12th Year Anniversary of the late Loh Jee Mee- "..in the pursuit of justice and service for the community."

Our family got together back in 1997 to work on the wordings for our late father's monument. We wanted a short sentence to reflect on his character, and to remind his grand children and great grand children of who he was. Justice and service for the community easily came to mind.

I had the privilege to witness some of his good work throughout my childhood. These include attending and rescuing effort for flood victims at Cenderiang, people in need of blood, police bail, passport and registration issues, disputes and etc. Some of those cries for help came past midnight and he would some times return home early in the morning with muddy pants.

Here is one article that I have gotten from the internet recently. The late Loh Jee Mee started pursuing for an Outpatients' Department in Tapah Hospital since 1966--a mission that he continued on as an elected town councillor in 1968 and subsequently as a Member of Parliament in early 70s.





(From The Rocket July/August 1968)







His perserverence for Tapah Hospital was shown on the following oral answer in the Malaysian Parliament in 1971. I found the following from the Malaysian Parliament website:

Friday, 16th JULY, 1971 at 2:30 pm, Questions for Oral Answer:

21. Tuan Loh Jee Mee: To ask the Minister of Health to
state when the much-delayed Outpatients' Department at
the General Hospital, Tapah will commence operation.

The outpatient's department in Tapah has benefited the community in Tapah over the years since its establishment and years to come.

Here is the link to 11th Anniversary:
http://lohpenglam.blogspot.com/2008/03/in-remembrance-of-local-personality.html

Brussel, Brugges and Paris

Some pleasure after business..



Grand Place, Brussels








Visited Bruges on the 22nd Feb. The historic city of Bruges is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Medieval architecture are found in and around Bruges.

Paris, March 2nd.

Let the people of Perak decide, not the 3 stooges

It does not matter if I had voted for the BN or PR, but what matter most is that the people of Perak did not vote for the BN to govern the state in the 2008 general election. In the last general election, PR has gathered 442, 660 votes against 399, 565 for the BN.

As of today there are 28 Pakatan Rakyat (PR) elected representatives, 28 Barisan Nasional (BN) elected representatives and 3 independent representatives in the Perak State Assembly. The 3 are not aligned with any political parties—not BN, not PR. Besides, the qualifications of the 3 stooges as a legitimate assembly are being questioned.

Perak and Malaysia is a multi racial society but there is not a single Indian representative in the new BN Perak Assembly and only ONE chinese representative. The March 2008 general election results has clearly shown that not only BN did not command the popular votes in Perak, but upright rejection from the substantial Chinese and Indian voters.

It is indeed a great dissapointment to see the BN claiming authority over Perak today. Should Perak be governed by the BN? I for one advocate for fresh poll and let the overall poll be the verdict. Let the people of Perak decide!

It is also sad to see my efforts-- the PR's effort to improve Tapah district office over the past few months gone down the drain because of the 3 stooges.

Last Full Board Meeting for 2008

Tapah District Council held it’s the last full board meeting for 2008 today, and perhaps the last session for me as Tapah town councilor.

Apart from regular contribution through-out the meeting today which include amending minutes of meeting, suggestion to bring down safety incident numbers along federal road in Tapah, correcting numbers from finance committee, proposal to black-list vendors and suppliers who did not perform, my observation on Tapah district council performances, I have ended my time with 3 simple suggestions to the council for 2009:

1. Prohibit smoking in all District Council parks and children playground

2. Provide dustbins along all main streets in all major towns within Tapah District starting with Tapah.
Most councilors have used up their RM3000 area improvement funds for “gotong-royong” or spring cleaning—which is mainly for cleaning up streets, clearing drains and cutting grass in respective areas. Most of the councilors will agree that it was a good exercise for the public. Behind these praises, behind these joyous notes that we have done a good project, we are not addressing the rubbish issues in Tapah. We would not have spent the RM3000 for spring cleaning if our street cleaning team, rubbish collectors and grass cutters had done a good job. Also, there are hardly or no public dustbin along the main streets of Tapah which such as Station Road and Jalan Raja.

3. Meet the people session
Town councilors should organize meet the people session every month or at least once a quarter. For example, it can be held every first Monday of the month at 7, 8 or 9 pm. Meet the people session can be organized at the respective community hall or “dewan orang ramai”. It will afford a great avenue to gather feedback from the locals and their plights, as well as to share with them on our on-going initiatives.

4. Annual report card for town councilors starting from 2010.

It is a setback that none of the elected representatives within Tapah district (apart from Sivanesan, the State Assemblyman for Sungkai) have attended Tapah District Full Board meeting through-out my time as a town councilor despite official invitations from the District Office. These elected representatives are MP for Tapah, State Assemblyman for Cenderiang and State Assemblyman for Air Kuning.

Community Hall or “Dewan Orang Ramai” in Tapah (Part 1)- Questions for MCA Assemblyman

It has been almost 2 months since I sworn in as Tapah town councilor and I have been generous in commenting on the past performance of MCA and BN town councilors--Tapah town council to be specific. There were obvious weaknesses, mismanagement, misuse of public funds and a string of inferior qualities that makes me ponder if the past BN councilors take their appointment seriously.

