian citizens, to walking with them in their efforts to preserve their unique identity, culture and tradi-tions.
As volunteer field workers, we work with the grassroots communities, doing what we can in our own small little way. One thing is for sure though, no matter how small a part anyone plays, it is never insignificant.
You don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to par-ticipate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by many people, can transform the world.
Providing basic first aid where required.
Children’s arts and craft.
The world is Adrian’s classroom.
Adrian at home with the OA kids.
By Gan Pei Ling
KUALA LUMPUR: Up to 300 owners are expected to close their shops today (Friday) to protest against the newly implemented contraflow bus and taxi lane on Jalan Tun Sambathan.
Little India Action Committee chairperson S Pathavacha-lam said Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s (DBKL) sudden move to change the one-way traffic without informing the pub-lic had caused accidents and more congestion, apart from affecting business.
“This is bad planning. There have been five accidents within 48 hours after the new traffic flow was implemented last Saturday because pedestrians were unaware that they have to look both ways before crossing the road,” he said during a press conference yesterday.
He said among the victims were three family members
who were hit by a bus and seriously hurt.Trader S Rajah warned that the situation might become
worse when schools reopen in January, as students might not be aware of the new traffic flow.
“It’s more difficult to cross the road now, and it’ll be dangerous for the students,” said the photocopy shop owner, whose customers include students and consultants.
Among the schools in the vicinity are SK La Salle Brick-fields 1 and 2, SK St Theresa 1 and 2, SJK (C) St Theresa, SJK (T) Vivekanda, SMK La Salle Brickfields, and SMK Vivekananda Brickfields.
DBKL says the implementation of the special lane, ap-plicable from 8am to 6pm, is to allow buses and taxis from the city centre to head to Taman Seputeh and Bangsar via Jalan Travers.
Pathavachalam said DBKL should have consulted the public before making changes to Little India’s traffic.
“When they revamped the area, they widened the walk-way, making the road narrower. Now they want to change the traffic flow to two ways to accommodate a bus and taxi lane,” he lamented.
He added that due to traffic congestion and lack of park-ing, business has dropped by 40-50%.
Lembah Pantai Member of Parliament Nurul Izzah Anwar, who was present at the press conference with the traders, said DBKL should hire an independent traffic specialist to conduct a proper traffic impact assessment.
“I understand they want to turn Brickfields into a trans-port hub, but they also need to take into account the needs of local residents,” she said.
She added that an independent traffic consultant would be able to provide interim and long-term solutions to traf-fic woes in Brickfields.
Brickfields traders to protest two-way traffic trial
16 december 9 — 11, 2011
views
La b e l s – m o s t commonly used b y c o n f u s e d
hormonal teenagers desperately grappling for an identity; may be manipulated by the media and bitchy, good-looking girls and boys to determine social hierarchy in high school. The thing about labels is that we usually grow out of them when we graduate from high school and discover that there are more pressing things at hand like mortgages and stagnant wages.
Street demonstrations – Action by a mass group of people in favour of a political cause.
The organisers of Walk for Justice 2011 seem to have missed that period of discovery that labels are dumb and insignificant. They also seem to not quite grasp the concept of what a street demonstration is for.
This year’s Walk For Justice saw a few hundred lawyers walking from the Lake Gardens to Parliament to protest the Public Assembly Bill 2011.
Now before I proceed, let me make this clear. Any street demonstrations or protest for a just cause is highly commend-able. They are brave men, women and children who put aside their comfort and safety to fight for their freedom and rights.
The Walk for Justice did not make that list. Their premise is that when lawyers walk, that means there’s something wrong.
Now is it me, or is there just the slightest tinge of arrogance there?
There is a backdrop to such a statement, and it isn’t pretty. What are they trying to imply here? Are they saying that when o t h e r s walk, it isn’t as important? That when accountants walk, when construction
workers march, when teachers protest, their cause is not as paramount?
Ouch. That’s a bit insulting, isn’t it?
“When lawyers walk, that means there’s something wrong.” The func-tional word here is lawyers, not so much their cause, which is justice.
Any resistance effort
depends highly on the visual impact it creates. The more sectors of society, the bigger the number of protestors, the more read-ily it engages with the public and in turn, the more successful it will be.
That was what the Reformasi and both Bersih protests were all about. Organisation is vital to ensure the numbers and if possible, the diversity of protestors were there to drive home the point of a united large pool of people.
But the Walk For Justice was a demonstration which did not get other sectors to join. Some may defend this exclusiv-ity to present a “learned professionals” impact. Now, surely if the Bar Council had mobilised accountants, brokers, doctors, construction workers to join them, the impact would have been doubled or tripled. If you multiply a number, you end up with a bigger number. Elementary mathematics.
The deal is the Bar Council did not do all this. And their shortcoming in doing so is telling.
To be honest, I never buy the pitch that lawyers are justice fighters and “one with the people”. It’s hard to believe you’re selling justice “for the people” when you’re sauntering about in RM800 aviator shades and a RM2,000 suit. There are Rudy Baylors, honest-to-goodness Davids fighting against the Go-liaths type of lawyers out there, but they are few and far in between.
Anyone who has worked in a law firm knows there is an invisible class divide between the secretaries and lawyers. You
cannot profess you’re in solidarity with the people when you don’t even have lunch with your own secretaries in the common break room.
