Flash Back of 2013

Year 2013 is coming to an end now. The year saw a very challenging happenings in everywhere and every sector or every walk of life. We witness the 13th General Election of Malaysia which was the determining factor for the way how any event been handled and targetted for. Everyone was so occupied by the anticipated outcome of any programmes and who the intended target groups are. Achievements were being measured based on visible benefits that people would obtained. Some people labelled these are superficial phenomenum. Things got moving to the normal way only after election, without much politicking. Petaling Jaya City Council welcomed its first Lady Mayor, Alinah Ahmad. The new mayor brought in with her abundance experiences on housing and property development as well as land administration. A hand on city manager, she believes seeing is believing and no taliking but action first. Under her leadership, changing in administration, management style and approaches are under way and improving for higher efficiency in service delivery. Year 2013 also saw the efforts on low carbon green city initiative paid off. The innovative Property Assessment Rebate Scheme which is running on 3rd year was conferred the Green Apples Award by the Green Organisation of UK in mid of June 2013. Apart from that, the rain water harvesting programme implemented by the Council well before by law made its a mandatory requirement won the Green Neighbourhood Award conferred by the Ministry of Urban Well Beings, Housing and Local Government. Both awards brought joys and recognition to those working on it, especially the Low Carbon Green City of Petaling Jaya Task Force. For the first time also, Sustainability Report of Petaling Jaya outlining the achievements of MBPJ in low carbon initiative and sustainable development was published. The Report has been written based on the structure of Low Carbon City Framework as published by the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water or KeTTHA. Although in its infant stage of providing reliable information on carbon emission, it is a try to begin with telling people on achievements that later should be carbon-dimensioned and related. The inaugural traning session for operators and teachers of kindergarden and nursery in PJ was also conducted. As low carbon green city initiative's capacity building program, the training has dual purposes, namely promoting the environmental education amongst small kids and secondly to green the building or physical premises of the kindergarden or nursery. It is critical and important since long ago, this target group has been neglected when environmental requirement mattered the most. I have been frequent traveller too throughout the year. Having visited London 3 times, Melbourne and other domestic destination for seminars and conferences. The opportunities given have broadened my perspective, undersanding and knowledge on new emerging trends and challenges as well as serving as a learning curse for the best practices on urbanisation, planning, transportation and etc. OSC has been moving well with higher record of meetings being achieved since the inception of OSC Unit in 2007. The meetings have managed to provide a platform for fruitful and constructive discussion amongst members on proposed development projects. I am looking forward on 2014 when all submissions include the building plans application will be gone online. On the family front of OSC Unit, relationship is cordial and dynamic of the group is always there. Enhancing better relationship and working together as a team would be the way forwards for next year. Certainly I will miss the good memory of 2013.

Learning City

Learning city means lifelong learning opportunities for everyone either with formal or informal education. Similarly, either learning on applied science or skill learning. With the World getting more complex and demand from the people and community is escalating, the demand for knowledge is also higher especially in the field that might have not been covered under the existing formal education system. Some underprivileged people might also found that attending to formal education is too costly and beyond their affordability. Some might find that certain compulsory subjects are of their disliking. Some might think that they need extra curriculum fulfilling their own need pursuing knowledge. Thereby, a thriving city must be able to provide and cater for multiple learning needs of the people from diverse background. Learning through social media and internet have provided new paradigm to the meaning of learning. Learning can be done with a group of people sharing the same interest and hobby. Learning can be done on real time and with people from different physical community, but rather the cyber world. Learning can be fast with the availability of information over the web. Learning can be multi-discipline and do not necessary follow the sequence. Learning can be fun without the guidance of teachers. Learning can be experiential. For a learning city, the above are required pre-requisite. To make this happen I believe, good and affordable infrastructure especially the ICT, provision of a conducive environment and community for learning must be provided by the city government.

Thriving Neighbourhood

Thriving neighbourhood is visible and can be felt. You can describe a thriving neighbour the moment you step into it space, talking to the people, walking onto the streets, observing many on going and vibrant activities. This scenario cannot be faked and the negative feeling cannot be hide. Thriving neighbour can be built over the years with efforts from all walk of life. The Authority cannot keep telling the people and stakeholders what they intend to do, but to talk to the stakeholders what both can do together. Likewise the stakeholders cannot keep pointing finger on the atuhority for non-perfoming. It must be a mutual understanding and consensus of doing something together. This, of course require share value, vision and actions. Thriving neighbourhood must be a place for everyone, those who want to sleep there, those who want to study, those who want to work and those who want to spend leisure and free time there. Everyone will get to fulfill their need without jeopardising the need of others. All needs can be met and happened in harmony. Everyone will share the vision, value and actions of what they envision their neighbourhood to be in future. As the city is the sum of neighbourhoods, the moment the neighbourhoods doing well and thriving, there is no reason for a city of not performing well. Thereby, making a city thriving, we have no choice but to make sure that neighbourhood, as the basic unit in city ro start and do well.

Convergence

Convergence means collaboration between different force from multi-discipline and diverse background. It is also refered to rethinking different ideas and making it a shared one by different contributors of ideas. Some also said convergence is a combination of many multi-facet, ideas or even thoughts for the benefit of bringing greater impact. Convergence is the new paradigm of city, and for the changes and betterment of environment and community. People who are once the receipent of information from the media, now has also become the producer or provider of information. They can choose and pick information relevent to them for consumption. They can even broadcast the news for wider audience. This emerging trend is so powerful that nothing, wrong doing or good things can be hidden from the general public. This, bring in new level of accountability and transparency. For knowledge sharing as well, people can access to information within split second and without much hassle. Thereby, the information providers must ensure that information as published is accurate and update. The urbanisation process is so complex nowasday and it need city management of multi approaches and solution. No single profession can solve the city problem by themselves, but wider collaboration and engagement are required. Convergence, in this sense is critical. We need personal who are good in converge different ideas, meeting different people and able to solicit different ideas and finally to melt and incorporate the ideas into a workable solution, that is understood by all. Perhaps, we need a new profession, the convergent.

Melbourne - A Liveable City

Melbourne Knowledge Week held throughout the week in different venue saw the presentation of more than 60 events. The Week saw the presentation of various knowledge gained from initiatives by the Council, Government Agencies, Universities, Private Sector, NGOs and more importantly the community and people. It is fascinating to witness many innovations and creativity on displayed and shared out with others. Melbourne voted as the most liveable city in the World for many years has certainly have many to share. Its planning, management, innovation, administration, social development, environmental and heritage conservation, transportation, education and learning. Walking on the streets is such a wonderful experience that you feel the most welcome and peaceful. Enjoying what on the Collins and Swanston Street are fantastic and bring back good memory. Observing the way construction work is carried out, so neat and tidy will make you refresh on why such a work ethic cannot be achieved back home. It is such a surprise to see a hawker conducting in a pretty small stall, but well managed and clean compared to the escalating high demand for bigger space from our own hawkers. These are perhaps the things we should learn and listen from the mouth of the Melbourne City Council. I am eargerly excited to wait for 31st October 2013 when we have the opportunity to meet them up.

