Posts Tagged ‘Selangor’

Local Agenda 21 in Sepang

November 8th, 2008
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I was supposed to attend the talk by Vinod Shekar (organised by the Minds association together with IGA UPM) today afternoon, but since Then was going, I thought better let others go since places was limited. I had met Vinod Shekar once, when he came to UTM  for our Cultural Night, looong time ago. Anyway, good thing I didn’t book a seat because I was stuck in another programme. Sara would have been unhappy if people booked a seat and didn’t turn up since it was limited 🙂

I in fact, had an informative session today. Majlis Perbandaran Sepang (MPS) organised a Workshop on Local Agenda 21 for its JPPs (Jawatan kuasa Perwakilan Penduduk – Residents Representative Committee) and also to present letters of appoinment for the JPP members. For your info, Sepang district had 12  zones, but has been broken into 24 now after new government took over (FYI – 12 Malays, 7 Chinese and 5 Indian councillors in MPS). Each councillor in the MPS is in charge of one zone. To my amazement, I found that my zone has the biggest population among all! Guess road and transport planning will take precedence soon.

The function was held in Cyberjaya, and from the looks of it, the MPS need to improve on its event management. The function started 30 minutes late, and after people were seated, they were asked to sit according to gender. That is so PAS-like! One guy was quite upset that his front seat had to be given up and he later admitted he dozed off while seated at the far end.

Event management aside, it was quite an informative program. 3 papers were presented – but all 3 were non-Sepang based. The first is a Lee Li Shyan, from MPSJ, and the other two were reps from JPPs in Taman Datuk Harun and Kota Damansara Section 6 respectively. The first speaker gave a good account on what Local Agenda 21 is all about.

Local Agenda 21 is the outcome of the World Summit in Rio, Brazil in 1992. It has 21 principles in 40 chapters, which is supposed to create sustainable living and communities in cities. The workshop today was to create awareness among the residents representatives and also to educate us that residents also play a role in creating a city that is sustainable and liveable.

In the afternoon there was a discussion session among the participants, and I was in the 3rd group – talking about environmental issues. The guest person was a Dr Kalithasan from Global Environment Centre  who gave very useful information.

The problem was, no one informed me that is a whole day event! I ended up stuck until 5pm.

What surprised me was the admission by the YDP of Sepang that this is the biggest crowd he has seen for a long time. He was very happy that the residents are showing concern and spending time to voice their opinions.

And voice out they did. I think the residents representatives were quite outspoken at times. Generally, most were happy with the change of government (or at least sounded like it) but clearly said that they don’t want to see the current government making same excuses or mistakes as before.

As for me, since I just joined this JPP, I was just a passive participant throughout the event. It was interesting to see and talk to the participants – getting their ideas, thoughts and expectations.

As for me, I am thinking of composting garbage as one activity which can be introduced in my housing area. Other than that, need to educate residents to be proactive in making complaints and monitoring their surroundings.

* Minds – Malaysian Indian Education Development Society
* IGA UPM – Indian Graduates Association of UPM
* MPS – Majlis Perbandaran Sepang (Sepang Municipal Council).

Hostel for Tamil school underachievers in Selangor

November 6th, 2008
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This is something different. Hmmmm…hope to get more details on this hostel idea.

SELANGOR executive councillor Dr Xavier Jayakumar said the state will be building a hostel for Tamil school underachievers in the UPSR examination, reported Tamil Nesan.

The pupils would be given coaching to improve their academic performance, he said.

He said discussions would be held with the Tamil Schools Headmaster Council, teachers, parents and other Indian organisations to select 100 poor pupils for the extra coaching.

High achievers from poor families would also be assisted to encourage them to continue to do well in their studies and prepare them for secondary school, Dr Jayakumar told reporters after opening the state-organised Medical Health Camp at the Rinchang Estate Tamil School.

PKNS for Malays or for all Selangorians?

October 29th, 2008
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I’m disgusted with the comments from PKNS staff-bodies and also the information revealed by MB Khalid Ibrahim. Selangor, being the most modern state, its coffers being filled by sweat and toil of all its rakyat (plus millons of foreign workers) and PKNS is for Malays? I think all those staff should be sacked. There are thousands of other Selangorians who are looking for work. Let them work for development of the state.

 

The worse is the racist attitude of their staff who oppose the appointment of current Finance and Corporate deputy general manager Low Siew Moi, 57, (trained accountant working for PKNS for 35 YEARS!) who will have her annual contract extended to replace the existing GM – Datuk Harun Salim, whose annual contract expires this Thursday. His contract is not extended, as he is 60. Harun retired in mid-2003 and will have to leave the government entity in compliance with the Public Services Department’s age requirement.

 

Low is to be given a one year contract.

 

According to the 6 staff bodies:

In their joint memorandum dated Oct 25 to Khalid, the staff associations said: “PKNS was established for Malays and to fulfill the Malay agenda. Because of this, the organisation needs to be led by a Malay.”

The document was signed by the respective heads of associations of senior officers, executive officers and workers; the sports and recreation club; Islamic association, and staff welfare body.

