Community Sustainable Initiative - Damansara Jaya

Damansara Jaya was the PJ Best Neighbourhood Award winner for its inception year. Since year 2000, community recycling centre was established and surprisingly the initiative is still going strong until now. This is truly a sustainable community initiative. From a mere buy back centre, the recycling has developed into a collection centre in which many of the public donated money to the Residents Association's social fund. From a centre collecting the conventional types of recyclable items, it accommodates other type as well such as computer, beverage cartoon and spectacles.

The neighbourhood has also shown another long term project, namely the security scheme. More than 80% of household participated in this scheme. It is a huge different compared to 30% when it first started 10 years ago.

Apart from that, the Association has also gone into self-sustaining his newsletter. Sponsorship and advertisement were solicited for the publication of newsletter. This has relieved the financial commitment for the Association and allow them flexibility to organise other activities such as dedicated programmes for senior citizens.

One of the good practices is to convert a plot of vacant land, used to be site for illegal waste dumping into a herbs garden. The garden with over 30 plant species is used by residents for daily and education purpose.

Of course, the improving of the residents association's office is also another step worth mentioning. The office with hall annexed to it is the centre for various social and recreational activities. It was used to the fullest.

Community Sustainable Initiative

The PJ Best Neighbourhood Award for 2008/09 has entered into the evaluation stage with panel of judges visiting participating neighbourhood since last Sunday. Last visit will be on 12/7/2009. On 24/5/2009, the judges of 7 members visited 4 neighbourhoods, namely the Damansara Jaya SS22, SS2 South, SS2B and Taman Sea SS23. The committees presented their community initiatives, and it is encouraging to note that many of the programmes having the sustainability elements, coincidentally or with purpose.

For the coming months, I will blog on some good practices albeit minor one. The practices showcase community sustainable initiatives are worth to share with other neighbourhoods. These include 3R program, greening and planting, social integration, security and safety, inclusiveness, social programmes, composting, leadership, prudent financial management, effective communication and marketing and etc.

River Carnival

River Carnival under the W.A.T.E.R Project for rehabilitating Sungai Way River was held last Saturday at the Desa Mentari, PJS 6 Petaling Jaya. A total of 500 people, mainly children attended the fun-filled half day event. The Carnival was officiated by Mr Halimey bin Abu Bakar, MBPJ Councillor and attended by dignitaries from GAB Foundation, GEC and local community. Highlight of the day was when all attendees dumped the mud ball into the river for purification and cleaning purpose. The EM product is believed can improve the water quality.

Another worth mentioning event was when lunch was served with banana leaf and own bring container. The guests and residents are required to bring along their food container for meal. No plate, No food is the order of the day.

The exhibition featured LA 21 PJ, Alam Flora, GEC, LUAS, DOE, DID and Circle Field has also generated a lot of interest. LA 21 PJ with the help of Beautiful Gate and Justlife demonstrated the making of garbage enzyme and everyone was given a bottle of enzyme FREE. This is a programme to converting waste into wealth or something useful as part of the 3R programme. Other exhibitors have also introduced environmental approaches and techniques such as waste oil recycling by LUAS.

The activities lined up for residents were meant to educate them on caring about our river and taking action to preserve the river. I presumed people are enjoying of knowing about Sungai Way that flow through their neighbourhood.

I think the Carnival has successfully creating awareness and improving residents interest and knowledge about our river.

Environmental Education

I have a meeting brainstorming an appropriate module on environmental education for the kindergarten operators and teachers in Petaling Jaya. I was made to understand that environmental conservation and sustainable development is not a formal subject to be taught in kindergarten, but rather a co-curriculum topic and also subjected to the liking of principals and teachers. It is an option.

While environmental conservation is a responsibility for everyone in which everyone has to raise his/her awareness, to improve knowledge and skills as well as taking action, many capacity building programmes for stakeholders have not included the pre-school children, those in the nursery and kindergartens. Inculcating good value on environment conservation for children during this age category is more effective and long lasting compared to the primary and secondary school level. As children in a time to absorb everything they learn and more importantly with no academic performance based evaluation is demanded from them, with proper guidance they tend to convert what they have learned into practice and value in life.

