Councillors' Roles

I was invited to present a paper entitled The Roles, Functions and Responsibilities of the Councillors in Local Authority in Applying the Local Agenda 21 Effectively yesterday morning. The Workshop was organised by the Women Local Councillors Association of Malaysia (WLA). 2 interesting observation attracted my attention, these include 100% of participants are women from the whole country and their reaction over some remarks I made. I was there alone for one and half hour talking to about 150 ladies and no man is inside the hall. Talking to them at the initial stage requested me to make few adjustment. Firstly on addressing them as "Ladies" rather than the usual "Ladies and Gentlemen". Secondly on emphasizing the need for women participation in Local Agenda 21. Thirdly, things that women can do and able to do but obviously has not done enough yet.

I spoke about the role of councillors as decision maker for policies enactment and budgetary planning as well as shaping the urbanscape and form of our city. I challenged them of not visiting the drains so frequently with reason that it is the job of the paid officers. Their role is actually to supervise and monitor the performance of the officers. It is their prerogative to overseeing the policies and programmes as planned and approved have been carried out in proper manner.

Presently Councillors have been judged based on their presence in the news and locality. They are perceived of doing their duties diligently if reports on the news said so or the feedback from residents group said so. These are normally in the form of their visit to look at the drains, children playground, street lighting, traffic light, pothole or attending to the functions of the local group. Many do not bother about what Councillors have commended about policies at the Federal or State level or ideas about turning the city into a liveable one. People are prioritising the personal relationship over other performances.

To some, it is nothing wrong and rightly so. To me, it is nothing wrong as well but I personally think that these can be minimised and let them monitor the performance of the Council Staff and help to shape our cityscape.

Earth Hour

Last Saturday witnessed millions of people worldwide switched off the light from 8.30pm to 9.30pm in celebrating the Earth Hour. While it is commendable for many to remember the Day and importance of energy saving, the way it has done is highly questionable. Many shopping malls have taken the event as a public relation exercise by organising celebration programmes. For example, mini concerts were held for the crowd. Many turnout for the event meant more people are travelling to the mall from home or workplace. I presume some trips are made unneccessary and it turned out to be another way of burning the fuel and hence the emission of carbon. Should't the event be celebrated by every individual in their own place of residence rather than travelling from far? If we are serious about energy saving and reducing carbon emission and green house gas, why don't we do it everyday instead of 26th March only?

Well, some people said this is an awareness campaign to remind public on the importance of climate change and what every individual can do, so some trade off is neccessary. While to certain extend i agreed with the arguement, I do hope that this arguement does not prolong and the soonest disappeared from our routine of celebrating Earth Hour. However, I have doubt since the business sector has picked this up for another marketing gimmick.

Disabled Women Day

In celebrating the International Women Day, a health day for the disabled women was organised by a group of concerned citizen in collaboration with MBPJ. While the celebration of Women Day has always talked about the challenges on gender equity and women power, not many have focused on the plight of disabled people in conducting their daily routine. Disabled women might have suffered more compared to the opposite gender as they are not in the forefront of championing the cause and challenges of disabilities. Hence, the effort by this group to out reach the women is commendable.

Opportunities and platform should be provided with ease for the disabled women so that their right can be protected, their plight can be heard and more importantly they are given equal opportunities to be excelled in their livelihood. While we do not see many disabled on the road, we cannot marginalise their presence. Their absence from the public is not because the number is small but simply because the physical environment has failed them. The connectivity and accessibility are not there to facilitate their movement.

I wish everyone should have done more for everyone.

Right Approach

Many believe that targeting the children for achieving some social objectives is easier than going direct to the adult. It is always an uphill task for convincing the adult on some programmes even though they are convinced, they might be half heartedly to participate actively. Thereby, a lot of us believe that instead of going direct to the adult, let start with the children and let the children who are acquint with the programmes to show it to the adult the benefits acquired. It is a reverse pychology as children is having better bargaining power to compel the adult to do so, or at least for the sake to face saving --- lead by example.

