A rare act of civil disobedience in Malaysia

Ismail Ahmad drove over 10km from his house to the Bandar Baharu District Council office in Serdang, Kedah and dumped the rubbish from his black bin bag onto the front entrance of the council office.

The 50 year-old factory worker was protesting against the local authority for allegedly failing to collect rubbish for years at his housing estate, Taman Kelisa Emas in Lubok Buntar.

Ismail told reporters that the rubbish dump had grown in size over the years and was both unsightly as well as smelly.

The growing garbage pile was about seven metres from his home and 30 metres from a kindergarten attended by 100 local children.

“My family and I, as well as the more than 1,200 other residents, are no longer able to bear the foul smell. This has been going on for years,” explained Ismail who said that stray dogs would be found foraging for food and were a menacing threat to both adults and children who walked past.

According to Ismail, two reports – one to the local authority on Oct 7 2010 and another to the Serdang police station on March 16 2011 had been lodged.

Mohd Saiful Anuar Zainal, the chief executive officer of Enviromen Idaman Sdn Bhd, the company handling the refuse collection, gave an assurance that it would resolve the problem.

Residents in housing estates up and down the country will empathise with Ismail. Some will praise him for his efforts. A few might even be tempted to emulate his actions.

As responsible citizens, we pay our taxes and expect things like rubbish clearance or unblocking of drains, to be performed by the council, on a regular basis.

Why should councils be allowed to fail us? Isn’t it our right to demand a highly efficient service from our respective councils?

People who experience similar problems, have doubtless tried to highlight their specific issues over the years, to the relevant authorities, but to no avail.

Residents of Ipoh are lucky in that they have the support of their local community paper, The Ipoh Echo to highlight such problems. But not every township has its own community paper.

Usually, rubbish remains uncollected, often for weeks on end.

Dogs rip open the black bin bags, spilling rubbish over a wider area. These enter drains, thus blocking them. Plastic or glass containers provide ready receptacles for rainwater.

And as many residents will testify, calls to the council will prove fruitless, frustrating and futile. Yet we soldier on and continue paying our taxes or council rates for this abysmal service.

Residents opine that things worsened when council awarded contracts for rubbish collection. As a cost-cutting measure, rubbish collection became infrequent and the quality of work diminished.

Ironically, communities will find huge piles of rubbish accumulating under council signs which read “Di Larang Membuang Sampah’. Increasingly frustrated by the council’s lack of effort, fly-tippers can also exacerbate this desperate situation.

The problem of blocked drains usually goes hand in hand with uncollected rubbish.

When the council neglects to clear the areas around the monsoon drains and also of unblocking them of leaves, long grass and rubbish, which prevent the smooth flow of water, the threat of dengue arises.

A long time ago, there were supervisors who regularly inspected these drains, checking for cracks and weed infestation. Established roots in the fissures cause even bigger splits, thus reducing drain efficacy. Pools of stagnant water form perfect mosquito breeding grounds.

The council should bear the major portion of responsibility for contributing to the aedes menace.

Without a rigorous maintenance schedule, more money is then spent refurbishing broken drains when a rigorous maintenance program was the wiser alternative.

Councils must learn to take their jobs seriously. If the people whom we have entrusted to deal with the problem continue to act irresponsibly, then we might as well put them out with the rest of the rubbish.

Ismail Ahmad was right to dump his rubbish on the council’s doorstep in a rare and defiant act of civil disobedience. Perhaps more of us should do what he did if that is the only way to shame councils into being responsible. - Malaysia Chronicle