Innovation

Henry Ford once said "If I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." Customers feedbacks are important to evaluate on the performance of your organisation, products or services, but it does not neccessary tell you beyond what they engaged for. If Mr Henry Ford did not think beyond the faster horse, then invention of a motorised vehicle might not become a reality. The history of automobile industry might be deferred to many years later or not at all. This sum up the important of pioneering and innovation. Innovation will come from a great thinker, who dare to think differently and to look at thing from "adnormal" angkle. However, thinking without going into front end innovation process will not make the innovation into a reality. Firstly, the idea must be framed, followed by organising the resources, collecting customer data, understanding the requirements and then selecting a solution. It takes time, persistent and passion. A leader must have the quality of innovation. As Steve Jobs said innovation distinguishes the leader from followers. The leader must be able to illustrate some visionary scene to the followers, and to ensure that the followers are convinced with the illustrations. However, it is easy said than done, and that explained why we have many followers and always have a leader only.

Public Square

The recently opened King’s Cross Square in London raised the interest of discussing public space in the city development. The reversion started with Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London’s brave decision to reverse the roundabout at Trafalgar Square and return it to the people and now the present Mayor, Boris Johnson whom launched the Great Spaces with the aim of bringing back village into city will see the atmosphere of trust and neighbourliness, the essential ingredient for public realm. To ensure it is truly public space, the city manager must make sure that private control such as security guards and brand advertising is negligible and insignificant. Instead, cosmopolitan sensibility, civic pride, social interaction and sheer enjoyment must be the value to be inculcated and instilled. This is especially important now with the mushrooming of gated communities with their own border and compound. We must create the enthusiasm about shared spaces and develop more and more of them. This is about public riches, not private wealth. With more public riches, the objective of social integration and nation building can be built naturally. Until then, the sense of ownership over the Petaling Jaya city will be remained ambiguous.

Networking

Networking is about two way communication and mutual respect for both parties rather than one party is trying to get something out of it from the relationship. Networking is like dating. If you meet someone online and keep talking to each other but never ever to meet face to face, then it will not work at the end of the day. Similarly, networking means we start a relationship and followed with cultivating the relationship to a fruitful and meaningful bonding. The question is who do we want to network with? We should apply strategic marketing approach otherwise we will end up with networking with wrong people. First identify who are they and then where to find them and how to introduce yourself. It is priority matter. Secondly, once a meet up started, trying to find some common things for further discussion and interested other to go for second meet up. You must raise the eyebrow of others, and of course the positive impression from the way you behavior, present, talk and making joke, perhaps. Thirdly, you must follow up on useful meetings and importantly be more persistent. Most of the time, you will come across people of calling you for help but disappear from you after thing get done or worst still that they are of opinion that you are not of help to them. If you come across these people, please avoid them at all cost. These are people who would most likely take advantage of you without seriously looking into maintaining the relationship and growing of networking. For this, the last thing to do is do not waste time.

Renewable Officer

In UK, that is a new profession called renewable officer. The birth of this profession is due to the requirement of each development project to have at least self generating 10% renewable energy at site. The Renewable Officer will assess the installation of renewable method and evaluate its perfomance so as to ensure that compliance to planning permission is observed. This is an interesting development as emerging changes to the World has in turn revolve our thinking, way of doing things and perhaps business model. In other words, nothing is stagnant and unchanged. Everything is subjected to its relevance because of the new changes, new order in the World and of course the eminent changes of environment. Perhaps this is new challenge to many older professions such as engineers, planners, architects, surveyors, lawyers and etc. Either we evolve and embrace new demand or we are out of business.

Low Carbon Energy Planning

Renewable energy is the way forward now because of the escalating price of the fossil fuel and electricity. It is also a requirement to go green now because of the carbon emission has expediting the process of global warming. The World is exploring multiple ways of exploring the cultivation of renewable energy. For countries that consume more energy because of cooling and heating purpose or for the sake industrialisation and development purpose, non-renewable energy, if relying too much on it is definitely not a good strategy. Some cities hve resolved to make it mandatory for buildings and development projects to achieve certain percentage of renewable energy and reduce the carbon emission. For example, in UK it is a legislative requirement that all buildings have to reduce 20% of carbon emission as well as having minimum 10% of renewable energy. Many buildings have installed either solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, heating system, air heating pump system, wind turbine, wind mill or other micropower generation system. The requirement of doing so is embedded in the planning permission. It is a condition for compliance as early as design stage. The developers have to submit building plan incorporating the system and got final approval before building. The Local Authorities will check on compliance upon completion stage. However, now the question is no system or mechanisme have been set to monitor the performance after completion stage and it is not a requirement now to request periodical report from the property owners. Much need to be done now. In Petaling Jaya, the Council has imposed condition for installing rain water harvesting system, but no monitoring mechanisme has been established to monitor the performance or even to verify the existance of the system. For the sake of low carbon green city initiative of PJ, immediate action should be taken or else similar dilemma as in UK will be forthcoming to PJ.

Localising Regional Transportation Infrastructure Planning

When we talked about transportation infrastructure, we will always say the discussion must be in broader view and macro scale simply because there are traffic from externality and the city cannot control the in and out of vehicles from within and also outside of the city. While there are traffic with origin and destination within the city, there are also traffic generated from the city and go out from the city as well as traffic come from elsewhere by passing the city with destination not within the city. Hence, strategic planning when it comes to transportation infrastructure provision is up most important. However, discussing the transportation planning without referring to local condition is also incomplete as although transportation infrastructure should serve the majority and for the good of national and regional context, the interest of local people should not be compromised without any serious consideration. For example, while the rail line is an important component of public transportation network that will lean modal split of travelling towards non private vehicles, the location of station , routing and beam column as well as the scheduling of construction work should have the input and feedback from the local community. This explained why while strategic planning is important in transport infrastructure provision, at time referral to local sentiments and localized issues is unavoidable. The discussion will be getting more complicated if few infrastructure projects with each other inter-linked and present bigger impact will have to be considered at the same time. This might encourage the possibility of power play and private negotiation in discarding projects that might bring in negative impacts to the particular community. It is definitely not an easy task in crystallizing local and individual project and upscale it to the strategic level.

Strategic Transportation Planning

While transportation infrastructure requires strategic planning, this applies to all spheres of city development. Strategic planning requires visionary planning and macro scale of understanding the issues and solutions before embarking into micro and localized problems and actions. This is critical especially so for the city as all components of city are inter-linked and performance of any one component will affect the others. For example, if a neighbourhood area is not served well with an efficient transportation system, then urban problems such as traffic congestion, incompatible land use, safety and health issue will be occurred. Similarly, for an organization without a strategic plan is tantamount to planning to the failure. How can an organization work well if no clear direction and shared vision are put on the table for all stakeholders to understand and uphold to?

Power of Change: New Media and New Communities

In the 21st Century, the power of change will be changed tremendously. It is no more a superpower to monopolize the views of others and to dictate what other should do, but rather the community of cyber world will have better say now. The recent turn of event in United States of bombing Syria for example showed that the US Government or even the President without the support of alliance countries and people of America has to think twice and back track from the decision of evading Syria. This power of change is expedite because of the advancement of new media and new community. The social media optimizing the strength of information technology has expedite the way people disseminate information, broadcasting the news, making an informed decision and framing up own opinion towards an issue. There are pros and cons on this. If the information gathered is genuine and trustworthy, then it help to democratize people’s mind and involvement in the society and development process. However, if fault news are circulated without any authenticity checking, then it is a dangerous of creating chaos and conflict. On the other hand, new community away from the community at neighbourhood area is created with the existence of social media. People sharing the same interest or hobby can form their own community or discussion group. Similarly, if a group of people sharing same vision and passionate about doing some common things, they will use social media as a platform for discussion and meeting or even planning an event together without physically attending to a meeting room. How should we call this kind of community? They are definitely different from the community we know of. Traditionally, community are created because everyone is staying in a place, sharing public facilities and services, using same access road and perhaps going to local school or places of worship together. As time pass on, the sense of community spirit inculcated and getting stronger. They will look after the safety and health issues in their living environment. But with the community in cyber space, will they care about surrounding and happening in their living area? Perhaps it is time now for community in neighbourhood area to change, to adopt to the advancement of technology and apply it in the daily routine, communication, planning and monitoring and etc. Perhaps it is time to reshape the planning guidelines to facilitate the application of social media in the community planning. Without that, without doubt in near future, our next generation might be saying that my soul is elsewhere although I am physically belong to this neighbourhood. Certainly, we do not want this from happening.