We see the recycling campaign focusing on children in the school. Children who has been taught about the goodness of recycling, start practicing it and later become the norm of daily routine will then make every effort to showcase to their parent or immediate adult relatives of doing similar feet. Although this education process might take longer time than expected, it is better than never.

However, this is not the case in some instances especially if little information or knowledge about the programmes is acquired by the children or parent. For example, if the children has no idea about the programme, then it is difficult to move forward. Similarly if the parent are not convinced that the programme is good for the children, then they might not encourage the child to participate.

Petaling Jaya City Council set up the first Petaling Jaya Child Council in Malaysia. Everyone is so excited and the appointed child councillors are so enthutiasm of moving forward. But this can only be done so if support from the parent are forthcoming. For parent to come out and support it, they need to know what has been line up and expected from their child as they might have plan out the growth path for their children. Hence, keeping them update and bring them in the loop of information or knowledge sharing or even feedback on the programme or development should be done.

I presume no right or wrong strategy, but the most appropriate one taking into consideration of the local circumstances. Either we work with the children first with the hope of it filter down to the adult or the reverse, it should not a big problem as long as the outcome of achieving the objective is attainable.

Melaka Visit

I was in Melaka yesterday attending a meeting. Since Sunday was the last day of school holiday, the street and places of interest in the city centre of Melaka was full of people and vehicles. You might wonder of seeing so many people at this heritage site that is vulnerable to over crowding. Perhaps measures to control the influx of tourist need to be planned in protecting the beauty of the old building conservation.

When I walked along the Jonker Street, stalls selling variety of goods, handicraft and souvenior items attracted my attention. But I wonder if items made in Melaka only are for sale, then it will make the visit more meaningful and refection of where we are. As it is I noticed plenty of items for sale are solicited from elsewhere, some even from other countries. In matching the theme of the straits heritage, it is good to control the widespread of this trend.

I stayed in a three star hotel and have my meeting in a five star hotel. Both are good as venue for accommodation and meeting, but I wonder if FREE WIFI is provided will make the visit more memorable. It is not only happened in Melaka, but basically many part of Malaysia that facility of WIFI in hotel is available, but not provided FREE of charge unlike other countries in which WIFI has become a neccisity. While we are striving to have widen broadband coverage, we should also facilitating the connectivity with ease and affordable.

Take Thing For Granted

We always take thing for granted. This especially so if we are so used to a particular thing or area or person. For example, we will not make extra effort to understand the true meaning of religious teaching that we embraced since the day of our birth simply because we thought we knew everything. Similarly, we will not pay a visit to even a famous place of interest closer to our home simply because we thought we saw it so frequent and it is such an easy way of reaching it. However, if i could ask how many of us have visited the National Zoo or National Palace? Many might not have crossed their mind of visiting these places.

Sometime due to complacency, we tend to let go a lot of opportunities. We used to say don't worry chances will be recurred again and it does not really happen at the end of the day. At time it is also because of our apathy towards an event. We do not see the need to participate in the planning process as we do not know how to plan or voice out for ourselves and our future generation that the model of development we envisioned. We will only react if the bulldozer came to our doorstep or we are really bothered by any negative impact of development.

The World is moving at faster pace now and urgency is the order of the day. So, take thing for granted, apathy and complacency are obviously go against the pace of the day. Unless we take proactive initiative, we will risk of losing out any opportunities available.

Similarly to the issue of climate change, whether we rectify it now or never.

Fishing Competition

I saw a banner advertising a fishing competition with interest recently. The Competition offers big prize money and should be able to attract large crowd of angklers. This reminded me on what a group of environmentalists have advocated few years ago.

Under a lake rehabilitation program, multiple strategies were carried out in which one of them was organising the fishing competition for alien fishes. The rationale of removing the alien fishes from our river ecological system is most of the river bank and side of lake have experienced soil erosion due to the existence of alien fishes especially the "ikan bandaraya". "Ikan bandaraya" is fond of digging deep in side the soil for their habitat living and this becomes the cause for river bank unstability. Apart from that, the high growth rate of flower hon and tilapia fish have actually displaced many of the local species. This has caused breakage of ecological supply chain and eventually the natural environment. That's why removing these fishes will help to restore the original state of environment. With that believe in mind, few competitions were organised with the objective of rehabilitating the lake or river.