Here’s the deal. Lawyers have always been an elitist bunch. They are neither the proletariat nor the revolutionary class. Their socioeconomic backgrounds starts with their upbringing in a middle to upper class society to an expensive education graduating into a prestigious job with an above average start-ing salary that only gets higher. It’s a pathway mostly for the privileged, like it or not.
Now you have a couple of hundred of them saying it is beyond them to see such a repressive bill being passed for the sake of the people. If this is genuine, then do so without the basis that it is because when lawyers march, something is very wrong. Because when you do so, you get this impression that it’s some sort of “back to nature” programme, where lawyers extend their privileged hand to the “commoners”. You cannot escape feeling that slightest prickling of vanity and elitism.
Or was that their intention all along?
Lee Lian Kong is a second-year law student who wishes she can prosecute hippies, hipsters and hypocrites. You can contact her to help her with her cause or send her feedback about this column to [email protected]
A Lawyers’ March … Fuh!YouthologY Lee Lian Kong
community
May 20 — 22, 2011/ issue 25
TI-M head disputes Christian state claim
Wesak Day: a time for giving p 4 p 15
may 13: recollections & reconciliation p 12 & 13
• Turn To page 2
Facelift for old flats
By William Tan Petaling Jaya: Dilapidat-ed low-cost flats throughout Sel-angor may get a new lease of life if a pilot programme to rehabilitate such homes is successful.The ambitious and first-of-its-
kind project is being carried out by the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) in collaboration with Veri-tas Design Group, a private com-pany, and Rumah Air Panas, a community-based charity.The single block at the Taman
Maju Jaya apartments here, which houses 59 families, will be the first to undergo the transformation, which includes renovations and re-furbishments while keeping the physical aspects intact."All works are based on the deci-
sions made by the residents," said social activist Wong Hay Cheong.
Wong, who mooted the idea, pointed out that many of the resi-dents were forced to move into the flats when squatter settlements were demolished, but the buildings and facilities were hardly adequate.
“The entry of Veritas Design Group, which has contributed RM100,000 and the skills [of their architects], means that is going to change,” said Wong.As many as 50,000 families were
relocated to low-cost flats between 2000 and 2008 under former Men-teri Besar Dr Khir Toyo's Zero Squatter policy which has been crit-icised for creating high-rise ghettos.
Wong said the private firm is car-rying out the project as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, having spent the last two years laying the groundwork for the project.The company has been liaising
with the families regularly to get feedback on their needs and help them decide on practical solutions.
Their architects, using the latest technologies and techniques, will remodel the building on a tight budget, which is estimated to be less than RM500,000.“It is very challenging; almost
everything needs to be redone. The wiring is horrible, the roof is leaking, and the septic tank emits an awful stench,” said Veritas Design Group
architect Iskandar Razak.Iskandar added that it was very difficult to obtain commitments from various parties at the start of the project, with funding still a seri-ous issue.
The success of the project rests on sponsorships for the various compo-nents, such as the supply of metal parts, and the company hopes to
obtain what they need from their business contacts.“Despite it all, this is a very im-
portant project for us as we believe that a city should not be inhabited by the wealthy only, but by every strata of society. In a way, we are re-juvenating the city,” said Iskandar.
If the pilot is successful, the com-
LB_246391_Sun_m14.ai 1 5/12/11 9:56 PM
Keeping abandoned babies safe: Faizah Mohd Tahir (left) demonstrating the use of the baby hatch as local celebrity Datin Sofia Jane looks on.
• STory on page 10
Where to get your Where to get your LRT Stations (Distribution by hand) – MorningAmpang – Sentul TimurAmpangCahayaCempaka Pandan IndahPandan JayaSentul TimurSentul
Kelana Jaya – Terminal PutraKelana JayaTaman BahagiaTaman ParamountAsia JayaTaman JayaUniversitiSri Rampai Wangsa MajuTaman Melati
Sri Petaling – Sentul TimurTaman MelatiSri Petaling Bukit Jalil
Bandar Tasik SelatanSalak Selatan
Shopping Malls (From Saturday noon)1 UTAMA Tropicana Mall Sunway Pyramid The CurveIOI MallPlaza Damas Ikano Power CentreEmpire Subang MetroPointCentro Mall, KlangBangsar Shopping Complex
Hypermarkets (From Saturday noon)
Tesco (Puchong, Kajang, Mutiara Damansara, Rawang, Bukit Tinggi, Setia Alam, Ampang, Extra Shah Alam, Kepong)
Giant (Puchong, Kajang, Bandar Kinrara, Klang, Pandamaran, Bandar Selayang, Kota Damansara, Taman Setiawangsa, Putra Heights, Taman Connaught, Kelana Jaya, Bukit Antarabangsa, Subang Jaya, Bukit Tinggi, Setia Alam, Kota Kemuning)
Carrefour (Bukit Rimau, Subang Jaya, Wangsa Maju, Sri Petaling, Kepong, Puchong, Ampang, Jalan Peel, Jalan Kapar, Bandar Tun Hussein Onn, S23 Shah Alam)
Jusco (Bukit Tinggi, Tmn Maluri, Wangsa Maju, Bandar Baru Klang, Mahkota Cheras)
Commuter Stations (Distribution by hand) – Morning
Sentul – Port KlangPort Klang Bukit Badak Shah Alam Subang JayaJalan TemplerPetaling
Rawang – SerembanKuala Kubu BaruSungai BulohKepong Sentral Kepong
Morning Wet Markets (Saturday morning)Jalan SS2/62 Taman Medan Jalan 17/27SS15 Subang Jaya Taman Kuchai Lama Taman OUG Pasar Taman Megah Pasar Jalan OthmanPasar Jalan 17/2Pasar Sek 14
Pasar Seri Setia SS9A/1Pasar Kg ChempakaTaman Tun Dr Ismail
HospitalForrest Medical Centre
CollegesHelp InstituteCollege Bandar Utama (KBU)Universiti Kebangsan Malaysia
17december 9 — 11, 2011
news
By Alvin Yap
AMPANG JAYA: A retaining wall may be needed to save four homes in danger of sinking due to land instabil-ity at a decommission sewer treatment plant here.
The Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) made the decision on Tuesday following a meeting with affected home owners at Taman Per-mai Jaya.
“MPAJ will conduct a soil test to determine if the foundations of the houses are caused by shifting of the land,” said MPAJ deputy engineer Mohd Johan Shah.
The plant located on Jalan Teratai 1/6 was closed in August after two decades in operations.
The site was earmarked for reha-bilitation, and was filled in with soil with grass planted on the surface.
But cracks on walls along with sinkholes appeared in the homes soon after.
Mohd Johan said test will determine if the land under the former treatment plant still contains water.
The former cesspool was situated on lower ground, and any remaining water under the plant may be causing mini landslides under the homes, he said.
But residents have no doubts that the former plant is the cause of the problem.
Home owner Rahmat Din, 63, pointed out that cracks on his floor and kitchen started after the closure of the treatment plant.
The former Rubber Research Institute (RRI) manager said residents there were happy when concessionaire Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) closed the treatment plant. However, their joy was short-lived.
Rahmat’s neighbour, Yim Goek Yee, said he was worried that the problem would cause the property prices there to plummet.
Yim, 69, said he was also worried for his family’s
safety, adding that the sinkhole that appeared in his living room last October was big enough for someone to walk into.
“Thank goodness there’s no smell [from the sinkhole],” he said.
Teratai assemblyperson Jenice Lee, whose service centre is a stone’s throw away from the location, claimed that the treat-ment plant was decommissioned without following proper guidelines.
She said IWK should have applied for a permit to close the treatment plant, and also pay the relevant fees for the rehabilitation of the facility.
“MPAJ will first conduct the test to determine if they’re at fault for the structural failures around here,” she said, add-ing that roads around the area have also cracked due to the soil movement.
She said IWK may have to pay MPAJ for road repairs at the affected places.
Lee also cautioned houses surrounding the former treat-ment plant to check with MPAJ before carrying out any renovations.
Some of the houses affected by the rehabilitated sewerage treatment pond.
Houses in danger of landslip
By Basil Foo
SUBANG JAYA: Victims of a recent freak storm, which saw roof tiles fly off buildings and an instance of hailstones, received financial aid from the state last Sunday.
“I’m happy to receive the aid as I still haven’t managed to get my car fixed. Its windscreen was smashed and body dented by fall-ing tiles,” said 37-year-old Roslan Derasik.
Roslan was among 10 residents of the USJ 1 Angsana low-cost apartments who received aid as their vehicles were damaged by falling roof tiles on Nov 13.
They received RM200 each from the allocation of Subang Jaya as-semblyperson Hannah Yeoh.
Another five residents, whose homes on the top floor were flooded with rainwater, received RM200 each from the Natural Disaster Relief Fund under the Petaling District Office.
“I’m glad for the assistance. My home on the 12th floor was flooded, and furniture was damaged due to the storm,” said Habibah Abdul Aziz, 38.
The 15 residents received a total of RM3,000m which was handed out by Yeoh during a ceremony at the apartment on Dec 4.
The repair cost was to be borne by the apartment’s Joint Manage-ment Body ( JMB), but due to the severity of the damage, the devel-oper, Dergahayu Sdn Bhd, was called in to help.
“I received a call from them yes-terday (Dec 3) saying that all repair work on the roofs have been com-pleted,” Yeoh said.
Also at the ceremony were Petal-ing District Office assistant district officer Izahar Rasidi, Zone 4 Resi-dent Taskforce ( JKP) secretary Kamarul Hisham, Zone 4 JKP treasurer Fong Tang Chong, and USJ 1 mosque vice-chairperson Nik Rahmat Nik Abd Rashid.
Storm victims receive aidBy Brenda Ch’ng
KUALA LANGAT: District coun-cils in Selangor will receive state fund-ing to promote the tourism industry and provide a boost to local economy next year.
Four district councils – Kuala Lan-gat (MDKL), Sabak Bernam (MDSD), Hulu Selangor (MDHS), and Kuala Selangor (MDKS) – stand to benefit from the scheme.
“We’ll decide how much to give each council after we review their sub-mitted list of upgrades and improve-ments,” said Elizabeth Wong.
The executive councillor for tourism
made the announcement during a dia-logue session between MDKL and local residents at the Gold Coast Morib Resort on Tuesday.
Wong said with more than one mil-lion tourists visiting Kuala Langat and the beaches nearby, she hopes the im-provements will bring in more visitors each year.
This would also boost local indus-tries like handicraft and Malay tradi-tional food.
“If the councils do a good job at developing the tourism industry next year, we might increase the alloca-tion in the following years,” said Wong.