Economic Downturn vs. Sustainable Development

We always listen to and discuss about the impact of climate change towards the Earth and human being. We talked about how global warming has melted the iceberg in North Pole and then after the rise of sea water level and the effect of CER reaching 400ppm and beyond. All these are making the World less sustainable. We talked about how to make sustainable development to be sustained further and better. But, who care especially during the economic downturn and financial turmoil crisis now! If majority of the people are adversely affected by their job, income and high inflation that making the cost of living unbearable and reducing their affordability for owning house and better lifestyle for example, certainly we cannot expect them to concentrate their energy and effort on sustainable development. However, unless the notion of achieving sustainable development is also meant to saving one’s pocket without compromising the quality of life, the aim of sustainable development will be distracted because of economic impact. This is the topic of discussion for many in the environmental cycle. The United Nations is taking the lead of initiating a discussion on the impact of global financial and economic crisis on sustainable development. What say you?

Competitive Factor of City

Dr Anil Menon of CISCO shared his thought with audience of the IFHP London Congress on competitiveness of a city. He reckoned that 5 criteria are essential for a city to attract talents and investment, and hence the preferred choice of corporate. Firstly, the visionary leadership of city. A city without vision is a city without future. Secondly the readiness of global standard in business dealing. In the absence of global standard, rules and guidelines might be changed more often than one's can imagine. This will become a business risk that many corporate might not want to undertake. Thirdly, smart regulations is critically needed as companies would like to have rules with social and scientific backing. No foolish action is welcome. Forthly, is the presence of public and private partnership policy. While public sector like to reduce cost in providing services or infrastructure, the private sector would like to minimise the risk of doing business. Hence, this policy must be a deciding factor for businesses to make choices. Lastly but not least, it is innovation in economic and ecological system that will attract the attention of investors and talents. In the green era and everyone is pursuing sustainability, it is not a choice for corporates of not embracing the green movement. Perhaps, these thoughts should become the underlying principles for city managers to plan their cities.

Tax Value Per Acre

In the City of Raleigh, North Carolina of United States of America, tax value per acre has been applied to calculate the contribution of an area of project towards the coffer of the local council. It is a technique to gauge the bottom line for determining how much spending on infrastructure or extra urban services should be put back to a community. It is a notion of the more you contribute the more you will get. The information is also useful as a tool to communicate with people on contribution of development project. More than often people objected to a development because of the negative impact of development without realising that the project might have tremendous economic contribution. Perhaps it should be used as a tool during discourse with general public on viability of development projects. Having said so, in order to maintain inclusiveness and social justice, spending on infrastructure for poverty eradication or providing affordable housing as well as economic opportunities for vulnerable group should have considerations beyond the tax value per acre only.

Equity Washing

Most of the time we heard about green washing. It means corporates or agencies trying to enhance their image of corporate social reponsibility on good environmental practices, but however with very tokenism real action. Most of the time it is a mere public relation exercise. For the first time in a lecture, I heard about equity washing. According to Mr Mitchell Silver, the Chief Planning and Development Officer of City of Raleigh, North Carolina that equity washing refers to an action of treating the marginalised people with justice and fairness, but in actual it is not but merely an exercise to ambush the public and getting the general public into believing that justice has been done. It is happening daily especially with entities that are financially sound and require a good public image. It is also happening because the vulnerable group, or so called beneficiaries cannot afford to say NO them. It is a struggle that the marginalised people has no bargaining power at all, I think.

Role of Planning

This morning's Openning Ceremony of IFHP Centenary Congress in University College of London saw Mr Mitchell Silver, Past President of American Planning Association delivered an interesting address. He touched on the emerging trend and challenges of planning especially in America and the World in general. He reckoned that "P" is stood for planning and not the process as many planners have forgotten. He highlighted that the role of planning is to pay special concern on the consequences of the present action and of no action. Afterall no action to some issue means yes or consequences to other things. It is not about what actions have been taken but rather the consequences of a particular action that is important and critical. He shared with the audience on different aspiration, demand and need of people in different generation group. The baby boomers group have different idea about themselves and city compared to the X or Y Generation. Thereby, planning without identifying the need and target group is tantamount to failure in planning. He cautioused that the World will see more single unmarriaged family or even family without children. The presence of aging society and other demographic changes will also impact on the model of planning and how the city should response. He ended the talk by urging all audience to to fall back in love with planning again. An appeal that have been loss amongst the planners fraternity, I believe.

Sustainability of City or Local People?

The best indicator of gauging the sustainability of a city is to ask the people whelther they are happy or not? This question was raised by me towards the speaker in the Seminar entitled Developing London: Up or Out last two day. Obviously, Londoners are facing a big dilemma now. While internationalisation has spurred the economic growth in London, the influx of foreigners has affected the affordability of local to own houses, the opportunity for economic activities and jobs. Planning and managing a city is about making people happy with their living environment. If the beneficiaries of the plan are not happy with what in store for them, then the planning is planning to fail. So, when we talk about sustainability, we should qualify by saying whelther we are talking about sustainability of the city or sustainability of the people. Nowasday we always talk about the competitiveness of the city and if a city loss her competitiveness, the sustainability of the city will be gone as well. This, perhaps refer to the economic growth dimension of sustainability. However, is there fair of saying that a sustainable city with high achievement on economic is also a sustainable city for the people. We see many local people who has been displaced by the externality. The high price of houses because of international investment for example made many local people cannot afford to own a house. Many young generation has no choice but move further out from the inner city. The displacement of local people and replaced by the outside has further diluted the spirit of neighbourhood area and also local social amenities and community development were affected. Community spirit cannot be inculcated over night and need a lot of time, mutual understanding, tolerence amongst different segment of people. However, the outsiders who come to a new area will not be able to integrate with the existing community, and at time social tension did arise due to differences in culture, religions and social status. More so, some dwelling units remain unoccupied due to investment purpose will further dilute the liveability of a neighbourhood area. If this is what happened, then sustainability is obviously did not take place and fail even though the economic sustainability is very high and vibrant. For planners, how to narrow this gap is becoming very critical, ensuing the competitiveness of city, liveability of local people and sustainability ecologically.

Need Limit

Need should be quantified and within a set limit. Need cannot be provided unlimited. For example, when we talk about basic need such as water consumption of 165 liter/person/day, we are talking about the habit of average person in the World to fulfill their daily routine include some luxury habits or items. However, if we go about fulfilling biological need for water, it might be able to reduce and below that figure. In Singapore, for instance the average consumption is 156 liter/person/day and nobody claims that their quality of living has been affected. Thereby, need should be quantified and limited under local circumstances. A city pursuing for sustainability should set the need limit in parallel with the sustainability principles and bottom lines. No point of talking about sustainability on social dimension such as political, economy and cultural as highlighted in the Circles of Sustainability under the Global Compact Cities Programmes but sidelined the ecological aspect. As Gandhi once said, the World can fulfill the need of everyone but the not greed of people. A balancing act must be done, and it is long way to go, I believe.