Nowasday, for the purpose of attracting participation whenever a fishing competition is held, the organiser will create a gimmick by releasing big and new fishes onto the pond few day before the competition. These newcomers might not be able to survive at the first place, secondly it will bring disruption to the existing ecological system. Thereby, it is not advisable to have this practice. However, for the sake of publicity and perhaps lack of knowledge about the environmental preservation, this practice has been continue again and again.

While fishing competition is a healthy activity and for good character building that should be encouraged, sacrifying the ecological system or do not contribute to rehabilitate the nature environment, to me is something we should all avoid to do.

Greening Scheme

Being green does not mean it is sustainable was a point for discussion during a meeting yesterday. A group of friends talked about an accreditation scheme on green building which categorised the certified building in different categories by point score. For example, the building will be accorded platinum if certain points are acquired although some aspects of green are not fulfilled. The accreditation does not take into account of carbon emission reduction as an criteria. For example, if a sustainable building material is used, how much carbon or GHG can be reduced is not calculated. Hence, it is difficult to relate the scheme for GHG reduction. It makes the Government's planned target of 40% reduction of GHG by year 2020 unmeasurable.

Sometime people thought of planting ornamental trees as greening exercise, but in actual fact the planting of these species do not help much in reducing the GHG reduction. Thereby, for sustainability to work effectively, right methods and approaches are required and essential. In this respect, acquiring right attitude, skill and approach are critically needed, and looking around with the capacity of professional now, I presume it is urgent.

Public Opinion

Public opinion is unavoidable as long as the public policies impacted the people, even a minority group. Soliciting the opinion and views of the public is a critical step in considering a proposal or later in making an inclusive decision. This is logical especially the proposed action will impact the daily routine or affect the people in the future. For example, if the construction of a project will affect the way how i travel or commute to the work place, then it is only right for me to be consulted. Similarly, if the placing of a community hall in the vicinity of my neighbourhood, then it is also necessary for my view to be heard. For example, the residents might want to know what capacity of the hall and type of facilities provided and how does the Council control the traffic circulation. So, it is all right to solicit views over the proposal.

The only problem is if we have different views on the same subject. How should we go about if majority of the group in flavour but met with objection from a handful of residents. It is very difficult to get 100% agreement over a same subject leave alone soliciting the majority one. That's why we saw the argument over the issue of gated and guarded community, dispute between hawkers for stalls arrangement, connection of the missing link, upgrading of park facilities, imposing of fair tariff for licensing and etc. The list can go on when it comes to city management.

However a decision has to be made, even how hard it is if a city is to be progressed. Decision makers and managers of the City Council have to make a decision after listening to the public opinion. They have to, at their best to put the foot down even though it might not be the most popular decision. For example, if an action is life threatening, then no compromise should be allowed. If a programmes is clearly went against the law, then stricter enforcement is required. If a proposed programme is aimed at betterment for the majority, then minority views should be put aside, of course with the best adjustment possible.

I presume everybody should understand their role. It is the responsibility of the residents to voice out their views during appropriate process and timing. For example, to participate in the public objection period for local plan or MRT Railway exhibition. To call up the authority for any wrong doing at your neighbourhood. Do not keep quiet when you are asked to participate but making a lot of noise whenever later the proposal comes to your door step. Public apathy becomes one of the bigger hindrance for public opinion to be heard effectively, I presume.

