Dear Pakatan Rakyat,
The 2008 political tsunami was a clear demonstration of the rakyat’s hunger for change and a resounding rejection of the status quo. The rakyat that voted you in does not expect you to give them contracts, crony status or other preferential treatment. For the most part, what they want is a better quality of life, and what better way than to start with the six states (including KL) that Pakatan Rakyat now controls.
Although some matters are under the federal government, there are other matters within the purview of the state government which can help to improve the quality of our life and environment.
In my opinion, the YBs should focus their energies in the following areas within the control of the state governments:
- Make their neighbourhoods clean and livable. Ensure that the garbage is collected, reinforce the anti-litter campaign and fine litter bugs. How about regulating the painting of buildings? Some buildings are eyesores.
- Ensure that eating outlets are clean and strictly supervised. Prices of food at government-run eating outlets should be controlled and in return, rental should be nominal.
- Rather than build new parks, spend money to ensure that the current parks are in tip-top condition. Do park maintenance work on weekdays and during non-peak periods.
- Provide at least one playing field at each neighbourhood and maintain them properly.
- Organise functions such as gotong-royong, mass aerobics sessions and family days, etc, to foster better community relationships within the neighborhood.
- Provide sufficient parking areas and slap heavy fines on inconsiderate drivers. Lower parking fees or have no parking fees on off-days as this would help to reduce the burden on the rakyat.
- Abolish the public toilet fee. Make building owners responsible for the maintenance of clean toilets. Public toilets should be adopted by private sector sponsors.
- Do roads work only on weekends or at night. We don’t want road jams and accidents caused by improperly planned road works.
- Make state agencies more efficient and people-friendly. First on my list would be the local councils. Second on my list would be the Land Office. These two department are notoriously slow, giving rise to paying ‘coffee money’ or ‘cable pulling’ to speed up the process.
- Make all our neighbourhoods safer. Although the police come under federal responsibility, I believe that there are some things we can do at the state level to improve safety .We can incorporate security and safety features into buildings design, adding guard posts, security cameras and fencing. Building owners should be made responsible for security and safety of their buildings.