More funding to promote tourism
Wong
KLANG: Sixty streetlights will be installed along a 1.8km stretch to light up the road from Jalan Kebun roundabout to the Kesas highway junction.
The lights, sponsored by six companies and factories in Klang, are scheduled to be installed by the Klang Municipal Council (MPK) next year.
“I’m glad these companies have fulfilled their corpo-rate social responsibility by ensuring the streets are
brightly lit for the safety of road users,” said MPK councillor Mohd Azmi Yusoff.
He said the companies would try to get other com-panies to sponsor streetlights.
Mohd Azmi also said Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) and Public Works Department ( JKR) would help to maintain the streetlights.
New streetlights for road
I AM writing this letter in re-sponse to reports about the local authorities’ plan to charge rate-payers for garden waste collec-tion.
Residents in Petaling Jaya are not in favour of paying for gar-
den waste collection by the city council. Stakeholders are already paying taxes for such purposes, and there is no need for the authorities to charge them extra.
While the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) and most local councils and municipalities in Selangor should be lauded for calling on residents to go green by planting trees and plants in their compounds, it is ridiculous that people have to pay for the collection of waste. If collecting leaves, branches and tree trunks is a burden, then MBPJ should stop planting trees and plants in the neighbourhood.
MBPJ is already collecting huge revenues from the local community and has been making good profit over the years. It is the richest local council in Selangor, hence it can absorb the cost of garden waste collection and not burden the residents further with additional expenses.
This will further discourage the community from hav-ing a achieving a sustainable green environment.
On another matter, Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s warning on the subletting of stalls to foreigners is timely (see story on page 10).
It is common knowledge that many stalls and food courts are being sublet to foreigners by licence holders for more profits. This practice has to stop immediately.
All local councils and municipalities have to act im-mediately to tackle this unhealthy practice. A good exam-ple is the wet market on Jaln Othman, PJ Old Town, where 90% of the stalls are being sublet to foreigners.
Enforcement officers have raided the site, but are un-able to make any headway because the licence holders are informed beforehand about the raids.
There must be round-the-clock monitoring of these places to ensure that licences are not rented out. Further-more, these foreigners charge more than the local traders. Action has to be taken in the interest of the local com-munity.
Eashvara LingamPublic Agenda PJ(A Facebook group for PJ residents)
Unfair to charge for garden waste collection
18 december 9 — 11, 2011
news
By Alvin Yap
PUCHONG: Ten-year-old Veron Chong Yuan needs financial help for spinal surgery to correct a defect in her backbone which could cripple her for life.
Chong will undergo groundbreaking surgery on Monday at Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM) to correct the painful and debilitating “twist” in her backbone.
“The consulting orthopaedic surgeon said she has to undergo surgery as soon as possible,” said her mother, Siew Pek Wah.
But the 44-year-old single mother cannot afford the RM90,000 surgery.
HUKM has agreed to operate on the girl if the family can pay RM30,000 upfront.
Siew said her daughter would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life if they don’t come up with the money.
Although hunchbacked, the lively and friendly Chong can walk, although with difficulty.
She goes to school and tries to play games with her friends despite her condition.
“Veron knows she has a spinal condition that stops
her from being able to participate fully in games,” Siew said at Kinrara assemblywoman’s Teresa Kok’s office.
Siew, who works as a florist in Sri Petaling, has to take care of her two other daughters aged seven and 12.
The surgery will be the first in Malaysia to use a new implant as the bones in her spine are softer due to her age.
The implant essentially straightens and stretches the curve in her back bone.
The operation will also be carried out by foreign orthopaedic surgeons and witnessed by 20 local spinal-surgery specialists.
The surgery is expected to cost RM62,000, which does not include follow-up care, rehabilitation and other medicine, which could push the bill to RM90,000. This includes surgery in five years’ time to remove the implants.
The Spring Single Mothers’ Society, a charity group, has raised RM12,000 for Chong.
Earlier, Kok, who is the president of the society, handed over a cheque for the amount to Siew.
Donors can call Siew at 017-3302686. Her bank account is MBB 514114770866.
(From left) Kok handing over the cheque as Siew shows the doctor’s diagnosis and her cousin Yee Yee Ying holds Chong. Kok’s assistant Peter Seen looks on.
Girl needs RM90,000 for spinal surgery
By Basil Foo
SUBANG JAYA: Stationery, school shoes, and school bags were given to 510 needy primary school pupils at the Subang Jaya Buddhist Association (SJBA) building last Sunday.
“I am thankful for the aid as it will lighten my finan-cial burden before the start of next year’s school season,” said Rosannurleeana Abdullah, whose children were beneficiaries of the aid.
Her seven-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter were among the hundreds of pupils who received their school gear at the SJBA building on Persiaran Kewajipan.
The 43-year-old roadside stall operator said she would use money saved from receiving the aid to pay for her children’s school fees and bus fare.
Lorry driver Murugan Periasamy, 35, also thanked
SJBA for the aid.He said his daughter, who will be in Standard Three
next year, will put the school gear to good use.“We have been distributing school gear annually to
primary school students here in SJBA since 2006,” said the association’s president, Chim Siew Choon.
He hoped the students would be able to study better with the gear provided, which was bought using dona-tions from association members and members of the public.
The 22-year old association also invited 30 children from the Ti-Ratana orphanage to receive the aid.
Also present was Subang Jaya assemblyperson Han-nah Yeoh, who donated RM10,000 towards the cost of buying the school gear.