Value System

News abput earthquake, followed by the tsunami and now the meltdown of nuclear plant in Japan dominated the headlines for past few days. While it is sad to hear about suffering of so many people, it is also glad to witness some beauty moments of human during the time of disaster. We watched with our heart touching on how businessman or even the members of undercover society extending their help to the needy. We saw the serviceman and rescue team worked extra hard with their bald hand and simple tools. We followed the updates from news station without any interruption of advertisement. Even in the time of crisis, we saw how Japanese react in the good manner and order. For example, nobody is trying to jump queue and arrange themselves accordingly. Similarly, we do not see people gathered in big crowd blocking the work of servicemen. I think, this in itself showed the value system of Japanese Society. A value system that is needed for sustainability.

Enforcement

We can plan but can the plan be executed according to the planning is very much subjected to the capability of executors and will of the targeted audience. For example, we can plan a comprehensive multi-modal of transportation network taking into the connectivity, affordability and accessibility both the travellers and providers. However, whelther the plan is workable or not is very much beyond the control of the planners, especially under the circumstances of existing governance system.

Similarly the Council can insist the applicant to comply with consequence condition attached to the approval, but the implementation will be very much unpredictable. For example, while it is a standard condition of requiring the owner of dwelling units to install rain water harvesting system or reserving 10% of land for green space, many of these are not seen in the housing area. Most part of the house compound are covered with premix for car park and the water tank is not visible too. It comes back to the question of enforcement. How stringent enforcement is done will determine how are the conditions be met.

We witnessed not only conditions are not fulfilled, but ignorance of law and committing offences against the law. It is not uncommon to see residential house fronting the main road at Jalan SS2/55 advertised openly about the prospect to be commercial premise even though it is not allowed under the provision of local plan. Buntings hanging along the major street advertising a college even though the application for college in the industrial area was rejected. Then, house applied for minor extention work has all in sudden turned into a huge demolition and rebuilding of new building development. Continue use of residential building for commercial activities even though the application to change the use has been rejected. Many of the budget hotel were declined license but continue business as usual. Hawkers are continuing violating the law for dirtying the public area even though summouns are issued non stop. Season fruit stalls are put up for non-season fruit selling.

I presume, the list can go on and will go on unless tougher actions are initiated, without fear and favour.

Blaming

It is alright to blame others for inadequacy but to do it more than once or often is a disaster by itself. We always complain about ineffciency of public transportation and point the finger to others for not doing enough. Constructive criticsm with solution is welcome but keep telling others what to do without self evaluation on what one can do is certainly not resulting a solution acceptable to all. For example instead of waiting for public transport to your doorstep can you walk 10 minutes more to reach the bus stop? Similarly, how about patronising a neighbourhood shop with foots? It is not that difficult if we walk the talk.

chances

Between earning for survival and making good money for a better lifestyle is a matter of choice. You can work hard for making tonne of money or decided to have a more relax working schedule but lesser income. Nobody is going to force you unless your own self. Of course if you are depressed to support your family or are motivated to do so by someone or objective in life you might want to work extra hard or else will reluctant to do so if a person without objective in life. For example, foreigners are here to make hard earn money is willing to work overtime or even during odd hour. I saw a group of Chinese ladies in the hospitality service scarified their holiday and lunch break for earning few dollars. To my amazing when confronted, their reasoning is working hard while you have the opportunities or you might be regretted later during difficult time as a chance which was provided and within grasping hand has not been used. We have always complained about lack of forthcoming chance but will never admit that a chance was bypassed due to our apathy attitude.

So, we have ourselves to blame and nobody else.

Compact City

Compact city concept is an emerging trend worldwide. Apart from the scarcity of land problem, people are talking about putting mix development and use of land together for saving the need for travelling, and hence the emission of green house gas. It is in a way a concept of low carbon city. However, implementation of the concept need compliment from other concept as well. For example, transit oriented development to ease the travelling with multiple transportation accessibility. Similarly, multiple management tools should be applied such as development charge and transfer of development right. It is a concept worth exploring as an alternative to solve the present problem of urban sprawl.

Having said this, the concept cannot be applied in total for every individual city. Adjustment based on local circumstances is essential. For example, allowing higher density in an already congested urban area is unbecoming. It is important to find amicable solution acceptable to both the development proponents and residents. In doing so, a lot of innovation is required and thinking out of box is a must.