Art of Respecting

Respecting someone means to pay full attention to others and agree to disagree. For example, even though others have different opinion or at time diverting from the points of discussion, we should respect his views and give him the due respect he deserved. However, in practice many of us might have forgetten this especially when you are in no mood of listening to others' arguement or you might have lost your temper and patient. This is commonly found in the work place or any where. That's why art of respecting is important and a thing to be learned with passion and professionally. It is not a matter of knowing when, where and whom should we respect but rather to practice it all the time. It should be a value system amongst all walk of life. How repellion a student is, he should respect his teachers even though he might not agree with what the teachers have taught. In reciprocal, the teachers should respect their students as someone tries to acquire knowledge. The teachers should not view students that tend to ask frequent questions and to question his authority on answering the questions. Simiarly, the relationship between bosses and subordinates required mutual respect. The case of bosses know everything and hence you should not have objecting to my views is no more valid in the modern day and a flatted world. I learned the true meaning of mutual respecting during a judges evaluation session held last week. The judges put in various marks based on their individual assessment. However, it was discovered later that standard diversion of the mark for a participating organisation is higher than the acceptable level. Further investigation shown that it was all because of a particular judge who has given marks with vast different point. Looking this as the source of problem, the others asked that judge for her opinion and enquired the possibility of reviewing her mark. The judge refused with reason. Other decided to respect her decision and look for other solutions. One of the solutions was to exclude the mark of that judge in which the judge agreed so. To me, this is an art of respecting. While the panel of judges respecting that individual judge's assessment, that individual judge agreed to put aside her own assessment without hesistation for the sake of marking system. Under such circumstances many might have walking away angrily or a heated arguement might have started.

Art of Marketing

It is very hard to sell if you have not done good in marketing. Marketing in commercial term means promoting the products or services to wider range of target group. Once people acquitted with the brand name, then it will make the selling easier. It is logical as I might not be that adventurous to try out new products or services if i have no idea or knowledge about them. It is matter of confident and who and what I know. If I have known that the reputation of a developer is good in delivering quality houses, then I might be more than willing to pay the premium or with less questions asked.

When it comes to public sector, marketing or equate to lobbying is important before asking others to buy your ideas. For officers to sell their idea of some projects, they first have to create some conducive environment or need for it. For example, if you are asking budget for a car, then it is necessary to tell others you need the vehicle to fulfill your scope of services or else the performance will be servery affected. However, it is not sufficient for that, perhaps creating a scenario of urgency is required. For example, to showcase and communicate with the decision makers that every step has been taken properly to deliver the service but unable to do so due to the lack of vehicle. To me, this is marketing in place.

I will be getting a hybrid car next year for official use after little deliberation in a budget meeting recently. While many questioned about the need of having new vehicle for the whole organisation, none has objected to purchasing a hybrid car for my Unit. This is unusual as this will be the first time that any local councils in Malaysia is buying hybrid car and secondly it is also strict scrutinise for purchasing new vehicles unless critically required. I presume marketing has a part to play in the whole process. As Secretariat, my Unit has been actively promoting the concept of green low carbon city of Petaling Jaya. Various innovative and high impact programmes were carried out over the last few months. These include the rebate scheme for environmental friendly house owners, Environmental Hero Award, Car Free Day, declaring the engine off zone and etc. The stakeholders saw the positive result of such initiative. Perhaps it implants into the mind of decision makers for going green and do-able of my Unit. Hence, the request for buying a green vehicle is granted.

For public programmes or initiatives to be implemented effectively, especially in pushing for the acceptance of other stakeholders, I believe combination of a good marketing plan and selling strategies are important. The Local Council has to be creative and innovative. Social marketing which incorporates long term engagement and two way communication with the stakeholders in this respect is important.