“I hope all of you will take care of the stationery, shoes, and bags you received,” she advised the children.
Aid for needy pupils
KLANG: Residents of Taman Desawan were treated to a Deepavali open house organised by the Taman Desawan rukun tetangga on Nov 26.
About 300 residents and their children were entertained by various performances, including the Barathanatyam dance.
Guests also witnessed the lighting of the kutthu villaku, an oil lamp signifying mankind being led from darkness into the light.
In attendance were rukun tetangga chairperson Puvananderan Gana-samoorthy and Klang Municipal Council (MPK) councillor Azmi Jusoh.
Food hampers were also handed out to needy residents.
Deepavali get-together for residents
Azmi handing a pack of rice to single mother of three Parasakthi, 45. Looking on is Puvananderan.
SUBANG JAYA: Managing two distinctively different hous-ing areas, Subang Jaya Munici-pal Council (MPSJ) councillor Jaberi Ami hopes to bridge the gap between the council and residents.
“Most importantly, as a coun-cillor, I have to bring up the resi-dents’ issues to enable the council to solve problems,” he says.
The first-term councillor man-ages Zone 7, which includes Putra Heights and Kg Bukit Lanchong, both with distinct issues faced by residents.
Complaints from residents of Putra Heights mostly centre on problems with public amenities like rundown futsal courts and damaged playground equipment.
“So far, we have upgraded the futsal courts for Section 8 in Putra Heights, which had to be carried out in phases throughout the year due to costing issues,” he says.
The longstanding request for speed bumps by a religious school on Jalan Kg Bukit Lanchong has also been answered.
Six speed bumps have been in-stalled by the council for the safety of students crossing the road.
“The council has cleaned up the main drains during rainy seasons, and there have been no major
floods this year,” he adds.The 37-year-old councillor says
his job has been most challenging when fielding complaints by resi-dents.
He acknowledges that most residents do not understand the process the council must go through for complaints to be ad-dressed.
“Sometimes we can solve [prob-lems] immediately. Like collecting rubbish, I just need to make a call and it’s done.
“But problems like floods take a longer time,” Jaberi says.
Jaberi is a part-time councillor who works as a town planning consultant – a job that has given him the edge when it comes to addressing technical aspects of is-sues.
Jaberi, who is married with five children, cites reading books and obser ving people as his hobby.
Residents can contact him at 012-3025673 or visit his service centre at Persiaran Putra Bahagia, Section 8, Putra Heights.
Know Your Councillor: Jaberi Ami
19December 9 — 11, 2011
FictionFiction by Le Ching Tai
“A new condominium manager is like a football team manager.” Kumar was talking to himself again. “No one appreciates you when things go
right. When things go wrong they want to kill you.”Kumar had only been on the job for a week
and dreaded it every time his mobile phone rang. Tonight Kumar planned to stay back, relax with din-ner in the poolside café while enjoying the football on the big television. His block of flats in Gombak lacked such facilities.
Kumar left his mobile phone on his desk and went down in the service lift to the swimming pool-level. Obscenities were scratched into the lift walls and the strip light flickered. The lift often broke down after repairs and struggled to carry heavy equipment during renovations. The residents bul-lied the service lift. One day it would strike back.
In the poolside café, Kumar ordered fried rice and enjoyed the sports channel. The only other person in the café was a tanned ginger-haired girl in a grey school uniform, sitting at a neighbouring table.
As she watched him eat, Kumar smiled back. On principle an off-duty manager should still be courteous to residents.
During his meal, a hefty blonde woman in a tank top and sarong came to collect the girl.
“Are you the new building manager?” The woman grasped the girl’s hand and stood facing Kumar’s table.
“Yes.” Kumar offered his hand. The woman did not shake it.
“My daughter and I were stuck in the service lift.”“Sorry to hear this. Would you care to come to
the office and lodge a complaint?”“No.” She folded her arms. “It’s too late now.”
Tedium in Taman Bayumas KlangAS a resident of Klang, I list here a few issues that need urgent at-tention.
I live on Jalan Sambau 14 in Ta-man Bayumas Klang, just behind the Bayu Villa apartments. The residents here have paid over RM360,000 for these houses. Little did we know that we would be located next to low-cost flats that have resulted in the area being utterly filthy, with heavy vehicles such as trailers parked outside our homes, causing potholes in the roads.
All this devalues the property in the area. Complaints we have made to the Klang Municipal Council (MPK) have fallen on deaf ears.
Fu r t h e r m o r e , residents of Bayu Pe r d a n a a p a r t -ments do not have allocated parking spaces, and this has resulted in haphaz-ard parking in front of the Bayu Per-dana apartment entrance. People are parking all over the narrow road of Lorong Sambau, blocking visibility of those turning in and out as vehicles are parked on the curbs and along yellow lines.
Typically, the Klang traffic po-lice and municipal council have not taken heed of our grievances.
Nearby Lorong Sambau, where the single-storey houses are locat-
ed, is a mini jungle, with trees and branch-es on the road scraping cars as we drive by. It would be good if this e m p t y l a n d w e r e turned into a parking lot, instead of being a breeding ground for
mosquitos and other insects and snakes. We pay taxes to maintain the vicinity we live in, and yet the area is so unkempt.
I sincerely hope that our assem-blyperson will not be too busy to acknowledge this letter and take action to clean up our area to put some order to our daily living.