Market for Planning

Planners always believe that planning is important to make sure that the human settlement is well planned and conducive for staying. In other words, without proper planning, the city development might not be systematic and in good order. However, in reality the city is planned and developed by the market. It is market demand and need that spur the direction and magnitude of development, in which planning is mere a tool to steer and guide this demand. For example, the demand for living in city centre and close to the work place has requested the development of apartment in the inner city centre area. The planning, has subsequently come out with the guidelines on service apartment development. We can plan, but if the market is not response well to the planning, then it will end up of failure of planning. Cases like industrial and commercial zones reserved in the new township development without takers are classic example. Although the authorities can plan and to push up the implementation of plan by providing incentives, the success of the plan is still very much depended on the market, I believe.

Circles of Sustainability

Circles of sustainability taking into account the dimensions of ecology, economy, political and cultural. It is arguing that all except ecology, should be place under the dimension of social since these are about human being. Sustainability is not about well being of the people only, it is also about carrying capacity of the ecological system in harmony with fulfilling the need of the people. However, when it comes to making a choice between liveability and sustainability, people tend to place importance onto the well being instead of the environment. Hence, it is not surprisingly to note that some most liveable cities in the World today, are not ecologically sustainable. For example, the consumption of electricity and water is higher in these cities because people would like to have high end of life style. Thereby, it is arguable to examine exactly how sustainable a city is even though it is liveable. Most of the time since the inception of sustainable development concept and principles, we spoke about integrating and balancing the dimensions of social, environment and economy. However, the paradox is always how to make sure economical growth can be ensured and it possible to grow within the limit of the ecological system, and if not in which it happen most of the time, is to remedy it. That's why Kyoto Protocol was reached to reduce the carbon emission and was in relation to the GDP intensity. In this respect, we are merely talking about solutions of making our unsustainable urban development more sustainable.

Public Reserved Land for Private Use

Is privately owned social facilities considered as part of the public facilities that are required to be provided for in any property development projects? For example, is the privately managed but Government accredited primary school be counted? While the need for education demand is fulfilled, the school is not opened and accessible to general public, especially if you cannot afford to pay the fees. Similarly, how about the postal service? Since postal service has been privatised and the post offices are establishing in the commercial premises, thus the question is wheather the reserve land for postal service is still required or the agency can have their own property portfolio. It is difficult now to demarcate clearly on the status of facilities or utilities. The reserve of land has to be done based on usage of facilities and not the ownership. If a piece of land has been demarcated for public use, then rightly so the land should be returned to public domain if the land is no more needed for public use. The question of utilities agencies, for example converting their land for other profitable use after discovering that the reserve land is not required any more. For example, the availability of extra land because of building a mechanical sewerage treatment plant in place of oxsidation pond which occupy bigger piece of land.

Future Cities

I attended the Expert Talk entitled The Future Cities last week. Future Cities are the cities people would like to stay and everyone will have their own vitality. The concept of Future Cities arises because it is projected that more than 70% of World population will be living in the urban area by year 2050. Hence, cities that conducive for living is crucial to accommodate to the need of these people. Rightly so, as city without a good living environment and opportunities will loss out to other cities offering better condition, and thus loss the competitiveness and vibrancy. My question however, is that what happen to the 30% people who are living in the so called "rural" area? Are we saying that the living environment in the "rural" area is so futuristic that no further action is required? Or are we saying that these people have no future since they are no staying in any of the future cities? Then again, future cities must be resilient on overcoming environmental degradation, emerging of aging society, challenges from the globalisation and also capitalising on local competencies. While aging and globalisation is unavoidable and progressively happen over time and in fast pace in which most of the time beyond control and influence, local competencies are something that any city managers and stakeholders should explore further. A city with future vision must explore their advantages and transform it effectively or else the competitive edge of the city will be diminished.

Cumulative of "Wrongdoings"

When it comes to using public space for own benefit, most of the people will say nothing wrong and presumbly they deserve it. This is rampant in especially house owners turf the road reserve in front of their house for parking their cars or for planting. Some even having the structure or concrete slab over the open drain. It looks like acceptable to the society norm for encroaching onto public space in front of our house or building premises. It is also commonly seen that tyres, drums, chairs or any objects be placed onto the car parking lot in front of shops as a sign of pre-booking of the public facilities, and without any payment. No businessman felt ashame for their doing which is morally wrong. There are business operators placing their products and goods on the corridor and some even blocking the passage. Some traders conducting their business on open space and some pour the waste water or kitchen waste into the drain like what many have done for their house backyard. Many people nail the signboard on trees, hang the poster on lamp post or plant the billboard on any where they like without feeling sorry to the mother earth. All these look like acceptable and can be tolerated. Are not these disconnects with liveable city cumulative negative effects to the discontent of city dwellers? Why are we so angry towards development projects and objecting emotionally? Isn't it good to treat all "wrongdoing" equally?

Talking

While talking without action is cheap, keeping quiet and do nothing is more horrible. This is especially true if our conscience requesting us to do something but we fail to execute it. While No Action Talk Only symptom is rampant and unacceptable, but if we never say something even though during the time saying is warranted, then perhaps said it out loud and clear with empty promises is preferred. People say better than nothing. That's explained why many people are attracted to prolific speaker or those leaders with charisma. Under normal circumstances, saying it out with the facts and actions should be the way forward. Promises with the knowledge that what have been said is unworkable, it is considered bull shitting and perhaps cheating as well. During the time of election for example, promises and pledges are given for securing the votes and pre-requisite is one must got elected first or else the chances of promises cannot be fulfilled is there. Even then according to a recent court judgement in Malaysia, promises can still be not delivered as it is not binding on the candidates. So, it is very must up to the intelligent of voters and their choice to believe on which candidates are more trustworthy. Similarly to the general audience, analyse and make your own conclusion after listening is much desired.

Hot Day

It was terribly hot and humid for the last few days. Walking on the street under the hot sun is basically unbearable. People said it is the negative impact of global warming, and perhaps the instant effect of carbon dixoside level reaching the 400ppm, first time in human history. Some said it signals the arrival of summer, and it is time for holiday now. What ever you want to call it, personal suffering is on the card now. As individual cannot avoid from the humidity and prefer to keep own self under the shaddy area or in the air-conditioned enclaved area. Shopping centre will see bigger crowd now, but might not be neceesary turned into higher sale volume as many might want to be there enjoying the coldness. People are lazy to go outdoor spending leisure time. All of these, in fact have impact on our living environment. For example, more energy is consumed for air-conditioned. Similarly, usage of utilities and facilities outdoor are not optimised due to lacking of users. Will this change our lifestyle? The answer is definitely YES. Do we have answer to remedy this? YES but require collective actions from all, locally and globally. Shall we do it? YES, and immediately or else today of next year will witness more serious effect on human activities.

