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.