Siobhan
to confirm her statement.“Sorry for your trouble, Madam.
Thank you for talking me to me,” Kumar said to the woman and girl as they exited the café.
“Don’t thank me!” the woman shot back.
At half past nine, Kumar went to the lifts. The display window above the service lift was not showing a floor number. It must have broken down again.
Kumar took the stairs back up to his office. His mobile phone was humming – ten missed calls. All were made from the security guardhouse. Kumar called them back and they told him to go to the swimming-pool level.
Kumar wished he had gone
home early. His regret disappeared when he went back down the stairs and saw three guards outside the service lift. The double doors had been forced open.
“Lif rosak?” Kumar asked a guard, who shone a torch in the gap between the doors. The light illumi-nated the sheer walls of the shaft. The tang of burnt rubber blended with smoke. The cable of the lift had snapped, resulting in it plunging down the shaft.
One guard assured Kumar that according to the lift’s CCTV, there had been no one inside when the lift fell at twenty minutes past nine. While Kumar called the lift com-pany’s 24-hour service, the other two guards waved away curious
residents.An elderly Chinese woman car-
rying a cane ignored the guards and approached Kumar.
“I’m the new manager. May I help you?” Kumar asked her.
“Change the lift,” she snapped, waving her cane, “before something happens again!”
“Again?”“The poor Australian girl from
five years ago! She died in that lift. Her mother jumped off the balcony on the twentieth floor soon after.”
Kumar stared at the poolside
café, now shut. The old woman continued to protest about rising service charges and the condition of the condominium’s facilities, but he was no longer listening to her.
“Thank you, Madam!” he called out in the direction of the café. The old woman walked away, satisfied with having aired her grievances, but Kumar had not been address-ing her.
Although the Australian lady had instructed him not to do so, on principle he wanted to thank her for prolonging his dinner.
The LiftKumar checked his watch – it
was nine o’clock.“Maybe you can come on Mon-
day?”The woman shook her head and
took a deep breath. Her daughter tugged on her mother’s hand to stop her impending tirade.
“The other two lifts weren’t working. We can’t take the stairs because my daughter has asthma. It’s not her fault she left her inhaler in school because kids will be kids. When she had her attack in the lift I couldn’t call my husband because there’s no phone signal!”
Kumar nodded although he was not in a position to hear her out. This woman’s complaint was verging on lawsuit territory.
“What’s your name and unit number, Madam?” asked Kumar. “I’ll contact the lift company on Monday.”
“We don’t live here anymore – we’re just visiting,” the woman interrupted. Her daughter nodded
100,000 copies weekly
20 december 9 — 11, 2011
media
SUNWAY: Sunway Pyramid’s Christmas story titled A Joyful Christmas was launched recently with storybook characters being its main theme.
During the launch, storybook characters walked out of the pages of a gigantic story-book to the Pyramid Concourse, wander-ing around a magical winter forest compris-ing tall, brightly lit Christmas trees, a cabin and a sleigh.
In A Joyful Christmas, the characters await the arrival of a robin that will bring news of the arrival of Christmas, in a sleepy town before clocks and chimes were invented and people told time by looking at the sky.
During the launch, a robin brought a message to guest of honour, Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Com-munity Development Senator Datuk Heng Seai Kie.
Also at the launch were Sunway Group Exco Puan Sri Dr Susan Cheah, Sunway Property Investment Division managing director Datuk Ngeow Voon Yean, Sunway Pyramid CEO HC Chan, and marketing director Phang Sau Lian.
“We brought in the concept of A Joyful Christmas because we want to invite our shoppers to be part of our Christmas story.
“We invited the children from the two underprivileged homes to have a memora-ble Christmas with us. We also partnered with the Malaysian Red Crescent Society in a fundraising campaign to help Thai-land’s flood victims,” said Chan.
Other highlights during the Christmas theme are Sunway Pyramid Ice’s movie showcase on ice, the Movie Mania; and Sunway Lagoon Amphitheatre’s Aladdin musical.
Shoppers during this Christmas promo-tion at Sunway Pyramid (until Dec 26) can redeem a Magic Mistletoe Wristband thumbdrive when they spend RM800 in two receipts (RM700 for Citibank card members)in December.
With the same receipt or when shoppers spend RM150 in a single receipt, shoppers stand a chance to win a Mazda 3 2.0 Sedan in the Joyful Christmas Contest, or RM40,000 worth of jewellery from SK Jewellery.
Joyful Christmas at Sunway Pyramid
Datuk Heng Seai Kie congratulates the little best-dressed winners of the Joyful Christmas: Costume Charity Run, while HC Chan, Dr Susan Cheah and Ngeow look on.
CYBERJAYA: Selangor Devel-opment Corporation (PKNS) launched its first Soho (Small Of-fice Home Office) service apart-ments at Selangor Science Park II last Saturday.
90° Residence 1, targeted at young professionals and couples, is now available for sale.
The 18-storey apartment (East Wing) will have 128 units, including 112 studio units of 535 sq ft priced at RM253,888, and 16 duplex units of 921 sq ft priced at RM474,888.
A further 228 units, comprising three-bedroom units of 847 sq ft and suite units of 882 sq ft, will be launched later.
“We want to test the market first,” said PKNS southern region development controller Lokman Abd Kadir.
A total of three blocks of apart-ments – Residence 1, Residence 2 and Residence 3 – will be built on a five-acre plot.