400 ppm

If the rate of carbon emission continued, human will be facing the biggest disaster in history within 25 years. Last week carbon emission level recorded 400 ppm at Manua Loa, Hawaii for the first time in human history, a million times faster than expected. When we reach the level of 450 ppm, our iceberg at North pole will melt faster, sea level will accerelate, ecological system will be damaged and the human exsitance is in doubt as temperature will increase 2 degree celcius higher. So, what should we do? I believe many are business as usual as the environmental cost is perceived as too vogue and general. For people who can afford, paying extra for air conditioned electricity bill is a peanut. For those who cannot afford, it is the least they can afford to do but leave it to others for assistance. Unless human comes to common understanding and feel the crisis is real, I presume nothing radical will take place.

Professional Views

When it comes to the financial management, public service in Malaysia practices the concept of let managers manage. This is rightly so as professional knowing the best what they have been entrusted to perform. The policy makers will set the policies and let the managers to execute the policies. The policy makers will monitor and review the performance. In other words, the views of professional are very much respected, if provided no untoward happenings. With the trust given, it is also rightly for the public officers to exercise higher integrity and perform the best out of his ability. Hence, also assuming full responsibility of the action taken. If this separation of roles and duties are clearly stated and observed in full, I presume that the pretext of politic interference will be diminished, or if not can be marginalised. However, the pledges given in the manifesto at recent concluded election proved me wrong. There are instances professional views being by-passed or over ruled. Some turned out to be decisions implementable with the political will in which the earliest professional views were set aside.

Theory and Reality

Reality and actual happening is always different from the theory or untested formula. While many aspire for idealistic and would like to get the best possible, this was often failed to materialise. For example, we try keep ourselves to the best solution possible without considering the possibility of failure. At time, something come out unexpectedly. Thus, how fast and how best we adjust or adapt is much more important to determine how best one's perform and achieve the desired objectives. Some might feel disheartening knowing that the objectives cannot be achieved and just let it go wihtout trying to adjust. Some might take this as a challenge and trying other ways of doing the best. If you are the former, then obviously more sad you might be as life is not that smooth sailing. If you are the person never give up, then you might be the winner at the end of the day. I attended a training last week with the pretext that it is a course to enhance previous knowledge. However, I was proved wrong when the new knowledge told was defered from the previous one. Only after some exchange of ideas, then only the participants were told that new knowledge has to be applied as the previous knowledge could not applied fully on the ground due to data constraints. If we have kept ourselves to the earlier thought and disturbed by the turn of event, then most likely we will not able to learn new knowledge. However, if we come in with open minded and willing to accept new eventualities, then it can be a good learning curve. I choose to be the latter.

Safety

A jogger was killed last week. A pedestrian commuting to bus stop died after snatched. These incidents sound familiar as it appeared in every day news reporting. Is this not serious crime starting from a petty action? Shall this be stop? Obviously, everyone said YES but some parties might have different ideas of approaches and prioprities. Some said crime is about perception. If you feel safe walking on the street, then it is safe. If you are uneasy about a place, even though with bright lighting or within a busy street, you will still think it is unsafe. Some blamed this by saying that feeling about safety at time derived from own account and experience. Some people might felt threaten or not secure because of quiet environment or darkness even though the place is well covered with security features. We always get assurance from the security force that safety of our living environment has improved tremendously. However, many disputed about this statement because many can share their own experience or those stories from their next of kin or friends on accounts that threathen their safety, property or life. Getting both sides to share and agree with each others that safety has improved and the public is free to express, to walk on the street, to enjoy the beauty of parks and public places, to commute to neighbourhood shop and school by walking and cycling is a pleasant journey will require extra efforts and endorsement. In other words, how can we achieve a safe city? Safe City is not a program or slogan, it should be underlying principle inbuild in our neighbourhood that is sustainable and liveable. Residents must be able to live without fear and favour. They should not need to dip into their pocket for paying the private security force. They should not have to patrol their neighbourhood during night time. They should be able to patronise the neighbourhood park, community hall, shops and public places at anytime they wish to. Under the name of social integration, people should be allowed to move freely and mingle around without suspicious arose. I presume much need to be done and until then any action of taking down the gates and guards at neighbourhood area will not be accepted.

Labour Day 2013

1st of May is the Labour Day. A Day celebrating the contribution of the workers for nation building and services rendered. It is also a Day to raise awareness on the welfare of employees and need to protect them from manipulation and abuse. This especially so towards the child labour and the vulnerable group. Agenda 21, the global blueprint for sustainable development recognises the contribution of workers as one of the major groups in helping to achieve sustainability. It is stated in Chapter 29 of Agenda 21 that welfare, capacity and capability of workers should be strengthened and enhanced. Workers being the bigger group in job place, production line and also as the consumers have role to play in sustainability. For those in the production line, adopting green or 3R concept in manufacturing for example will help protecting the resources ot the Earth from dilapidating. As consumers, making sure that spending is not excessive and fulfilling the needs rather than the greed shall be helpful as well. As those involve in the supply chain of production or become part of the whole life cycle of products, contribution of workers is undoubtedly very important. Hence, achieving sustainable development without acknowledging the contribution of the workers is not completed. Happy Labour Day.

Green Aside

Since 20th April 2013, streets, public place, garden and junctions throughout the cities in Malaysia have been decorated with new facade. A facade that is not green, peace or pleasant or even at time danger to the motorists and road users. Many of the road signs have been blocked because the buntings and banners or boards have been erected too close to the signs. Trees and plants are not spared from this. The vegetation have been victimised with too many buntings nail on them. I presume, the notion of loving the trees and protecting our environment has been put aside. Is this our value or we can temporarily shelve our value for bigger picture at the national level? Well, the arguement will go on until 5th May 2013 and repeat again every 5 years. Can we come out with better idea of doing publicity? Pre-requisite is not to damage the hard or soft landscape we have.

Earth Day

The Earth Day of 2013 will be celebrated worldwide on 22th April 2013. The theme of this year is The Face of Climate Change. While global warming is real and impacted everyone, many are not aware about the effect as many do not see the direct effect impacting their daily routine. Many might have taken note of the effects of climate change but decided do nothing as the changes might not be that significant yet. Individually, of course yes as individual with higher resistence power will make climate change mitigation or even adapdation plan more friendly to them. They are able to protect themselves. But, what happen to those vulnerable who cannot afford to even meet their daily end need? Collectively, everyone has equal responsibility towards climate change, but individually those posing higher capacity should do more for the Earth. The face of climate change is changing every second. Although changes are unavoidable, change for the betterment should at least be the call of the day. For changing towards a better face, at least the smiling face of human, we should do more of protecting the environment and preventing speedy change of excessive climate circumstances. Happy Earth Day

Freedom of Choice

Today marks the nomination day of 13th General Election of Malaysia. It is a day political parties presenting their candidates for the choice of people. It is also a starting day for people to listen the candidates' pledge, to read the manifesto and to analyse the candidate with calibre to serve the people, community and nation. The choice is with the people, or in precise the voters. Freedom of choice is the underlying principle of public participation, to whom the public participation forms a major contributing component for sustainable development. We tend to choose things that we familiar and used to without taking an initiative to think further or to try to be more adventurous. This is understood as human nature is very much comfortable with the present life style they have, if they are enjoying it. Some do not like change because they have the fear of changing for worse scenario. Some do not like change because they might have some personal experience. Some do not like change because they have countless interest in not changing. For people to step out from the comfort zone required extra and concerted efforts from those who aspire to bring changes. For those people who aspire for changes will need a lot of courages. If we choose to embrace sustainability, then action must be taken to walk the talk. If we choose to NATO (No Action, Talk Only), then nothing is going to happen and we will have ourselves to blame if our own backyard is getting unsustainable. Whatever it is, the undenying fact is everyone has a choice to choose.