Land Premium vs Urban Regeneration

Urban regeneration is a lengthy process as it involves various stakeholders with different needs and priorities. In an old neighbourhood area, the first generation of settlers might be sentimental and emotionally related to the place for which they have stayed, developed and inculcated the sense of belonging over the years. It is difficult to convince this group of people to leave or distance themselves from their neighbourhood. The second generation might be there since born and going through the childhood and developmental growth in their life phase. Hence, with historical attachment to their birth place, might not be that easy to be convinced to move away. The newcomers are easier lot because they come with new thinking of revitalise the old neighbourhood. This group is the prime mover to push ahead the plan for urban regeneration. The neighbourhood will have imbalance state of regeneration due to different need and agenda of the above mentioned groups. As a result, the whole neighbourhood area will be filled with different phase of development. For example, uneven building height, modern building sandwiched by buildings with deteriorated condition, upgrading of roads and infrastructure in piece meal basis, the presence of vacant and idle land in the centre of the neighbourhood area. This is common scene in the Old Town of Petaling Jaya, the earliest settlement of the City since its inception 60 years ago. One of the reason contributing to this phenomenon is the capability of settlers to pay extra premium for extending their land lease. Lease of the land owned by the settlers is expired soon and need renewal. Without longer lease period, they feel insecure to invest renovating their house. Apart from that, it is also difficult for the owners to secure loan from financial institutions to fund the rebuilding of their dilapidated house. Hence, many of these houses have left with its original condition without any major refurbishment. For the owners to renew the lease, each individual land owner is expected to folk out at least RM 60,000 or more. It is definitely a burden for the land owners especially the first and second generation of settlers who have retired from work. The recent policy introduced by the Selangor State Government on paying only RM 1,000for renewing the lease, is thus welcomed by many. It is anticipated that nearly 100,000 land owners will be benefited from this policy. The land owners will only need to pay RM 1,000 upon approval of the lease extension provided that the family keep the land. If the land owners decided to sell the land later, they have to pay up the premium in full sum or entitled to a 30% discount if payment is made within 3 months of the approval date. Although it is understood that some question about people need to folk out higher amount when making a sale later, this However should not become an excuse for not supporting this policy of providing another alternative. People with no financial capability of securing loan in rebuilding their house can do so now. This, will help in rehabilitating the old neighbourhood with modern building and better infrastructure. It indicates that land premium and urban regeneration is closely related as it will determine whether the owners will be able to support the plan or not.

Art of Sharing

When you have plenty of resources you might not feel the pain of sharing with others or in fact you would like to offer others to share the resources. However, if resources is scarce and it is not enough to share with others, you might wish think twice before offering others to share. The question is how to determine you should share and under what circumstances that your sharing will not jeopardise yourself and at the same time bring in greater benefit to the opposite side.

Sharing is an art that skill and good judgement is required. On one hand you do not want to lose out after sharing and at the same time you do not want to enrich others so much that your interest is affected. Under normal circumstances not many people would like to share. It is not because they do not want to but simply because they do not know how to share. Sometime it is also because of self ego and innocient that people do not grasp the idea of sharing. For example, many bureaucrates do not know how to share their resources, skill, knowledge, workload and time. This resulted in duplication of works and also the wastage of resources.

I am touched after attending a budget discussion recently. A project proponent prepared forego his share of budget because he did not foresee the need for having done the project. The project proponent suggested money be spent in an area beyond his juridicion but with pressing issues. I thought this is the art of sharing that we are envisioned. Although you know very well that the money would not rechannel back for other uses, you go ahead of rejecting the allocation of resources.

In the era of resources scarcity, sharing can lead to sustainability. For example, car pooling to share journey generation can reduce the need for vehicles on the road. Integrated facilities complex to house different community facilities under the same roof top can help in the saving of land reserve and management cost. Time sharing concept for leisure premises can allow more people to enjoy the facilities with lower overhead cost.

Hence, sharing is about cost efficiency and effectiveness as well as justice. Sharing allows more people out reaching something with affordable cost. In order for sharing to work, it is matter of the willingness of givers and takers to share, I presume.

Rain Water Harvesting

I saw the simple method of collecting rain water and also a complicated one during the visitation to different neighbourhood area for the last two week. A community group in PJS area uses the normal piping to channel water collected from the roof top into a container on the ground level. It is conventional style that can be found in the village and rural area. Although simple in design, it is cheap and appropriate for area without much resources. Another system we visited in SS22 neighbourhood area was done with complete and separate piping system. The rain water is harvested and channelled to the herbal garden few hundred meters away. It comes with filtering feature to get rid of the tree leaf and waste particulate. The system is also used as a demonstration tool to educate general public on rain water harvesting. Whatever the system is, the function of collecting, storing and using the rain water efficiently is required.

Study shows that by collecting rain water for watering the plants and cleaning of floor, a household can save up to 35% of their monthly water bill. Although small in amount compared to other utilities cost, the saving is significant because water resources is getting precious now. Apart from that, storing run off from heavy down pour will also minimise the chances for flash floor in cemented urban area.

Making rain water harvesting a mandatory requirement for new housing project is no more a luxury but a neccisity. Well, afterall, it is predicted that in one day, fighting for water source might become one of the reasons of war between nations.