“The associations, unions and welfare bodies do not deny the capabilities of Low Siew Moi (left) in the management of finance,” they said.

“However, leading PKNS would need certain leadership criteria, among them, rapport with all staff and associations and ability to communicate with different levels of personnel.”

The memorandum stated that, as PKNS conducts activities that are spiritual in nature, its leader must understand and practice Islamic values.

“In other words, the one who will become the general manager will be the ‘imam’ for all the staff,” the signatories said.

Urging Khalid to retract Low’s appointment, they said they would only extend full support if current deputy general manager in charge of administration and development – Md Nasir Md Arshad – is promoted to general manager.

Since when is PKNS is for Malays? All Selangorians must make a police report against this seditious statements which threaten racial harmony. This is what happens when the organisation is being monopolised by certain race only. Other people don’t exist in their eyes.

 

This is another classic example of making use of religion for discrimination. If want to have an imam, hire one specifically la. Don’t bog down the leader with extra work. Or when it comes to religious events, ask a representative to attend. All this petty excuse of serve to increase the contempt and anger against government bodies like PKNS. Let us not go into government agencies.

 

The staff also issued a veiled threat to MB Khalid that they won’t support the Low if she is appointed. Isn’t that considered treason or something? The staff have a responsibilty to the rakyat, not to pick sides or decide who can lead them.

 

The reason given by Khalid is that they cannot afford to have both Low and Harun to retire at the same time. He said its for one year while they look for a ” bumiputra person with high calibre and ethics and someone who is committed to lead the state’s business arm.”. As Haris Ibrahim asked : Is it not enough that the individual is a person ‘with high calibre and
ethics and someone who is committed to lead the state’s business arm’? Why need to have a racist and discriminative policy? Isn’t this depriving other Selangorians of getting the job? If this is not discrimination, what is?

 

Khalid also revealed two other facts:

 

1. a group of senior officers have 30% shares in PKNS subsidiary – PKNS Infra Sdn Bhd, which will possibly lead to biased decision, cronyism, corruption, etc. Is this what PKNS’s version of Islam and spirituality all about?  Can the staff bodies answer this?

 

2. 75% of projects awarded by PKNS were given to non-bumiputra firms either directly or indirectly. Now, there’s two things here. Firstly, since the staff bodies boldly claim that PKNS is for Malays and Malay agenda, how can this happen? So, they are not doing their jobs (their version)? Secondly, what’s wrong with work being done by non-bumiputras? As long as the job is done correctly, people will be happy. The old way of allocating to bumiputra should be discarded. The Pakatan Rakyat government should encourage award of project based on competency, capability, track record. Don’t be like previous leadership.

 

 

If PKNS is only to serve bumiputra businessmen, then better Selangorians boycott PKNS. Why should we support racist organisations?

Statistics on Temple demolition in Selangor

October 28th, 2008
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The statistics mentioned by Xavier Jayakumar at Selangor state assembly:

A total of 96 Hindu and 37 Buddhist temples were demolished in Selangor between 2004 and 2007.

State exco member Dr A. Xavier Jayakumar said the move was carried out by the local authorities.

However, so far this year, 54 new applications had been approved by the committee task with regulating non-Muslim places of worship.

Among the applications are for 25 Hindu temples, 19, Buddhist temples and 10 churches.

Dr Xavier, who was answering a question from Lee Ying Ha (PR-Teretai), said although the applications had been approved by the committee, they would still need to be approved by the state executive council before the new places of worship could be built.

96 temples/4 years = 20 temples per year demolished. That’s about one temple every two and half weeks. Is it consistent with HINDRAF’s claims?

There’s also a catch with the approvals given by PR government. The non-muslim religious affairs committee (3 people: Xavier, Ronnie, and Teresa – WHO STILL HAVE NOT replied to my email) gave the approval. Its like a first round. The second round is the state EXCO.

religious structures in Selangor limited to 10000 square feet

October 25th, 2008
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I’m wondering if NST wrote this wrongly. It says that Dr Xavier said the state government had approved a policy whereby religious structures of any religion other than Islam must not exceed 10,000 sq ft in size .

This seems to be a ridiculous rule indeed. Why would there be a limit? Logically, the community that wants to build a place of worship will know its own financial strength and the viability of such places. Secondly, religious buildings/structures can double up as tourist attractions. So, limiting the size is inappropriate.

Secondly, those owners of illegally built places of worship will be fined continuously until government recognition is received. This is also illogical. If the owners are in the dark about existence of such places on their lands, or if such places are in process of getting recognition, the fines should be waived.

The Selangor government in July instructed all local authorities in the state to fine owners of houses of worship built illegally, said State Health, Plantation Workers, Poverty and Caring Government Committee chairman, Dr Xavier Jayakumar.
The fines needed to be settled continuously until the owners received government recognition for the houses of worship, he said when answering a question from Sulaiman Abdul Razak (BN-Permatang) in the State Assembly here today.

By the way, I’m still waiting for Jayakumar et. al.’s reply to my email on temple demolition report.

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