4E for Behavioural Change

When it comes to programmes success, 4 key factors are important, namely the machinery, money, method and manpower. Out of the four, manpower is believed to be the tougher. As we are talking about human being, changing their way of life, style of doing thing or even attitude is more difficult than other consideration. Many programmes, for example the waste composting project is not about how best the technologies are and how much money was invested, but rather the software or human part of it. The effectiveness of waste composting project is depending much on the level of stakeholders participation and the level of awareness. If the stakeholders decided not to give full cooperation, the success of the project will definitely in doubt. Changing behaviour of the people, has hence become a major task of gauging the success of a programme. There are 4 processes of changing behaviour of people or commony known as 4E by Jackson (2005), namely enable, encourage, engage and exemplify. We have to enable an individual to change in which authoritative approach without much room of freedom for choice should be avioded. Once enabling environment is created and an individual is happy to change, we must encourage them to do so by facilitating the change. Encouragement without engaging is not guarantee for continuing improvement or change to be sustained. We must hold an individual hand and walking along side them so that change can become a norm and value. Any positive change, then should be highlighted and promoted amongst the peers and even being recognised. After all, human at time need to be acknowledged and motivated for achieving greater height.

Earth Hour 2013

WWF initiated Earth Hour 2013 would see millions of people around the globe switching off the lights on 23th March, 8.30pm to 9.30pm. It is a day to raise public awareness on climate change and its impact. It is commonly acknowledged that energy sector contributing the highest carbon emission to our Earth. Hence, finding ways to reduce non renewable energy consumption is the way forward. Electricity generated from coal is major source of carbon emission as 1kwh electricity will be generating 1kg CO2 and equivalent. Reminding people to not consume electricity over and above what needed, hence is essential. The day of Earth Hour will witness many activities of dessiminating information about environmental conservation and protection. This, especially so with many businesses using this to conduct their corporate social responsibility programmes. While holding an awareness programme is commendable, using that as a gimmick to attract people coming all the way from far, some with fossil fuel driven private vehicles might not be appropriate and go against the call for prudent in energy consumption. While switching off the light for an hour is not that difficult, practicing it daily and using electricity sufficiently for basic need remains a big challenge. Do we not putting our electrical appliances on stand by mode? Can we walk to the neighbourhood shops instead of riding on a car? Can we switch off the bathroom lights after using it? We might want to replace malfunction bulbs with the energy saving or LED lamps. Can we procure 5 star energy saving appliances? If you want a vehicle for travelling and if you can afford, why not buying a hybrid or electric car? Can we adjust the temperature of air condition to 26 degrees celcious and only on it when you cannot withstand the heat or humidity? Can we have green building or retrofiting our building towards energy efficiency? Why not generating renewable energy, a feet encourages by the Sustainable Energy Development Authority of Malaysia. Happy Earth Hour 2013

World Water Day 2013

Tomorrow is the 2013 World Water Day. United Nations has designated the 2013 is UN International Year of Water Cooperation with UNESCO taking the lead. The World Water Day held 22nd March each year is a mean to focusing attention to fresh water and advocating the importance of managing fresh water resources sustainably. UNESCO has been chosen due to its significant and long standing roles and on the issue of fresh water conservation. This is timely reminder as many of us have forgotten that this God giving gift for neccessity to sustain human life has been ignored. The importance of water and its value to society has to be reminded and reinstated. For Malaysian, the average consumption of 202 liter water per person per day is much higher compared to the world average of 165 liter per person per day. We, hence become very wasteful and generous on the usage of water. The consumption pattern can be changed if we are willing to change our lifestyle, attitude and value on water usage. Have you done anything in celebrating the World Water Day? You might want to install the rain water harvesting system in your premises. Are you recycling the waste water? Are you using the glass to hold water from tap during teeth brushing time? Have you changed the toilet flushing tank to the capacity of 6 liter or below? Thankful to the Water while celebrating it.

Responsibility of Developers

The High Court recently ruled that responsibility of developers in providing the facilities or in building the infrastructure according to approved plan has no limitation on time frame. It means that developer has to provide as such and finish the job no matter how long the projects have been completed. Very often we witnessed the project proponents run away from their duty in providing the facilities and infrastructure after long period especially for the development in phasing or go without notice. This is more so for parcels of land in a larger scheme that have been sold to individual owners. For the individual owners, they have either no knowledge about the requirement or innocent about the conditions imposed. It will come to a time that the new owners claim of unfairness to them as they are only buying a portion of it. The original owners run away from the responsibility after master layout plan approved and individual parcel of land sold. The rulling is timely that local authority should not be blamed for no infrastructure provision, a task supposedly done by the project proponents.

Complacent

What will you do if you are on the top or peak now? If you are the best at present time and everyone comes to you as role model, will you do something new in order to stay ahead than others? Many might be complacent as the desire to do more or better will be diminishing the soonest if a target has been achieved. Human is born to complete a task and the moment it is completed and no further need to do better or to move into new era, no many will on his own initiative trying to enhance the task he has just acoomplished. This requires determination and at time discipline or sometime the incentives of doing so. Perhaps getting new guy to do it will further reinforce the spirit of improving thing or stay on top. This also applies to the planning and maintenance culture. Many are good in planning and finishing the job but will not bother to maintain it. We use to plan new event and have a great starting, but follow through to ensure the planning works or sustains remains a big challenge. That's why some label we have first class planning, but a third class maintenance culture.

Strata Development

Challenge on planning especially for the highrise strata building development is tougher now. With the issuing of strata title for individual parcels, no further development even for the renovation work with increased of intensity can be allowed. This can only be allowed unless all owners agree to terminate and cancel their individual title for the issuing of new ones. This will become a big challenge for development project with phasing stage and unclear development direction at the initial stage. For example, if a planning permission has been given for a project with 2 phases. After selling of Phase One Strata properties with agreement indicated the accessory parcels and common properties are fixed and located, no further adjustment is allowed unless the the owners or buyers agree collectively. Hence, refining planning at the later stage or even changes made because of market demand might not be possible anymore based on current practice. New set of rules and practices will have to set accommodating this changes. For project proponents, they might need to have clearer idea what they want to develop or to expedite their development for fear of changes later. One of the advantages is protecting the interest of buyers in which the sale of accessory parcels or common properties is more difficult now without their consent. It is good also for the management corporation to control over the common properties, I believe.

Planning vs Implementation

On my way to Shah Alam via Federal Highway this morning to attend a function, I witnessed perhaps one of the longest and biggest car parking at the opposite direction. It was a big traffic congestion from PJ all the way down to the interchange of Shah Alam Stadium. I was made to understand that this is a common phenomenum on every working day. The volume of private vehicles patronising the roads is getting higher per day even though the car price is higher as well. Why are there less people taking public transport. Is that because of the insufficient of vehicles fleets or due to the problem of connectivity and accessibility? We have been debating the issue of traffic congestion decades ago and we have also suggesting public transport as the solution, but problem is remained even til now. My conclusion is the issue is not about failure of planning but rather the capacity of execution. Execution remains the bigger challenge and, sometime obstacle to the fruition of effective planning. Without execution done with planned schedule, a comprehensive and holistic planning is not going to work. Even though implementation is finally done, it will involve many changes and adaptation. For example, a ramp need to be built for a development but construction was deferred to later date due to financial problem might not be suitable anymore as solution to the traffic management as many motorists patronising the building would have developed other type of driving behaviour then. It is difficult to get them to change later, I presume. Hence, planning and implementation must go hand in hand or else the blame of failure in planning will always remain.