Construction of Residence 1 started in April 2011 and is ex-pected to be completed by 2013.
Connected to the Maju Express-way and Elite Highway, the 90°
apartments are a 15-minute drive away from Kuala Lumpur Interna-tional Airport and Low-Cost Car-rier Terminal.
Facilities include a swimming pool, gymnasium, playground, mul-tipurpose hall, convenience store, street café, podium café, park, surau and a BBQ terrace and 24-hour se-curity service.
Lokman said the apartments would also interest parents whose children are studying at Multimedia University, Lim Kok Wing Univer-sity of Creative Technology, and Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences.
Located within the Multimedia Super Corridor Zone, Selangor Sci-ence Park II is a mixed and inte-grated development with residential, commercial and industrial compo-nents across 1,440 acres of land.
It is home to German solar manufacturer Q-Cell, and aims to attract more environmentally friendly businesses to the area.
For more information call 03-83182271 or visit PKNS Sales Gal-lery at Selangor Science Park II, Lot 29306, Bukit Baja, Sepang.
Visitors checking out the planned development for Selangor Science Park II at the sales gallery last Saturday.
90° in Selangor’s up-and-coming solar valley
By Basil Foo
PETALING JAYA: Malaysians can once again enjoy the spicy peppered Prosperity Burger at Mc-Donald’s and know that they are contributing to a good cause.
This one-of-a-kind product, synonymous with the McDonald’s brand, is back to tantalise taste buds for the 19th time in 17 years.
“As it is available every end of the year, the Prosper-ity Burger has been highly anticipated,” said McDon-ald’s Malaysia managing director Sarah Casanova.
The letters in “Prosperity” represent the 10 tenets that McDonald’s has adopted, namely Happiness, Friendship, Love, Satisfaction, Peace, Abundance, Sharing, Family, Affection, and Joy (pic, right).
In accordance with these tenets, McDonald’s has once again launched their Prosperity Gives Back campaign to benefit local charities on Dec 6.
“With every purchase of a Prosperity Meal, 10 sen will go towards a charity close to the McDonald’s restaurant you bought it from,” said Casanova.
She launched the meal at the Mutiara Damansara McDonald’s restaurant, whose staff had chosen to benefit the nearby Lambaian Kasih home in Kg Sungai Penchala.
All McDonald’s outlets throughout Malaysia will be taking part in the programme to benefit 50 chari-ties.
“These charities were chosen by our staff from the database of the National Welfare Association,” said McDonald’s Malaysia head of marketing Melati Ab-dul Hai.
She explained that the selected charities were close to each outlet so that staff and diners would feel a greater connection to the organisations.
“These homes are those the com-munity can relate to. They could pass them when driving to work every day. They could even be living right behind them,” she said.
Last year’s Prosperity Gives Back campaign generated RM285,000 for 44 charities, while this year’s target has been set at RM400,000.
Throughout the 11-week cam-paign, the beef and chicken Prosperity Burgers will be introduced in stages.
Prosperity Burger lunch sets are going for only RM10.95, while the McValue sets will be available at RM13.88.
Prosperity for the less fortunate
Casanova
Casanova with children from the Lambaian Kasih home during the launch of the Prosperity Burger and Prosperity Gives Back charity campaign at McDonald’s Mutiara Damansara on Dec 6.
21december 9 — 11, 2011
food
Puchong Jaya is one of the many residential areas in the sprawling Puchong district. Normally, Petaling Jaya residents are not keen to explore the various housing
estates in the area unless there is an urgent need. I don’t really qualify as an adventurer, but I am defi-
nitely an amateur foodie who likes a challenge now and then.
Before I visited this highly recommended eatery, I told a friend about this restaurant, and he responded by saying that it was only place for “Hokkien-lang” (Hokkien peo-ple).
Let the truth be told. For the past two decades there have been a steady prolif-eration of eateries by Chinese dialectical sub-groups promoting their kind of cui-sine.
For example, there are the Teochew por-ridge, Hainanese chicken rice, Hokkien mee, Hakka noodles, Cantonese fried rice, nyonya kuih, and the Sarawak handmade noodles. As for the last one, it may or may not be affiliated to the Foo-chow group.
So a Hokkien restaurant finding its way within the great Chinese divide may not be so unusual.
Anyway, without the help of the GPS, I would have ended up going around in circles in Pu-chong Jaya. Modern technology has indeed proven its indispensability to an ignorant motorist with a limited knowledge of Klang Valley geography.
Restaurant Hokkien nestles snugly in an out-of-sight corner of the Bandar Puchong Jaya commercial area. Its façade is unostentatious and its interior is not outstanding.
However, it has on its walls large posters of its signature dishes that will entice anyone who prides himself or herself as a lover of good Asian food.
Naturally, we all tried to ingratiate ourselves with the own-ers by speaking Hokkien even though Cantonese seems to be the official lingo in the restaurant.
When the senior person who happened to be the lady boss started responding in Hokkien, her intonation indicated that she was probably from the Hokkien community in Klang.
There were plenty of signature dishes on the menu. These were identified by a thumbs-up sign right next to the dish. Of course, we opted for some of the choice items.
Who would want to travel so far and end up tasting only the ordinary culinary selections. That kind of silliness would not be tolerated in my company.