We discussed over making the session interesting and informative so that teachers can applied it into their syllabus. This include the techniques and approaches suitable with children. For example, making art piece with creativity using the recyclable items. In order to sustain the momentum and get them to initiate some programmes or activities, we have also suggested to provide incentives for the participating kindergartens. Subsequently an evaluation for selecting 3 kindergartens with good environmental practice will be carried out.

I am thankful to Ecoknights, GEC and DANIDA-SWMC for providing such valuable inputs. Hopefully what we have planned will stimulate more similar initiatives.

Old Town

A friend of mine was here in PJ for a meeting last Wednesday. We proceed to PJ Old Town for a cup of coffee at the Old Town White Coffee Cafe after that. This Cafe is a franchise coffee shop originated from Ipoh, and although coincidence with the locality have nothing to do with PJ Old Town. If Ipoh Old Town can become a household brand name, i wonder why can't PJ Old Town be recognised the same way? Perhaps we should reshape the outlook of PJ Old Town or bring back the life to this settlement. Any plan to redevelop this area should consider its' special features and historical value.

PJ Old Town, the original town centre for Petaling Jaya New Town was named such after the Section 52 Town Centre was developed and named as PJ New Town. Local residents have fond memory of Old Town still can recall the glory days of PJ Old Town. The stopping by of buses plying the KL-Klang route via Old Klang Road, the bars served many expatriates including Sir Gerald Templer, the Majestic Cinema, the first national type school of Jalan 10, Road 1 before it was renamed as Jalan Templer and many more stories. These historical moments as disseminated orally by residents might be faded away and forgotten if no efforts are planned to compile it. It is a living heritage. Old Town will become another urban area with similar typology and prototype elsewhere if the social fabric is missing.

By virtue as the oldest settlement in PJ, we noticed that many houses are in dilapidated condition and some have even emptied for long. This phenomena can be contributed by the upkeep of houses by owners due to ownership and leasing problems. Having said this, we noticed few houses have been redeveloped with modern design. While it is encouraging to witness this changes, sprawl development might occur again without any proper planning guidelines. Perhaps it is time to draw out some design guidelines for having a sustainable urban village here.

Perhaps, and perhaps something from the soft point of views should be given serious consideration.

Innovative Creative Circle

I attended a workshop on Quality Control Circle (QCC) with my staff last week. The workshop is aimed at coaching us to prepare a QCC project to further improve the quality of management. I was informed that QCC has been renamed to Innovative Creative Circle (ICC) to better reflect the need for innovation and creativity in quality searching. This shows that searching for quality in management has very much to do with innovative and creativity. Quality improvement is possible yet insignificant if it is not done with innovation and creativeness.

Innovation does not mean application of advance technology alone, but to me is more on using appropriate technology to suit circumstances. For example, if a work process to expedite the application can be done with an efficient work force, then it is not necessary to install any computer gestures. Even attempts to use irrelevant methods should be avoided.

I was told that ICC is not applicable to every processes. If a process can be rectified with policies change or if it is related to a directive from Government, then attempts to have an ICC to look into it should be avoided. An identified problem should be SMART and more importantly within the control and influence of the group. No point of having a problem solution that involving others for action.

A successful ICC is the one with top management blessing. The commitment and full support from top management is critical. Having said this, top management's interference in determining the direction or even style of presentation will not help in preparing a good ICC. The ICC group should be given authority and freedom to plan, do, check and act on their problem and solutions.

No matter how, importantly an ICC should be a genuine case solution. It is no point of having a fantastic presentation with wonderful skills but without substance or points to substantial their claim on the project benefits. In other words, do not bluff or doing a fake project for the sake of having ICC.

