Rubbish cleared, drains still clogged in Azmin’s first year

Azmin Ali promised better local services for residents when he took over as Selangor menteri besar but many ask if the political fallout from the ‘Kajang move’, which paved the way for his election as MB, was worth it. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, September 21, 2015.

It has been a year since Azmin Ali took over as Selangor menteri besar with promises to do better than his predecessor Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim. In the first part of a series looking back at Azmin’s track record, The Malaysian Insider examines whether local council services have improved since last September.

Only two out of nine resident groups in Selangor said their neighbourhoods are cleaner and have smoother roads one year after Menteri Besar Azmin Ali took over and promised a more caring and attentive administration.

Although six of the nine groups interviewed by The Malaysian Insider said they were satisfied with the level of services, the question remains whether the change in menteri besar was worth it.

This is since the tumultuous change dubbed the “Kajang move” led to one by-election and sowed the seeds of distrust between PKR and PAS, which would later lead to Pakatan Rakyat’s break-up.

Of the six resident groups which were satisfied, four said the quality of services in the past one year was similar to previous years under Azmin’s predecessor Khalid, and two of them, Klang and Petaling Jaya, said it had worsened.

The Malaysian Insider surveyed one resident group in each of Selangor’s nine local council districts to see whether things had improved in their neighbourhoods in the past year.

The state has 12 local council districts.

Rubbish, drains, roads, water   

The groups were asked on five topics; whether household rubbish was collected according to schedule, whether municipal drains were regularly cleared, whether the grass in public areas was cut regularly, whether roads were repaired and resurfaced, and whether there were water supply problems.

In the few months after taking over, Azmin said these were among the main issues that his administration would focus on and improve.

An oft-repeated phrase in his earlier speeches was that it was pointless for Selangor to have huge cash reserves while “the rubbish went uncollected and roads were filled with pot holes”.

The remark was a jab at Khalid, who had increased the state’s reserves to RM3 billion in his six years in office.

The nine groups surveyed were from the local council districts of Petaling Jaya, Klang, Kajang, Shah Alam, Subang, Ampang, Sepang, Hulu Selangor and Kuala Selangor.

The most common complaint among them was that municipal drains in their areas were not cleared regularly with all but two saying that this was a problem in their neighbourhood.

“I had to spend my own money to clear out the drains in front of my house and my neighbour’s. It was practically a jungle in there,” said Selve Sugumaran Perumal from the Section 14 residents’ association in Petaling Jaya.

In Bukit Beruntung, Hulu Selangor, residents’ association chairman Augustine Maria Dason said in certain parts of his neighbourhood, water from clogged drains would overflow and seep into the yards.

Unkempt grass and potholes were a problem that four out of nine groups faced in their areas.

“Sometimes the problem is the state does not receive allocations for roads from the federal government on time, so this can affect repairs,” said Tan Yeng Yap of Subang Zon 3 Residents Group.

All but one of the groups, The Bukit Beruntung Residents Association in Hulu Selangor, said that household rubbish in their areas was picked up on time.

This perhaps reflects how much effort Azmin had put into this issue.

Soon after taking over last September, he had even told residents to text him if the rubbish was not picked up on schedule.

There were also no persistent water supply problems in any of their areas except in Section 14, Petaling Jaya, where disruptions were frequent due to burst pipes.

Shah Alam is the state capital but the grass is growing wild along a major road in Section 8. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Ahmad Muslim, September 21, 2015.

Higher pace of improvement

Some areas, such as Klang and Hulu Selangor, have been particularly problematic.

Klang MP Charles Santiago said collusion between waste contractors and officials who were supposed to monitor them were the reason his area faced some of the worst cleanliness problems in Selangor.

Contractors who failed to pick up rubbish or trim the grass on time were still not being penalised despite continuous complaints to the local council.

“I get complaints all the time and it’s tiring. The problem is not being resolved in a sustainable manner,” Santiago told The Malaysian Insider.

Dason of Bukit Beruntung said most of the roads in Bukit Beruntung and Bukit Sentosa have not been resurfaced.

“They only do patch-up jobs on the holes. After one week, the holes come back again,” said Dason, who has been the resident group’s chairman for the past 18 years.

Rajiv Rishyakaran, who represents Bukit Gasing, Petaling Jaya, admits that clogged drains were a problem in his district and in many parts of Selangor.

“The problem is when you increase the regularity of drain cleaning, costs to the local council go up. But assessment rates for many areas such as PJ and Kajang have not gone up for more than 10 years.

“Residents expect more frequency but it is expensive,” said Rajiv who sits on the Selangor assembly select committee that monitors local councils.

“We admit that there is a lot of room for improvement but at least Azmin is making more effort in these areas.”

One of those areas, he said, was road works where Azmin has increased funds for repairs and resurfacing to RM600 million, double the amount Khalid had earmarked.

“The pace of repair and resurfacing is faster than the years under Khalid. In two years, we expect to do almost all the roads in Selangor,” said Rajiv.

He added that water disruptions due to damaged pipes would also be reduced once the water restructuring agreement was completed and the state took over the distribution network from Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) starting in February.

“Once we do that, we will give priority to all the critical areas, such as Petaling Jaya, where the pipes are decades old,” said Rajiv.

- TMI