Restaurant Hokkien has been operating for more than three years. The “man of the house” also happens to be the chief chef. He was busy in the kitchen when we were there. He was too busy to fraternise with nondescript customers like us. So his missus gave us her full attention.
We ordered a plate of the restaurant’s famous item – fried sweet potato noodles. This dish is not rare but uncommon. There is one other place I know of that serves this dish and the restau-rant is in Old Klang Road.
This dish has its origins in a traditional village recipe that is common in parts of China. In the Klang Valley, however, it seems to be a novelty among certain groups of Chinese.
At first bite, it tastes a bit like koay teow. But a discerning connoisseur of noodles can instantly identify its core ingredi-ent. The rest of us can only guess.
Fried sweet potato noodles is a dish that is best eaten fresh out of the wok, otherwise it becomes less palatable with the passing of time.
Since all five of us had stayed for some length of time in
Penang, we wanted some kind of curry. After a few minutes of deliberation, we decided the sweet and sour curry as-
sam fish would be the most appropriate choice. The curry assam fish was a big hit with us. It
tasted almost like those we have always enjoyed in various Penang restaurants. Its tangy and slightly sour taste with a certain bite was just the way we liked it.
Mixing the curry gravy with our rice only gave the entire meal the kind of boost it needed. At least
two of us complained that the rice was a bit too hard. That could only mean that the rice didn’t have the right
amount of water. But that was a forgivable misdemeanor on the part of the guy who cooked the rice in the kitchen.
Then it was another signature dish called “pu jing fried chicken”. The dish was crunchy, crispy and crumbled to a thousand delights as one chewed on a piece.
The pieces of fried chicken were a concoction of evapo-rated milk, mayonnaise and mixed sauce. It wasn’t a common recipe, but it had a special flavour that was rather pleasant.
The vegetable was ordinary. There was nothing much any-body could do with the greens as it was not meant to be a spectacular side dish.
However, the signature tau fu was bordering on being un-forgettable. It came in one solid rectangular block covered with delicious gravy. We all thought it befitted its reputation as one of the house specialties.
Since we were not planning to crawl out of the restaurant, we decided to forgo the fried rice cake which I assumed was the “koay kak”. I could be wrong because the description wasn’t comprehensive enough.
Restaurant Hokkien is strictly for those who have an uncontrollable craving for Hokkien cuisine. But some of us know that there are the Fujian people, the Amoy commu-nity, the Klang Hokkiens, Penang Hokkiens and the Johor Hokkiens.
There are subtle aural differences among the sub-groups who speak dialects that have fleeting similarities with each other’s village tongues.
At the end of the meal, when the lady boss discovered that we were first timers to the restaurant, she rewarded us with a plate of home-made pandan agar-agar surrounded by ice cubes.
Her generosity helped the restaurant garner a few extra bonus points from us.
Restoran Hokkien’s address is 06-01, Jalan Kenari 18A, Bandar Puchong Jaya. Business hours are from 11.30am to 3pm and 6pm to 10pm. Tel: 03-80703869.
It is not difficult to find the place as it lies across the main road from the IOI shopping mall. So if you are a “Hokkien-lang”, you know what to do.
Yummy dishes for ‘Hokkien-lang’Every year, dozens of restaurants sprout up in Kuala Lumpur and its surrounding areas. LIN ZHENYUAN goes out of the way to sample some Hokkien dishes on the other side of the Damansara-Puchong Highway
Restoran Hokkien in Bandar Puchong Jaya.
Assam curry fish that gladdens the hearts of Hokkiens.
The bittergourd soup that complements the other dishes.
Iced agar-agar, courtesy of the lady boss.
Simple interior with some above-average dishes. Crispy pu jing chicken mixed with a special sauce.
22 December 9 — 11, 2011
GalleryMenteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim painting a wall to launch the Skim Ceria Phase Two at the Taman Samudera flats in Gombak to spruce up the surroundings of the low-cost flats. With him are state executive councillor Iskandar Samad, and Gombak MP Azmin Ali.
Hulu Kelang assemblyperson Saari Sungib comforting a child undergoing a circumcision in the surau Al-Falahiah, Kampung Pasir on Nov 27.
MB Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim holding a child during the launch of the Skim Ceria Phase Two at the Taman Samudera flats in Gombak. With him is Gombak MP Azmin Ali.
Subang Jaya assemblyperson Hannah Yeoh (right) with residents of USJ 1 Angsana low-cost apartments during a financial aid distribution ceremony on Dec 4. Residents suffered house and vehicle damage during a freak storm on Nov 13.
Volunteers from the Women’s Community Centre in Hulu Kelang taking a break from free reflexology treatment during the Mimbar seminar at Pangsapuri Dahlia community hall, Ukay Bistari, recently.
Hulu Kelang assemblyperson Saari Sungib with his wife Aliza Jaafar and staff from his service centre visiting bedridden villagers in Taman Desa Keramat recently. Here, he is seen with Rosli Jonet and family. Saari also visited Khatijah Tahir, 58, and Anwar Salleh, 78.
SELANGOR TIMES ⁄ December 9 – 11, 2011 ⁄ 23
From The Staff and Management of
With Utmost Sincerity
Heartiest Salutations And CongratulationsIn Conjunction With His Royal Highness’s 66th Birthday
On 11th December 2011
Published by Selangor State Government and printed by Dasar Cetak (M) Sdn Bhd No. 7, Persiaran Selangor, Seksyen 15, 40000, Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan.