PD’s man in the hot seat

Municipal Council President Abdul Wahab talks about the problems he faces and the good things that lie in store for the tourist town

INTERVIEW

PORT DICKSON: Many people would envy someone who heads the local government in a tourist town, but Port Dickson’s Abdul Wahab Samsudin says he has no time to bask in it, what with his state assemblyman constantly breathing down his neck.

In a recent wide-ranging interview with FMT, he complained that PKR’s M Ravi, sometimes aided by Ean Yong Tin Sin (DAP-Lukut), was always finding fault with his administration.

He rejected the allegation that he held a bias against Pakatan Rakyat politicians, although he admitted to withholding written permission for their programmes.

Abdul Wahab became president of the Port Dickson Municipal Council (MPPD) in 2009. He said it had been a hot seat for him since Day One.

Apart from responding to various allegations by Ravi and Yong, he also explained some the efforts being done to improve Port Dickson’s appeal to visitors.

Excerpts from the interview:

The Pakatan Rakyat representatives allege that you are denying them the right to put up festival banners carrying their party logos. What is your response?

Those allegations are not true. I gave them permission orally, but I told them I could not give them written permission. They asked why. It is within my authority to give either oral or written permission. What’s wrong with giving it orally?

I told my officers not to dismantle the banners. I have no problem with them having their party logos on the banners. But previously we did remove the banners. At that point of time, they had not asked for permission.

What about your recent rejection of their application to use the town hall for a badminton tournament?

They wanted to use the hall on Dec 3. I rejected the application because the town hall was due for upgrading works at that point of time.

They insisted that we give them a rejection letter. I said it was not necessary because I didn’t want them to use the letter for political purposes.

Recently, Pakatan representatives speaking at a public forum likened the Port Dickson beach to a rubbish dump. How true is that?

I’m aware of the allegations as they were reported in a newspaper. They are lies. In the pictures published in the newspaper, one of the Pakatan leaders was holding an empty plastic bag. If Port Dickson is a dumping ground, then where is the so-called rubbish?

We clean the beach regularly and consistently conduct cleaning campaigns with NGOs. How can they say that Port Dickson is a rubbish dump?

When I took over the MPPD in 2009, “Cleanliness is our priority” became our motto.

As an elected representative, Ravi should not tarnish the image of the Port Dickson with tags like that. It will give the town a negative image among tourists. It will have implications on the local traders and hotel operators as well.

Let me speak about another issue that Ravi (photo) raised. He questioned the rationale of installing convex mirrors at the end of every row of shophouses. He said those mirrors should instead be installed at road junctions, where they would be useful to motorists.

He did not check the facts with us. We installed the mirrors not for motorists, but for pedestrians. We fix them at the walls of banks and corner shops to alert the public against criminals hiding behind walls.

He said the mirrors were a waste of public funds. This project comes under the Local Government and Housing Ministry’s budget. We installed the convex mirrors as part of the Town Safety project under the ministry and we were accorded the Safe Town status by the ministry.

What about the drainage system in Port Dickson? The town is flood prone, isn’t it?

We are trying our best to maintain the drainage system. Some parts of the system are under our jurisdiction and the rest are under the Drainage Department.

Much of Port Dickson is below sea level. There will be floods no matter how big the monsoon drains are.

What about the status of the Lukut landfill? Wasn’t is supposed to be closed and rubbish redirected to a new landfill in Bukit Nanas?

I can’t comment too much on this as the matter as it is under the jurisdiction of the state and federal governments.

The landfill sits on state government land and MPPD just supervises it.

But I’ve learnt that the shift to Bukit Nanas is in progress.

Ravi told the State Assembly that the counters selling parking coupons are too far from the parking lots and motorists had complained that agents selling the tickets were late in opening those counters. He said that both these facts had resulted in many motorists being fined for parking without coupons.

Actually this is the result of the motorists’ habit of buying the coupons at the last minute. As locals from Port Dickson, why can’t you buy the coupons earlier?

Ravi said it’s difficult for tourists to purchase the tickets on weekends. I don’t understand what the actual issue is. There are no parking charges on weekends. But still, to say that the coupons are not sold on Saturday and Sunday is a lie.

Whatever we want to introduce is always seen as wrong. If they have the attitude of wanting to oppose everything, then it’s very difficult for us.