Community Leadership

As one of the judges for the PJ Sustainable Community Award, I discovered that vibrant, energetic communities with many happenings shared a common thing, that is the presence of strong leadership. The community is always led by a leader with calibre, charisma, resourceful, well connected, out spoken, engaging, able to mobilise the mass and some time is financially sound although it is not a necessity. You can see and sense the different when fronting with leaders with these qualities. You feel so much sense of belonging and caring listening to these leaders. For example, one of the leaders talked about kids in his community with length and passion as if they are his own kids. He kept referring to "our kids" in deliberating the social ills in his community. Another leader talked about how to help the single mothers overcoming their emotionally disturbed mind frame and also economically. He equated them the important component of their neighbourhood.

Leading by example is also critical. Many of the leaders do what they said and practice what they believed. They provide role model for others to learn and practice. They tried first before letting others experiencing the untested tasks, however let others enjoying the benefits first before his turn. I noticed that when community leaders have started doing that, others at least the very few will follow suit. I saw a female leader leading by example to be the first to go up an open topper lorry to go round the neighbourhood making public announcement. I witnessed the leader making arrangement for logistic while waiting for others to come for a function. Although many might have disagreed with leader doing thing with his hand, the reality on the ground is if you do not do that, you will never get thing done.

I saw the discontinue of programmes in the community due to the changing of leadership. When new leader take over, no question about setting his own priority and the need for changing some of the previous programmes. It is rightly so as this is the prerogative for new leader. However, abandoning a popular and sustainable initiative while still have the capacity is highly questionable. I saw a community lets go a recycling programme even those it is highly commendable by others because of the demise of the leader. I felt sad about a neighbourhood losing its stem in continuing the CCTV security scheme when its former leader left the neighbourhood. I am very particular about a neighbourhood of non participation in the activities of local authorities with the change of government although they have been very supportive previously. All these can be overcome if everyone of us especially the leaders understand fully and observe the true meaning of sustainable development, I presume.

New Terminology of Government Office

I attended the Get Together with the Chief Minister of Selangor Session yesterday morning. More than 1000 people attended the function held in Civic Hall of Petaling Jaya. While many are happy for obtaining the land title with extended leasehold period and minimum premium payment, some were there to voice out their grievances about quality of urban services and land issues. I was attracted to the speech of the Chief Minister whom has highlighted new approaches on public services and governance system. He spoke about new terminology of government office.

The Government office shall be everywhere and at your pleasure any time regardless of place, time and whom you are. Presently, government servants attending to the office because the working files are left in the office and discussion to coordinate on inter-departmental agenda need to be done in the office simply because all equipments are there. With the advancement of ICT now, for example the introduction of tablet computer and smart phone, we can store our files and information digitally in the cloud; we can assess to information, be it worldwide or locally at our finger tips; and we can have video conferencing discussion with our smart phone connected with different parties. Are these all we need for servicing the people from our office? If yes, then what is the problem of not having a physical office?

If this is the case, why can't we apply management by walking about approach? It means go to the people and problems to solve it or at least to brainstorm the solution at source. This will not only expedite the problem solving process, but also bring the relationship between decision makers and beneficiaries closer and cordial. The chances for public-community confrontation, thus will be reduced.

I believe the virtual office system will be the way forward for many establishments and for Local Council, demanding for bigger and bigger office space is no more the way forwards.

Understanding vs Action on Sustainable Development

The judges for sustainable community award of Petaling Jaya have finished their assessment on ground last week. It is such an refreshing experience to learn that many of the community groups including the newcomers have done so many initiatives, either one off or long term programmes over the last one year. We reckoned that perhaps the blossom of the initiatives is mainly due to the able leadership of the organisations. We witnessed how enthutiasme of the chairs in deliberating the programmes they have done and very few have actually mentioned about the difficulty they have encountered along the process. To me, it showed that while meeting obstacles are common, the most important thing for them is the process and outcome. They did not surrender to the pressue but continue to seek for success. I salute almost all of them for the persistence.

Having said this, many improvement are still required. For example, doing the wrong thing for right purpose. One of them suggested to utilise the open space for relocating the hawkers and to build a connecting road between two blocks of flat over the open space. Even some have shown their innocience for allowing car wash operation over the drain without any filtering of waste water measure and covering the drain without any manhole. Some have built the toilet on buffer zone. All these although with good intention of solving their problems and trying to bring community activities on board, do not augur well for the environmental sustainability. I presume many have focusing on social sustainability. On this, promotion on Local Agenda 21 with 3 developmental dimensions, namely social, economy and environment is critical.

