(From The Economist July 16th- 22nd 2011)
It has been a joyous journey this past year as a first time father. The joy of being there for John’s first steps and tumbles, first word, first crawl and other precious moment in life is worth every ounce of energy.
King Solomon was said to be the wisest man at his time. He wrote most of Proverbs (Bible book of Proverbs) and here are 3 verses for sharing:
Proverbs 10:1. The proverbs of Solomon: A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother.
Proverbs 15:20; A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish man despises his mother.
Proverbs 22:6. Train-up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Although these were written 2000 years ago, they still remain relevant today.
Happy Father's Day! :)
Malaysia Deputy Prime Minister has recently said he was Malay first and that "How can I say I’m Malaysian first and Malay second? All the Malays will shun me and say that it is not proper."
Instantaneously, it reminded me of an election campaign speech delivered by the late Loh Jee Mee.
Approximately 20 years ago, Malaysian held her 8th general election. As in previous general elections and the elections to come, the 1990 general election fell short from being free, fair and clean. The Barisan Nasional (BN) has always fond of “May 13th riot” and playing the racial card during elections and my late father was not spared from it, especially being a DAP candidate.
It was mentioned during the 1990 general election, that he was neither Indian nor Chinese—his late father an Indian and late mother a Chinese. In his campaign speech later that evening, he made it clear that he may not be a true Indian or a true Chinese, but he was a true Malaysian. He was Malaysian first, Chinese or Indian second. The 1990 general election was probably my first lesson on Malaysian Malaysia.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
(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?
“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?
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During the first full board town council meeting on the 28th of July, councilors were asked to decide or vote on whether the town council meetings should be open to public. However, I have requested to postpone this agenda until the next council meeting since there was no prior notice before the said meeting.
Our country's constitution under local government act of 1976 (Act 171) & subsidiary legislation part iv, 23 provide that "all meetings of local authority shall be open to the public and to the representatives of the Press unless the local authority by resolution at the meeting otherwise decides"
Unlike the previous government who lacks transparency and accountability, the present councilors encourage greater transparency and greater local participation on local matters. Moreover, public is allowed to Parliament and State Assembly proceedings on invitation.
Therefore, I will propose in the next town council meeting that Tapah town council meeting to be open to public. However, we will have to limit the number of observers due to the capacity of the meeting room. I will suggest 50% of the total observer seats to be allocated to political parties and the rest to public on first come first basis or by invitation.
DAP Tapah branch dinner at Dewan Orang Ramai Bukit Pagar, Tapah on the 10th of August, 7:30 pm.
Special Guests:
Lim Kit Siang, Kulasegaran, Sivanesan, Ngeh Koo Ham, Nga Kor Ming, Sivanesan, Chen Fook Chye
My former schoolmate from ACS, Ipoh, who is now residing in Singapore dropped me a note last week. In her email, she asked about the role of town councilors in Malaysia.
Malaysian administrations consist of the federal government, the state government and the local government. The district town councilors are part of the local government.
Most local government comes under the jurisdiction of the state government and is the lowest level of government under the Malaysian government system. KL/W.P., Labuan and Putrajaya is managed by the federal government.
The responsibilities of the local government include:
1. General policies that involve planning, upgrading and usage of land and buildings.
2. Town planning
3. Effective and systematic governing of a specific area
4. Infrastructure upgrades and development.
5. Provide recreational and services to the locals.
The local government also performs:
1. By-laws or subsidiary law—"undang-undang kecil". The by-laws are only applicable for the specific district or city. Examples of such laws include advertisement, business, industry and profession, car park, etc.
2. Collect land tax and property assessment tax.
3. Various licensing such as business license, grave yard license, hawker license, entertainment license, animal license, pasar malam, various rentals, etc.
4. Rubbish and drainage.
5. Collective local government funds "Kumpulan Wang Pihak Berkuasa Tempatan".
6. Government contract, prosecution and own properties.
7. Name for streets.
8. Traffic lights & bus stop
(At Jalan Pahang, Tapah)
(Photo from today's Sin Chew Jit Poh)
Visited fire victims on Friday, 25th July 2008 at Jalan Pahang along with Perak State Exco and Keranji Assemblyman, Chen Fook Chye. The Perak state government and the DAP will assist the fire victim.
(Courtesy of Sin Chew Jit Poh)
The appointment of Tapah town councilors took place today at the Perak State Assembly on the 18th of July 2008. 24 councilors were appointed for Tapah.
Being a "Tapah-boy" who has received education at St. Mary's Kindergarten, Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan (1) or SRK 1 and subsequently Sekolah Menengah Buyong Adil (SMBA), I hope to contribute back to Tapah and the people of Tapah. Tapah has always been close to heart and mind.
Previous town councilors, except for the late Zakaria’s family members who sat in the Klang municipal council were never make known the the public. As such, these councilors lack accountability or perhaps no accountability at all. As a change, Tapah councilors will be make known to the public, so that they will know who to go after if we do not perform.
In the coming months as Tapah town councilors which expires 31st of December 2008, my plans are:
1. To donated ALL my first pay-check or allowance to a welfare organisation or charity within Tapah area.
2. Systematic visit to various towns or villages within Tapah district and to make know Pakatan Rakyat (PR)'s councilors to the locals.
3. To publish my meetings attendance record to the public.
4. Encourage greater local participation on local council matters.
While I may not extend my appointment after 31st of December 2008, I will initiate efforts to bring in foreign or local investors to Tapah.
(Photo taken on Saturday, 14th June)
(DAP Bidor service centre opening ceremony speech on 24th April 2008)