We initially gazetted 14 areas where we would use the parking coupon system, but we only implemented it in two areas. These two are business areas. We don’t have parking charges at beaches or other tourist areas.

The coupon system is superior to the coin machine system. Coin machines are very costly and prone to vandalism. We conducted a study on three parking systems—the coupon, coin and receipt systems. We found the coupon system to be the best.

We collected RM400,000 six months after implementing the coupon system. Just imagine that! The system also generates income for the agents who sell them.

Ravi spoke of cases in which motorists were compounded even as they were buying their coupons. This is not true. I told my enforcement officers to wait for the motorists to go back to their vehicles from booths or shops selling the coupons.

The cases in which they were compounded were when they disappeared after parking their cars, or reappeared only after 30 minutes.

FMT visited the Telok Kemang beach and found that the steel structures of a few food stalls were rusty and damaged. Is there any plan to replace these unsafe stalls?

We have tendered out projects for the rebuilding of stalls and shops at Pantai Cermin. We will build 36 units of shops there at the cost of RM4 million. These shops will sell food and souvenirs.

Actually the stall operators want us to build the new shops at the existing location, but we don’t want to build there as we don’t want to obstruct the public from the beach areas.

Those operating stalls with rusty structures are doing it at their own risk. They haven’t paid rental to MPPD. In fact, we disconnected their electricity and water supplies to force them to vacate the stalls. But they’re still there.

But I want to stress here that once the 36 shops are ready, the owners must operate them themselves. If any of them rents out his shop to someone else or does not open the shop for three consecutive days, I will take back the shop.

The rental is cheap—between RM50 and RM100 only. This makes some of the shop owners lazy.

We have also spent RM500,000 to upgrade toilets, walkways and other basic amenities at the beach spots.

Why doesn’t MPPD want to continue organising Pesta Port Dickson, which was popular in the late 80s and early 90s?

It is not that we don’t want to do so, but it will be very costly to organise the 14-day event.

The revenue from the tent rental is not sufficient to cover the cost of organising the event, which is not less than RM1 million. It will be very costly also to pay the performers. Those days, it was easier to find corporate sponsors but now, due to the economic environment being not so good, these companies are tightening their belts.

We also don’t have enough land space to organise such a big carnival. The former site of the festival has been developed. It is where the Port Dickson District Office is currently located.

Actually Pesta Port Dickson did not generate any income. It was an event to promote Port Dickson to tourists.

Is there any truth to the talk that Port Dickson will soon have a water theme park?

A water theme park will be built by the private golf resort operator of Palm Springs near Tiara Beach Resort.

We approved the project. We were informed by the operator that the park will be for the exclusive use of clients at the resort.

What are other challenges you face as president of the MPPD?

My main challenge is to correct the perception of the public on MPPD. For example, people are blaming us for houses that are not properly maintained. This is supposed to be the responsibility of the house owners. Most of them work elsewhere. They pay the assessment rates, and technically we can’t do much except advice them to maintain their houses and compounds.

I also face the problem of vandalism. For example, we spend thousands of ringgit to install equipment at children’s playgrounds. But these see saws and other installations go missing after some time. Some vandals would come and steal the steel from these installations.

What about the collection of assessment rates?

Yes, I do have problems with assessment rate collection, especially with apartment owners. These apartment owners owe MPPD RM9 million to date. House owners owe us RM6 million. Most of these errant property owners are outsiders, like Singaporeans. Another RM4 million is owed by owners of business premises.

We will take action against them and we are now in the process of issuing Form F to seal the houses and take the owners to court.

What is MPPD’s gross annual income?

About RM52 million per year.

Are there enough hotels rooms in Port Dickson to cater to tourists?

Definitely the room availability is sufficient and sometimes exceeds the actual demand.

Is there is any mega project coming up in Port Dickson very soon?

A commercial hub costing RM1.8 billion will be completed in 2014.It will have a hypermarket, office spaces, shop lots, a convention centre, a medical centre, hotels, a private college, an international school, a theme park, factory outlets and apartments facing the beach.

And there will be a landmark project called Hibiscus Chalet, in which Menteri Besar Incorporated will be involved. It will become an icon for Port Dickson. The complex will be built at Mile 15 of Jalan Teluk Kemang. The chalet units will be arranged to look like hibiscus flowers.