Expel

It is extremely difficult to expel someone from your family or office. If possible, nobody would like to go through this painful process, not even the one who is going to be sacked. However, if you have done your most best to not expelling someone, then what choice do you have? You have given them the chance to improve but nothing has been done. You told them to change for a better person but turned out to be worse than previously. You advised them to observe the work ethic and conduct without much success. So, enough is enough although sympathy is always there for someone, decision has to be made.

In my whole working life, I have done my very best not to bring disruption to anyone legitimate earning and rice bowl. We tend to care about what happen next to our subordinates if he is not working and earning for his siblings. We want to make sure that everyone is well taken care of so that he will do his utmost best. However, this can only work if he is reciprocating by improving himself for betterment, even with little changes.

I hope I will never embroil into this kind of position again.

Budget 2012

The 2012 Budget Announcement last Friday brought much cheers to many especially the lower income segment of the community and public servants. It is said a people friendly budget. The measures have been focusing on minimising the pain for escalating cost of living in the urban area, reducing the cost of doing business, ensuring general public of affordable housing and transportation as well as maintaining the competitiveness environment of Malaysia for investors and businesses. It is also the hope of improving the benefits of public servants will help in enhancing the effectiveness and quality of public delivery service. Although nothing is sure on this, the measure has however uplifted the morale of the public work force. Hopefully with the emphasize on innovation, public service will be more creative, innovative and leading the way in enhancing the quality service delivery. I believe we can produce more Steve Jobbs alike by giving individual public servant a chance to be innovated instead of the conventional bureaucratise way of protocol.

For environmental front, the tax incentive for hybrid and electric car will be extended until 2013. It is in fact a good move of encouraging hybrid car as an alternative to the present mode of transportation. Perhaps the local authority can compliment this effort by offering some incentive to encourage more such model replacing the existing vehicle. For example, car parking incentive and priority parking. Having said this, the changes might have help in reducing the emission of CO2, it does not help in reducing the car volume on the road. At the end of the day, I presume providing efficient and affordable public transportation is still the way forwards. It will be nicer also if more incentives have been provided for corporates and individual to do more greenery things. For example, shall i enjoy some tax rebate for recycling waste in my house, for reducing rubbish generation, for using less water and electricity, for supporting local products and etc.

For social front, this year must be a good starting for many good years to come. For the household earning RM3000 and below, a hand out of RM500 is given. For taxi drivers buying local made model vehicle is also getting big relief. For family with schooling children, the offering for education is also good. Basically nobody is left out from the list. It is only hope that what have been intended for will be utilised 100% for the purpose for greatest benefits, and no other else.

For local authority, it must be a year full with challenges. The challenge of businesses encountering stir competition and possible economic slow down, the residents facing with escalating cost of living and jobs opportunity, the bulky public service and the work performance of the service contractors. It is especially so for local authorities in Selangor, they will have to learn and relearn how to manage the solid waste and area cleansing after a lapse of 12 years of not doing so. It is an area so visible to the public and have an immediate impact on performance of the local authorities because you cannot hide the problem of cleanliness as what most people said you cannot sweep the rubbish under the carpet without others knowing about it.

For me, the budget is definitely a morale booster if not for career advancement but at least financially YES. I wish the new assessment scheme of SPBA replacing the SSM will right the previous wrong. Qualified servants will be notified and given the chance to serve. It is who you are that count rather than who you know or who you are with.

Sustainable City

The panel of judges for the PJ Sustainable Community Award have an interesting discussion over the concept of sustainable development during a visit to neighbourhood area last week. We spoke about the sustainable city that we envision in years to come. While many aspired to have a peaceful living, quality and comfortable lifestyle, safer environment, affordable home, a lot of greenery, unpolluted water supply, good and sufficient infrastruture and facilities and etc, many admitted also what we envisioned today are related to our past experience and present encountering. We have not taken into consideration what is happening now and in future will become a trend or norm. For example, the concept of R-Urban will change our living environment and lifestyle. The Y Generation will have different aspiration and skill of dealing with others. The youth will be more global and mobile. They will not stay put permanently in a city. They might have working from a remote area but accessible with internet connection. They might even settle their meal without lighting up their kitchen. That's mean the interior design of a house will also need to revisit. For example, having multiple space arrangement within a small area in which change of usage will be every fleasible and according to the need of the occupants. The so-call living area now can be turned into a dining space or music room or study area or meeting space with ease. The need for having a permanent facilities with less usage is reduced tremendously. In this respect, the definition for sustainable living will have to be fine tuned.