Relevance of Shop House?

It is a sad case that 2 person cannot escape from fire died on the spot. They were contained in the 2nd floor when fire set free on the 1st floor. The back portion of 1st floor and whole of 2nd floor have been converted to hostel for workers. This is a safety issue in the commercial building. While commercial buildings have been approved for business purpose, many especially those floors on higher part are vacant and idle. The floors are later used for residential prupose or many have turned into workers hostel. This bring in the issue of safety and also the question on fulfilling the objective of planning. Planning of commercial floor space is usually decided upon the growth of population in the small town centre and based on economic activities and anticipation of in flow of investors for the bigger commercial town centre. If the space is used for non commerical purpose, then indirectly it indicated that there is either oversupply of commerical floor space or diminish of market demand over the shop office concept. Many big corporates prefer to move into Class A office or those with better facilities and addresses like lift or escalators, car parking facilities and etc. Many do not mind to pay for having a premium address or in the prime commercial area. This bring in the question of suitability of shop office or shop house development in urban area. Or even the storey height is in doubt now. Many convenience and comparison goods activities like retails, services are occupying the ground floor of building due to the movement of pedestrian and visibility. Many do not want to be at 1st floor as potential customers do not want to climb up the stairs if possible. Given the choice, they will patronise other shops offering similar services. The shopping behaviour is changing now. Even some prefer to patronise shopping centre for convenience services rather than visiting the shop house for fear of safety and comfortable reason. In a way, the concept of shop house and its' effective functionality within the scope of urban planning in cities is diminishing. Shall we continue allowing shop house to be developed? While project proponents might want to offer properties easily absorb by the market and without having long term committment, the impact of having shop house in the town centre is left with local authorities to handle. Local authorities have to look after the problem of cleanliness of unattended back lanes and drains, provision of car parking facilities which are often insufficient from the beginning, enforcing on the obstruction of corridors and etc. If these services can be centralised in a complex, then the need to encounter these problems is for sure can be minimised. Taking the case of Bandar Utama, no shop houses are built, but instead a complex in the name of CentrePoint was built with all neighbourhood facilities are provided. The complex becomes a must visit place of all residents for their convenience needs. The area is well maintained and ample parking lots are provided. The neighbourhood area is funactional well. This vindicates that a township development without the existance of shop house is workable and shall be the way forward, if a city wants to be in forefront. For offices and comparison goods, leave it to the tower office, I think.

Pole is Structure

At the recent ruling by High Court on the case of Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd vs Sepang Municipal Council over the issue of AES, the Court ruled that erecting pole is considered a structure for which development is committed. With this interpretation, it means planning permission under Town and Country Planning Act, 1976 and building plan approval under the Street, Drainage and Buildings Act, 1974 are applicable. Anyone intends to put up any structure regardless of the size, side or use is required to obtain permission first. The arguemnt over the need for submiting planning permission application for constructing a detached house or an outdoor signboard or a hoarding or a fencing does not arise any more. It is the obligation of the project proponent to adhere to the requirement of the law. While many might cited the administrative burden and extra load on the submission, this should not become a valid arguement. Submitting application for planning permission will allow local planning authorities to impose conditions they think fit and to suite the need of local circumstances. For example, conditions imposed for building a house in the flat area and a hilly area is definitey varied. The clearance is welcomed.

Capacity in Green Projects

A friend I knew not long ago told me his take about local authorities. He approached a local authority in Klang Valley recently to introduce the concept of turning used cooking oil to biofuel. He made a presentation and answered most of the queries raised. He was made to understand the Council was impressed and accepted in principle the proposal. However, after some time and was pushed to move around, he ended up of many promises without a firm "yes". He later walked in a school to make a presentation to the principal and was told to come back next day and he did. To his surprise, he was in front of the principal, teachers, members of Board of Directors and Committee Members of the Teachers and Parents Association for the presentation. After listening to him, they decided on the spot to partner him for the used cooking oil collection and the project is on going now, for a merely 1 month time since presentation to its' implementation. He, now have reservation about the effectiveness of decision making and will of implementation by the local authorities on environmental-friendly programmes. He reckoned that it might due to the understanding and capacity of local authorities on green projects. Many might have mistakenly considered planting trees and shrups as the only green initiatives undertaken by the local authorities. Many might have not think about initiatives having long term and far reaching but indirect impact on the routine and scope of works of the local authorities. For example, we might have planted the trees and grasses for asthetic value without looking at the functional value. Similarly, we want to put in more parking bays for catering to the need of vehicle owners and to increase the collection but not knowing that more hard surface with concrete will reduce the function of ground to absorb the water runoff during heavy down pour. We do not mind to see traders to use unfriendly containers and utensils even though knowing that it is not friendly to the environment and will increase the cost of management, may be not from the pocket of the local authorities, but general public have to bear the cost of remedying the damage. It reminds me on the importance of improving the capacity and understanding of the staff of local authorities. As the frontier service and solution provider, it is good to have done it right from the beginning rather than fire fighting later.

Organic Waste Composting

The first organic waste composting centre would be operationalised in Jalan Othman Market, Petaling Jaya in a week time. The Centre with 2 tonnes capacity will handle about 40% of total organic waste generated daily from this wet market. The organic waste will be converted to compost fertiliser within 24 hours time, making it feasible and possible to be established in the urban setting with physical space constraint and negative perception on degradable waste. The partnership between the City Council of Petaling Jaya and a private firm with no financial capital outlay and requirement for daily operation and maintenance making it possible for the pilot project be implemented. The expenditure for constructing the Centre, the procurement of machine, workforce and utilities bills are to be footed by the firm. It is a private-public partnership in effective solid waste management and 3R concept in practice. By turning the waste into compost within the market compound will not only helping in solving problem of excessive waste generated at source, but also help in reducing the cost of management as well as the reduction in carbon emission. It is achieved from the production of methane gas at landfill and also fuel burn generated from lorry trips commute from PJ to landfill. At the end of the day, oeration cost of the Council will be reduced. The quote "environmental friendly can be profitable" is in practice...

Misuse of Building

Under the Broken Window Policy, one's has to fix the problem the moment it was discovered and no lax of time is allowed. If we have spotted a problem but do nothing and let it there idle, the chances for it to become worse will be there. For example, a mountain of rubbish might be accumulated if at first only a small pile of rubbish was found at the road side and nobody cleared it the first time. The newcomers might have thought that the side is reserved for rubbish throwing or since nobody cares about clearing it, then perhaps it is all right to do so. For city management, solving the problem as soon as possible without the problem becoming worse and beyond remedy is critical and important. I attended a meeting to discuss possible solution on the widespread of building being abused for use that is different from the original approved use. For example, houses on the main road being used for commercial activities. We see the rampant existance of car showrooms along the main road. All these happened because lacking of enforcement at the first timer. Most of the time we saw the starting of a house being used for other than residential purpose and do nothing as the magnitude of problems generated is not that great. However, once a house being "successfully" converted to other use without any hazzle, it will give encouragement to the adjoining lot owners to follow suit. At the end, it gains momentum and involves with so many owners that taking enforcement actions become a very difficult task as socio-political consideration will come in. If the Broken Window Policy has been implemented earlier, I believe cases of misuse of building and land might not have occurred.