Young Facilitators

I attended the discussion on organising the PJ Children Forum hosted by Community Support Network last Monday night. MBPJ in collaboration with CSN is organising the inaugural PJ Children Forum this coming July 25. The Forum aims to gather different stakeholders and to formulate a Child Friendly City of Petaling Jaya. Prior to the Forum, a Pre-Forum workshop with participation of 250 children aged 8-18 years old will be held. As a preparatory work towards the event, various discussions over the format, objectives, approaches and programmes were held.

While I have anticipated to meet with the usual energetic and enthusiastic Datuk Ghazali, Soony Lim and Khatijah of CSN there to provide guidance for discussion, i was surprised, yet excited to see the presence of many young and committed adults. They are very well articulated with the children issues and pose so many experiences with them on working with children aged 18 years and below. They even counter proposed tentative programme to suit the children. The methods of getting something out from the heart and mind of the children. The approaches of getting children to feel comfortable. The skills of getting children to express their views and transform it into audio visual presentation. While many of us have experience to facilitate discussion over particular issue, many do not have the skills and knowledge to deal with young adults and children. To me, they are the real young facilitators.

I, myself definitely have much to learn.

Household Waste Composting

I attended the 2nd review meeting on the Community Household Composting Project at CETDEM Organic Centre last Saturday. The function started with get to together session with all participants and followed by a "refreshing" pot luck lunch. I called it refreshing as vegetable foods with many innovations were served, and importantly the taste was delicious. We have organic drink made up of different nuts and beans.

What inspired me the most is participants of this project are so enthusiastic after 9 months even though many of them have encountered countless problems. They have to go through the attacks by insects, flies, rat and even the complaints lodged by the neighbours. This must be one of the proud moments for project proponents as 50 participants are still remain on board, the targeted figure.

I believe this group of participants, with their passion and know how have the potential to become the trainers. I have in my opening remark urged them to influence their immediate friends, family members and work mates to follow their foot step. The multiplying effect will hopefully help us to reduce waste at source, at the same time to convert waste into useful stuff for our garden.

If most of them have desire to continue, perhaps MBPJ can look into having community composting project. They can become the leader and facilitator for this to realise. We will definitely look into this prospect.

I believe while solving waste at source is important, getting the participation of community is the most critical action. A solution for solid waste management without stakeholders involvement and active support will not help to sustain the solution. Hence, involving the community from planning through implementation and monitoring is a must, for success.

New Stakeholders

We have a discussion over the issue of legalising hawkers without license at the SS2 Morning Market last week. At the moment, more than 20 hawkers are traded at the edge of the designated morning wet market at SS2/62 Road. These hawkers sell non perishable goods such as gourmet, cooked food, plants and flowers are enjoying better business as claimed by the existing hawkers because of their whereabouts at the entrance to the market area. This has created unhappiness amongst the existing hawkers. They want these people to be relocated. On the other hand, those without license for many years want to legalise their businesses at the same place.

We discussed various options considering the traffic situation, hygiene, cleanliness, fairness, equity and opportunities. One of the interesting debate is on market opportunities. While people prefer attaching themselves to the existing establishment for existing market penetration, it deprives the right of people within the existing establishment to enjoy the fruits of their hard work and persistent. They have under protest to share the customers. Another school of thought is by having more stalls and thus choice will enhance the attractiveness of a market and in flow of potential customers. The argument is both are complimenting each other.

While both arguments are valid and worth considering, the aspiration and desire of stakeholders especially the residents and consumers have to be taken into consideration. The residents are the one the Council have to endear with. The residents, as the tax payers and dwellers have the right to enjoy a free from pollution and disturbance living environment, of course to have a say on the money spent. It is ethically not right to fulfill the need of hawkers but neglecting the right of residents.

We realise residents or consumers' views have not sought about frequently on issues related to other sectors especially the SMEs. Perhaps efforts to bring residents on board should be intensified so that a balance tri-partie views can be solicited. Perhaps starting with drafting of guidelines on hygiene, cleanliness, beautification, social responsiveness, sustainability and fair trade for the businesses is a right move.