Travelling need for essential daily goods will also be reduced. Even travelling to the work place, leisure and study will be deminished. We might have facilities complexes atop of the residential podium that will cut down trip generation tremendously. We do not need the vehicles as a basic need but rather a luxury item.

So, with less opportunity for travelling and inter-human interation as well as returning to basic lifestyle, the creation of sustainable city and its formation will change to futuristic that many of us cannot describe with sure.

The model and facade of sustainable city will change according to time and desire of people. Although all uncertainties are there, one thing for sure will remain is whatever we do and pursue cannot surpass the limit and capacity of our mother nature and creation of GOD, I presume.

Concept of Urban Village

We talked about urban village because we felt we have lost the touch of village living while staying put in the urban area. We remembered how closet the relationship amongst villagers. We cannot forget the kindness, self-help spirit and down to earth attitude of our childhood friends. It is always in our memory of going to river for a swim and hiding behind the trees to play the game of seek and hide. We walked to the school every early morning and rode on motorcycle without helmet for afternoon drive throughout the whole village. We have our dinner at evening instead of night time because we did not encounter any traffic problem as what the hardship urban people are encountering. We got plenty of fruits free of charge during the season rather than spending money to buy. We walked through our neighbours' house behind us without people calling us trespassing. All these are rather to freedom of doing things closer to our heart and nature without fear and favour. It is our true self. We fond of having village spirit because it bring back good old days memory that brought us up. We cannot tolerate with the urban circumstances simply because we have experienced the goodness of village before us. That's why many especially for those migrating from village and rural area are talking about creating urban village in the cities.

Recently, I told the urban village promoters to revisit the concept of urban village simply because time change and aspiration of new generation evolves as well. We cannot expect our youngster to appreciate what we have enjoyed formally. They might not understand what we are talking about and so fond about past moment. For some of them, perhaps spending hours in front of computer screen chit-chatting with friends worldwide is better rather than going outing and picnicking under the hot sun. Some might have thought fried chicken serving in the restaurant is "chicken" instead of those running around in the compound of a village house. We need to apply new terminology, approaches and concept of discussing with them and along the process in building the underlying concept of urban village into their mind. For example, since many have acquitted with the idea of going green as a cool thing, perhaps asking the youth to plant trees while going for outing should be the way forwards.

Urban village is there to stay, but to create that environment in the city with many of its population born in the city and without any experience of village living is a challenge itself. New strategies are needed.

World Habitat Day 2011

First Monday of October every year is declared World Habitat Day. Today, 3rd of October is the Day. World Habitat Day is organised to raise awareness on the need of having quality, affordable and sustainable settlements and at the same time to celebrate achievements that enhancing the living environment for human being. It is a Day celebrated world wide especially in UN-Habitat at Nairobi, Africa.

While many have been achieved for improving the living environment and shelter for people, many have yet to be done simply because of the effectiveness of programmes and capacity of the organisers and beneficiaries. For example, eradicating the poverty is top agenda of the list, but the income disparity is getting wider now not only between the developed and undeveloped countries but also inter cities or even rural and urban area in a developed country. The job opportunity is shrinking in the developed nation because of shifting of industries based to other countries. The quality of living environment in the urban area is not at par with those in the rural area due to high cost of living expenses. The vircious circle of poverty amongst the agriculture society at rural area is repeating for the service oriented society in the urban area simply because the earning is never sufficient to cover the cost of living.

Definitely some structural change of the economic model, governance system and society norm or value need to be revisited. Perhaps it is time to refresh all these in this Day.

Happy World Habitat Day 2011.

Art of Rejecting

How to reject a person although it is not right to do so under normal circumstances? Everyone has the right to claim his/her share provided that he/she is qualified. The approving agency has the obligation to grant such right if the applicant has fulfilled the requirements as stated. This is what supposed to be, I thought. However, I was proved wrong when people start quoting on the discretion of the agency to disapprove based on some preempt reasons or even without any valid reason but followed the preference of the people who have been entrusted to make decision.

For example, an application for operating a budget hotel was rejected even though all technical and statutory requirements were complied because of fear by some quarters that the accommodation facilities might be mis-used for immoral activities. Although preempt action to curb possible social problems is good, denying the right of operator to prove that he is starting a legitimate business is questionable. Similarly, it is morally wrong if a person with right qualification and appropriateness is not given opportunity to be consider for stall application. It is not ethical if a candidate with proper and recognised academia qualification is not considered for membership admission into an institution without valid reason even though no clauses in the rules prevent it.

I presume in the era of openness, transparency and good governance, the practice of working with reasonably should be enhanced further.