Environmental Talk

I spoke to an audience of about 50 people in Paradigm Mall last Sunday on the Sustainable Living in Malaysia: Towards A Low Carbon City. It is an environmental talk in conjunction with the Lions Environmental Photos Display. As it is an open court with many public walking by and onlookers, I made my 20 minutes presentation in a simple, graphical and easy to understand format. The best practices and examples are taken from daily routine and can be done by even ordinary man on the streets so that the audience can relate the talk to their own experiences and living environment. In order to keep the audience focus, questions with prizes are also offered along the presentation. Questions like which day is the World Environment Day, the three different colour code for recycling bins, examples of impact of climate change, CO2 emission for walking and etc were asked. While many responded well, there are questions unanswered. Perhaps it is due to capacity building, level of understanding and knowledge acquisition. I reckon that effective public awareness and education programmes are urgently needed.

Study on Sustainable Development of Malaysian Township

I attended a workshop discussing the framework and scope of a study on entrenching sustainable development in Malaysian Towns undertake by SUDI, a think tank of CETDEM last Saturday. The study will identify sustainable indicators, existing practices and issues and possible future challenges for the 4 towns in Malaysia. PJ is one of the study area. While it is an honour to have the experts to examine level of sustainability in PJ, it is also an uphill task of finding exact level of sustainability. One of the reason being lacking of data. As we always said, data collection is never a top priority for local authorities, hence getting a reliable and update information will remain a big challenge for the research team. Similarly, getting data from other agencies also might not be that easy as many might not have the centralised data bank. Even though they have, the data might be disintegrated and presented in different geographical area or unit. Perhaps, if time and resources permitted, collecting primary data is rather easy than going for the secondary data. Secondly, the research should narrow the expectation gap between different level of stakeholders. For example, while the result of study can showcase the current level of urban sustainability in Malaysia, the proposed strategies and actions should be pragmatic and workable for those on the grassroot level. This is especially so for the city managers without much exposure on the sustainability issues globally or even locally and at national level. It must not be an academic exercise. Thirdly, if comparison has to be made between the 4 towns, then profiling of existing socio-economic, political, governance, demography and environmental scenario should be compiled and examined first. It is important to prepare all study area on the same level of platform before an objective assessment can be made. The result then will be representative and able to be used for duplication or as role model. Forthly, identifying indicators that are internationally benchmarked and accepted by all stakeholders is not easy. While many international indicators to measure sub sectors of sustainable development such as green, healthy, happiness, economic growth, social impact and etc have been used in other towns and countries, finding one with international benchmark for Malaysian towns without considering the unique socio-political circumstances we have is near impossible. Thereby, setting the right direction for this study is identifying right indicators serving both international and national needs. For MBPJ, the outcome of the study will present an interesting examination on how far and how best we have done in achieving low carbon green city. It will also be a baseline data for us.

New Mayor of MBPJ

Today saw Malaysian First Woman Mayor sworn in at Petaling Jaya City Council. In her maiden speech, Datin Paduka Alinah binti Ahmad previously the CEO of Selangor Housing and Property Board sahred her thought and vision for Petaling Jaya. She said it is an honour to be appointed as Mayor and created the history in Malaysia as the first lady to helm the City Council. While it is an honour, it is also a challenge to prove her worth and to all with trust with her that gender is not a prioritised consideration. It is her ability to lead, to administer and to manage the City that matter the most. She reckoned that her success later will be a big encouragement and recognition to other women and likewise other wise. She shoulders a big responsibility towards the women group, the Selangor State Government and the people of Petaling Jaya. One of the key features of her speech was on making MBPJ a loveable organisation and Petaling Jaya a liveable and loveable city. Only with the love of residents and investors towards MBPJ that we can inculcate the sense of ownership and belonging. It is then that MBPJ will become a truly relieable and trusted partner in service delivery. How can we ask people to love PJ if they cannot agree with what the city manager, that is MBPJ has to do. So with the new lady in action now, "loveable" must be the way forward. In order to create the atmosphere of loving for residents, of course we have to provide quality service to meet their need for living environment and to provide value for money excellent services. Similarly, comes out with measures to cut down red tape and to ease doing of businesses will enhance the sense of welcoming for businesses and investors. We should facilitate the establishment of new businesses here and to assist the existing corporates with less cost, less interferences and less time consuming procedures. To me, it is not a tall order, afterall the very objective of local authority is to provide quality urban services and to develop a sustainable city. The new mayor also touched on the need for prudent financial management. Money must be spent wisely and value worth. She reckoned while having big reserve is wonderful, spending neccessary even it means reducing the reserve is all right. We have to provide state of the art infrastructures and facilities. From the response of those attending this morning's ceremony, I believe the new bie will be well received by all walk of life.

Welcome 2013

Welcome to 2013. Beginning of every new year will witness many people having new aspirations, new objectives in life, new scope of works, new responsibilities and the least might be acquiring new clothes, new car, new hairstyle and etc. At least for me is having new scope of work, that is becoming the "driver" for my kid going to school now. It is a long journey considering that we have 6 years of primary education. The year 2013 will be a challenging year for all walk of Malaysian. Everybody is anticipating the 13th General Election by March or later before June. As such, many planning and implementation of works are pretty much undecided or subjected to change. These include the submission of development projects, infrastructure works and even decision to procure. I believe it will be a difficult task to achieve the target of having twice OSC meeting a month. Keeping the town clean and tidy when it comes close to the election time. With the uncertainty in global economic and political scenario now, it is anticipated that submission for new development projects might be slowed down or stagnant until thing is clearer. For MBPJ it will be exciting when it comes to 2nd of January as the organisation, councillors and staff will welcome Datin Paduka Alinah bt Ahmad, the first Woman Mayor in Malaysia to take over the helm from Dato' Haji Mohamad Roslan bin Sakiman. Changes and transformation is eagerly awaiting by all. While former mayor has done an excellent job and loveable by all walk of society of Petaling Jaya, it will definitely be another milestone for PJ to have the service of an experience personnel especially in the segment of corporate, land and property administration and development. For developmental planning, submission for all types of application will have to go through the OSC Online system starting from 1st January 2013. It will excited to watch over the process and readiness of submitting persons to do so. The OSC Unit and other technical agencies are ever ready to receive and to process the application and to teach the consultants. On the same day also, submission of landscape plan applcation will have to be done concurrently with the planning permission submission. This is to avoid the discrepencies used to happen for landscaping purpose after all other plans have been approved or infrastructure has been built. Many others measures to expedite the process and to reduce the red tape is in the midst of discussion now. It is with the hope to help facilitating the developmental process, and to make the businesses to love PJ as a friendly partner in delivery, of course the pretext is all should become a socially anf environmentally responsible corporate. For low carbon green city of Petaling Jaya. It is fascinating and exciting as many programmes are on the pipeline. The market organic waste composting project in Jalan Othman is expected to take off by March. The pilot project on low carbon city focusing on waste sector with KeTTHA is on going since end of December 2012. The possibility of using treated water and effluent from IWK plants for landscaping purpose is under study now. The retrofiting work to turn MBPJ HQ into a green building will be starting with a budget allocation of almost RM 1 million. Hopefully, these will be sustained and remained as one of the top priorities of MBPJ. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year 2013.