DBKL - doormat for Najib and Hisham when it should be cleaning streets and clogged drains

As the 13th GE clocks ticks away, looks like every agency and institution is being canvassed or roped in to do a do-or-die-together act these days.

DBKL's tough action against the non-violent and peaceful sit-in by university students at the Independence Square clearly demonstrates this do-or-die-together paranoia.

And their quick denial for Bersih 3.0 assembly at the Independence Square is again another knee-jerk do-or-die-together response.

Why is BN shaking so jittery in its foundations? There must be more than merely wanting to stay on in power despite having enjoyed the glory for over five decades.

All over the democratic world - and especially in the developed civilisations, political parties win one term, loose another, and work hard to come back by popular vote again. It is a non-issue.

'The best man wins' is the dictum and philosophy in truly democratic and civilised countries.

But can we say the same of this nation which is proudly hanging on to the trumpeted claim that it is at the doorsteps of 2020 - that magical year when Malaysia would be blaring to the world that it has arrived at the doorstep of the developed league of nations.

Be neutral

It is time that all agencies and institutions got to carry out their fundamental and covenanted role and responsibilities to society, nation and King. DBKL is no exception.

If DBKL can stay out of the BN dictates as laid down by Home Minister Najib Razak and his cousin Prime Minister Najib Razak, it would earn the people's respect.

If it can come out from under the thumb of the ambitious FT minister Raja Nong Chik, and control its own frequent summon-for-survival-at-all-cost, the agency would earn more brownies.

In the first place look at all our drains, back lanes and streets. They are in total neglect. The only areas where you see some effort to spruce up is where VVIPs pass or live or even work. Everywhere else, it is the same stink, the same over-flowing garbage, the same unattended shrubs and threatening branches waiting to fall on passing motorists same rainy night.

Shouldn't DBKL be busy attending to all these? Or have they also sub-contracted all duties for some quick and easy earnings?

Greedy for money

It seems that DBKL is only to be seen in places where there is money to be made from the pockets of citizens. So it is not rare these days to spot these DBKL enforcement staff booking vehicles and clamping cars like starving crows that descend on rotting carnage.

And now they are taking on yet another task - going after citizens who are exercising their civil liberties enshrined in the Constitution of the country.

Does the Mayor of DBKL not know what SUHAKAM maintains about peaceful assemblies? Or is the DBKL now so superior that it has also become like BN the judge, jurists, and the lawyer-prosecutor of democracy and civil liberties?

Luckily too DBKL did not operate in India when Mahatma Gandhi led the passive resistance march to gain independence. Otherwise India would still in all likelihood remain a British slave to this day.

Please Honourable Mayor, you would do the nation proud by keeping your staff doing what they should be doing, i.e. keeping the city clean, smelling sweet and beautifully pleasant to the eyes of every tourist.

There is so much of unfinished work for DBKL. You are better off doing what you were meant to do and not be a slave to the BN's do-or-die-together panic mode.

Malaysia Chronicle