New Occupation

I read a reporting with great interest last Sunday. The report listed 10 types of new occupations in China. Similar jobs should have a market in Malaysia. As society is getting more complicated and urban people are burdened with tremendous life pressure, the new occupations are emerging and some are getting popular. Why not have a try during the economic downturn time?

1. Runner Company with services on purchasing, queueing, accompanying, reminding, making payment, gift sending, driving and receiving. Tariff is charged according to distance and complexity of jobs. In fact, this company is commonly visible at the offices of public service providers and public agencies. However, extending this service to other fields might create a market there.


2. Temporary Driver especially for the drunk drinkers. It is a life saving job and also to ensure that the drinkers can do so without hesitation. Its' charges is based on distance and type of vehicle.


3. Navigator is killer to the charitable spirit of public. The days of getting people to show you direction is gone. The so call "navigator" might ask you for some flavour in return of road directing.


4. Puzzle Maker is born due to the demand on making difficult puzzle for special occasions. For example, presenting the puzzle which normally take 1 month as a gift for his/her special one is a desire but the most difficult task for everybody. Thereby, completing a puzzle on behalf of someone is a job by itself. People do not mind to pay someone for completing the job.


5. Price Negotiator is commonly found in anyone. However, becoming a good negotiator for good bargain requires skill and knowledge. Price negotiator can help you to get a good bargain


6. Professional Scolder will fxxk others on your behalf. If someone experienced unpleasant encountering and need to take revenge politely, then you might hire someone to counter scolding on your behalf. However, please be careful of not getting yourself in trouble, be sued for defamation.


7. Cyber Agent to help businesses to promote their products by doing review at their website or blog. Businesses can place advertisement in the website or blog in which the cyber agent will be paid once the advertisement was clicked. Any blogger or even the regular for social networking site can be cyber agent.
   
8. Procurement Agent is providing purchasing service for the office people and also senior citizen. Senior citizen due to immobility might need someone to buy something or to pay them the utility bills. The procurement agent will help to buy you the stuffs you want


9. Secretary for the Bride is a professional manager to handle A-Z of a wedding. They will design, plan and execute a wedding ceremony. These include designing of the invitation card, queueing for registration of marriage and even ushering the guests. This applies to parties and event organisers as well.


10. Meeting Attendee is a temporary worker to attend meeting only and if warrant, to ask "friendly" questions as required by the host. Most of the time, meetings especially media conference or ceremonies cannot proceed due to shortage of attendees and this occasion might have embarrass the organiser.

Do you come across any new occupation? While new occupations are emerging over time due to changing circumstances, some occupations are disappearing and forgotten. For example, on street candy makers, petition writers, typists, telephonists and etc. No jobs is indispensable and an occupation might diminish one day, it is only a matter of time. Perhaps everyone of us should alert at all time and improve our skills for not being irrelevant the soonest.

Leader and Follower

During a meeting last Tuesday, members casually discussed about leader and follower. Everyone acknowledged that both have important roles to play. Both need each other and compliment each other for job accomplished. Leader without follower is equivalent to having a gun without bullets. Leader will command and direct others working towards achieving his vision and mission. This definitely cannot be done if the leader has no others to turn to. Similarly, follower need guidance and facilitation for them to achieving a shared goal outlined by the leader. Hence, leader and follower have to be there under any circumstances concurrently. Anybody can be either a leader or a follower based on circumstances. For example, a doctor might be a leader at the operation theater but revert his role as follower at the kitchen helping his wife to cook.

The question raised during the meeting is when should someone becomes a leader or a follower? Problems arose simply because many people do not understand their appropriate role at the right time and right occasion. People tend to forget their role because of excitement and enthusiasm or at time, encouragement from other parties. Smart people tend to play second cadre to his/her superior at all occasions. However, others will perceive it as "botek" the bosses.

To me, leader and follower should play their role accordingly under appropriate circumstances. It is a matter of who know best and who command best. It is not solely about your social status and title. In doing so, perhaps egoism has to go. With a flatten World today, hierarchy and structure of command is no more valid, anyone can make his/her grade. This applies to the present follower and leader.