However, the Perak MCA Assemblyman for Cenderiang, Dr. Mah Hang Soon statement in today’s Star entitled “Perak government under fire” has provided me with a meat to chew on. In the article, Dr. Mah seemed to champion the rights of the people. He went on claiming that the hall committee had been taking good care of it. In addition, he lashed out that the action by the council to take back the administration had created problem.

I wonder if Dr Mah be bold enough to take on the Tapah district council or the state government if he knew the performances of the previous MCA councilors and the decisions they have made.

Perhaps, Dr. Mah has little understanding with the local government administration. Nevertheless, let me start my guiding Dr. Mah with the following questions:

1. Did he know who built the Kampung Baru Bukit Pagar Community Hall?
2. Did he know how much Tapah district council spent to build the Kampung Baru Bukit Pagar hall?
3. Did he know the additional expenses to renovate the hall? Did he know who paid for it?
4. Did he know if there is any rental agreement?
5. The hall committee is supposed to manage and pay rent to the Tapah district council. Did he know how much the hall committee pays to the Tapah district council on monthly basis? As a hint, it is less than RM20 per month!
6. Where are the proceedings from those rented the hall from the hall committee?
7. Did he know the rate per hour or per day?
8. Did he know if there is standard charge for the hall usage?
9. Did he know how much premium the Bukit Pagar Hall committee charges compare to Dewan Muhibbah in Bidor or Dewan Merdeka in Tapah which was managed directly by the Tapah district council?

I am more than willing to expose the past poor performances of the MCA or BN councilors if challenge. However, I would rather spend my energy to work on things that matters, ammend the wrongs and improve the weaknesses of the past.

KTMB (Part 2)- Questions for KTM and Government

(Train station at Sungkai, Perak)







(Train station at Tapah Road, Perak. Photo taken in August 2008)




It has been more than 15 years since I last took a ride with KTM from Tapah Road to Kuala Lumpur. There seems to be more activities back in the 80s and early 90s at Tapah Road’s station when the Kopitiam was still in operation. There were also locals selling homemade packed nasi lemak within the train station.

Thousands if not millions have been spent to modernize and to renovate the KTM Tapah Road station over the past few years. In fact, the entire station is being torn down with the main building being shifted by approx. 50 meters.

Behind this massive structural facelift, behind these modernization efforts, has KTM actually improve or rot to the core?

In addition to my earlier remark on accountability in KTM, here are additional questions for the KTM and the government:

1. How much was spent for the new station in Sungkai and Tapah Road?
2. How many people benefit or will benefit out of this massive facelift?
3. What is the utility rate of these stations? How many passenger trains stop-by these stations per day?
4. How much to upkeep these stations?
5. Was the project to build new stations done on competitive open tender basis?
6. Should it be smaller and cheaper?
7. Why spend billion without plans to buy carrier? Why having these stations for years before getting more carriers?

8. Why was the double track from Ipoh to Padang Besar, a RM 12.5 billion (USD 3.8 billion) project given to Gamuda without competitive tender?
9. How about spliting the project to two contractors i.e., Ipoh to Penang one contrator while Penang to Padang Besar to another company?
10. How many people will benefit from Ipoh-Padang Besar project? Do we need it?
11. How about Ipoh to Penang first?

12. Should we spend RM 12.5 billion or less to improve existing system and services, such as to buy more new carrier instead of the Ipoh-Padang Besar project?
13. When will KTM turn around and what are the programs in place?
14. What are KTM medium to long term plans to bring it out of losses?
15. What are the marketing programs or strategy?

Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM)-Part 1. Bad Rail or Bad Management?

“Rail Bad!” was today’s headline in the New Straits Times (NST) after the Prime Minister (PM)’s little experience with the commuter service.

He arrived at the Serdang Komuter KTM s at 8:15 a.m. but unable to get on board the first train because it was packed. The next train was 15 minutes later. He was right to express dissatisfaction over KTM performance which was obviously not up to expectation. The PM went on and pledged “I will strive for improvements. I will propose changes”. I am very certain he will be furious had he tried the Komuter service during rainy season where train service can be delayed up to an hour during peak hour.

There are indeed many changes and room for improvements in the KTM. The first change the PM should adopt is to replace Lim Ah Lek, as the chairman of KTM with someone who has no rail-road experience. He may be a successful politician, who was also a former cabinet minister, but he has proven ineffective based on KTM performances and results during his leadership. Lim Ah Lek must be answerable for the poor performances and losses of KTM.

The PM should not forget that KTM has at least 2 major safety incidents during the past four months with at least two fatalities. Why was the safety inspector not suspended? Why was no-one accountable for it? This portrays serious lack of accountability in KTM top-down, from the chairman of the board down to the operators.

As for KTM Komuter, they should provide train service at least every 10 minutes instead of 15 minutes during peak hours and should strive for every 5 minutes by 2010. If our country is fond of comparing fuel prices with countries such as Singapore, Japan, Korea and etc., we should be bold enough to measure up the train services of those countries. In Singapore, train runs at least 4 minutes during peak hours while in Moscow, Russia, train arrives every minute and sometimes every 50 seconds during peak period.

Will the PM going to walk the talk this time or just another lip service?