For my son, when he grows up, this site will be my legacy for him. The decisions his mother and I made for him, to understand them, to learn from them and to lead a life without prejudice and to succeed in it on his own merit.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Extras For The Referrers

DBKL - a local government representing 1.454 million but voted by none.
By romerz

Two days ago, a story carried by Malaysiakini had me reading in disbelief. A housing developer had cried foul after being overcharged on three instances by it's joint-venture partner Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL).

1. RM142,245/- for a 10 square-feet guardhouse.
2. RM299,560/- for six pieces of schematic drawings.
3. RM903,360/- for two lifts.

Full report HERE if you are a Malaysiakini subscriber or you can watch the allegations by the irate housing developer below.

Now this is not strange as cheating occurs from time-to-time in the business world, even between partners but this is different because it involves DBKL.

DBKL is a local authority which administrates Kuala Lumpur city centre and other areas in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. This agency is under the Federal Territories Ministry of Malaysia. Executive power lies with the Mayor of Kuala Lumpur who is appointed every three years by the Federal Territories Minister since local government elections were suspended in 1970.

What is so odd with that?

Well for starters it means that the residents of KL have less rights than other Malaysians. Unlike other Malaysians, people residing in the federal territories of KL, Putrajaya and Labuan do not get a second vote, they do not get to choose a state government. They only get to vote for members of parliament, 11 in the case of KL, 1 in Putrajaya and 1 in Labuan.

And by the way, nobody in Malaysia gets to vote for the local authorities which have such a direct bearing on their daily lives. All Malaysians lost the 3rd vote in 1970 whilst KL people lost their 2nd vote as well in 1974.

According to WolframAlpha computational knowledge engine (2004 estimate), KL's population is 1,454,000 and DBKL's budget for 2009 is RM2.09 billion. And this budget does not have to be scrutinized by representatives of a legislative assembly voted in by KL residents!

Let us take in comparison Penang, a state of approximately the same number of residents as KL, with a state budget of RM477 million for 2009. Now in Penang, this RM477 million budget had to be submitted to the state legislative assembly comprising of 40 representatives elected by Penangites to deliberate, amend or pass and scrutinize the RM477 million budget.

I make this comparison because as a Penangite, I would be furious if my government did business in such a high-handed manner which smells of "cheating and corruption". I would definitely weigh this exorbitant charges as a negative against them when I next have to choose representatives of my state assembly, of course taking other things into consideration.

Unfortunately KL residents have no such rights. They have to swallow such behavior from DBKL since DBKL and it's mayor is only answerable to the FT Minister. Effectively 1.454 million KL residents have to hope that the single FT Minister will do the right thing for them!

The intention behind the creation of the FT of Kuala Lumpur was because then KL contained all the instruments and institutions synonymous with the capital of Malaysia. With the creation of Putrajaya as the administrative capital in 1999 and with all administrative branches of the federal government having moved there, all is left of KL as the capital are Instana Negara, official residence of the king, and parliament house. Except for these two areas and some pockets of federal properties, is there any further need to keep Kuala Lumpur as a federal territory?

Isn't it about time some rights are restored to KL people so that they can have a bigger say as to how they are governed locally, how their local taxes are used and the direction of the city they live in should go?

But let us not kid ourselves. Nothing that changes the status quo where a few ruling elites have so much power and access to so much money can come about unless the UMNO/BN federal government is booted out of office long enough so that all the democratic rights Malaysian used to enjoy since independance can be restored.

Make no mistake, our rights to choose the future for ourselves and our country is surely being eroded by successive UMNO/BN governments. This is why we have to vote out UMNO/BN from their excesses of power and corruption, even if it is in a state by-election as N11 - Permatang Pasir.

These arrogant ruling elites do not understand democratic rights, human rights, or just simple rights to co-exist peacefully. All they know is they must hang on to power by whatever means possible so they can continue to rob us.

Well it is our patriotic duty as Malaysians to stop them by whatever means possible and counter them at every step of the way! And the next step is N11 - Permatang Pasir, so I earnestly hope that the good people of Permatang Pasir will not let our country and all it's inhabitants down.

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