So, be prepared leader, you might one day to become follower and to the follower, you have to prepare all the time to take over the leadership in a day.

Social Responsibility - What and For Whom

I was approached by a MBA student last week to explore the research possibility on corporate social responsibility. It is generally acknowledged that social responsibility is referred to the corporate sector. It is how corporate sector communicates with other stakeholders for their philantrophy activities. most of the time we see corporate sector announcing that they have under their corporate social responsibility activities, planted number of trees, donated sum of money to charitable organisations, organised a get together party for orphanages in conjunction with anniversary celebration or during festive season, carried out the cleanliness campaign or initiated an environmental awareness or education or health campaigns. While it is commendable for corporate sector to initiate such good gestures for community at large, they certainly can do more than that, for themselves. The question is have they do good for themselves and have they become good citizenry? The common saying of charity starts from own self is certainly true. The corporate sector has to examine how good they have performed when come to environmental entrepreneurship or disabled friendly or even users friendly. For example, have their manufacturing activities complied with the legal requirement, have their production moving towards Zero-Waste and Zero-Carbon, do they provide a barrier free office for all, are they practicing fair trade policy and others. Unless and until these are done, the critics on corporate sector for being hypocrate will remain.




Social responsibility is not exclusively for the corporate sector, it can be domain for everyone including the informal sector and SME. SME by virtue of their size has always been excluded from CSR discourse. SME as part of the supply chain on production and consumption cannot run away from social responsibility. For example, the welding factory has responsibility of not making excessive noise and disturbance, the laundry owners have to ensure that discharge waste water will not pollute the drain, the tuition centre should have better traffic management to alliveite the congestion, the car workshop operators should have installed grease trap to filter the oil from going into the river, the food outlet owners should have to make sure that rubbish is properly disposed off and even the hawkers should exercise greater caring and loving attitude towards the clients, environment and surrounding. The CSR concept is definitely there for everyone and SME cannot spare from this responsibility.



CSR is effective only if there are carrot and stick for the SME. As many SME is owner operated, many might not see the importance of having an acceptable practise of CSR. Hence, a check and balance mechanisme should be established to either reward the angels or to penalise the evils. For the start, it is always good to encourage and motivate the SME to start first on small, but meaningful SR gestures. Nowadays, business solutions without taking into consideration for green is a mission unaccomplished. For SME growth, if not for survival, Green CSR is not a choice, but a must.

Interest Groups

During an informal discussion with a group of residents, we spoke about interest groups. We wonder who are they. Many of them do not happy with the participatory consultation process over development projects. MBPj has by virtue of the law provision, inviting people aggravate by a particular project to submit their objections, if any. Most of the time, this has limited the prospects to a small portion of people. Many residents who have resided in the same neighbourhood might not have the chance or so call "local standi" to object to a particular development. In order to hear people out, MBPJ welcomes others to submit their opinion and to hold open forum for hearing. However, this has also raised displeasure from the development project proponents accusing the whole process is getting out of hand. While getting views from as many people as possible is encouraged for a good participatory planning, the question is what is the magic number?

We are talking about interest group or stakeholder whom people have a stake over some project, be it direct or indirect. People who felt that their daily encountering and quality of life might be affected or even their flow of traffic might met with some blockage are considered interested parties. If i am sharing an access road with the proposed development, then it is logical to invite me for my opinion. Even though due to apathy some might not response, but still it is the responsibility of the authority to engage and consult.

Having said this, there are interest groups with vested interest or personal agenda. We have to distinguished these groups from the genuine one. In this respect, engaging them with more scientific discourse and reasoning out the objections is required. For example, to engage them from the beginning until the end will actually provide us some indication on sincerity of groups that come forwards. Those come in with self interest will normally pull out after some time.

To draw a clear line on genuine interest groups is not easy, and perhaps is impossible. We can only engage wider spectrum of people and to get information from multiple aspects and corners for us to make a right decision, ethically and politically. If this is done, perhaps defining an interest group can be ignored.