Press Conference with Gobind after the “soft opening” of the road link between Puchong Hartamas & Bandar Puteri Puchong.
I saw a comment yesterday that asked whether I did any constituency work. My God, my service centres in both Kinrara state assembly (DUN) seat and Seputeh parliamentary seat are always full of complainants. We have helped so many people in various cases but I don’t go about boasting it in my blog.
However, I happened to have some photos that shows the painful process of getting the road link opened. Let me tell you this little story in my constituency then.
The people in Puchong, especially residents who stay at Bandar Puteri and Puchong Hartamas have been waiting for the road link between these two residential areas to be built. I was told that the idea of having a road link had existed for about ten years but it didn’t materialised due to some reasons, especially the lack of understanding between two developers.
After I won the Kinrara seat, my assistant Gary Chong helped me to bring the two developers to meet up at MPSJ office in the presence of the YDP of MPSJ and me. Both developers and MPSJ agreed to build the road link together, the developers will construct the road in their respective boundaries whereas MPSJ will build the 50 meter link between the two areas.
The road link supposed to be completed by the end of June as agreed at that meeting. However, when I visited the place with the press on 22nd August, I saw the horrible and messy situation there:
Look, the road built at Bandar Puteri side (left) is much higher than the road at Puchong Hartamas (which was already nicely built at the right end of the photo), it became impossible to link the two roads up.
I blasted the MPSJ officers at that press conference. I then wrote a letter to YDP of MPSJ to ask him to explain the delay on that day itself.
YDP then apologised and explained the situation to me. He put the blame on both developers. However, I know that the MPSJ officer who was supposed to supervise the construction of the road link should bear the responsibility for the long delay. YDP then promised to get the road link done up by end of September.
On 30th September, the eve of Hari Raya, I thought the road link was ready and I called the press to join me to do the “opening’ of the link. I got a shock when I saw the following scenario:
Look at all these iron bars in the middle of the road, the contractor did not complete their work and went for Hari Raya holidays. The construction of this part of the road was done by MPSJ.
Street light were not been installed at this road link, can you imagine how dangerous this is when motor cyclists use this road at night?
I then instructed the developer of Puchong Hartamas to close the entrance to stop the public from using this road link as it is dangerous for bike users, accidents can happen anytime.
After Hari Raya, I met with the YDP of MPSJ, he apologised to me again and promised to get the road link completed by 15th October 2008.
The road link finally opened for public to use on 18 October 2008. The man on my left is Dato’ Adnan, YDP of MPSJ, the man between us is Gary Chong, my assistant at Kinrara service center, and the man on my right is Gobind Singh, MP for Puchong. The rest are representatives from the developers’ firms.
Morale of the story:
Such a small matter was supposed to be done within a month, but it took me four months to get a road link completed. I had to intervene a few times in order to get this small project carried out from the month of June until mid-October.
The state government had been talking about transparency, improving the delivery system etc … however, when we face incompetent local government officers, it just needs one or two bad sheep in local government to make the wakil rakyat run around in and out of the local council many times to get a small thing done.
The March 8th election result only replaced the Menteri Besar & state exco members, but not government officers. None of the government officers had been sacked so far, and we have been trying our best to work with all of them in order to bring change to the state.
You must remember that taking over a government is different from taking over a corporation. In private sector, whenever a corporation is taken over, normally the management head team will be chopped, but this cannot happen when we take over a government, unless we have concrete evidence of malpractices or corruption involving the civil servant concerned.
We as wakil rakyat and even as state exco members, do swallow a lot of frustration over the lack of cooperation and attitudes of certain officers. The story above is just one of the examples ……. Hai (sigh)…….
Well done YB, good job
Well done.
The link has certainly serve us well.
Puchong is booming fast; ie. Bdr Putri area.
Im proud to call it my second home.
ps: how to get rid of pirated-dvd peddlers at various foodcourts?
I’m a resident of Puchong Hartamas. I moved in to this place three years ago. I’ve been waiting for this link to open. We always blamed this slow process on both sides of developers. Now I know who is the real culprit. I feel good that we have an MP who cares. Thank you Teresa.
You are absolutely right in saying that
“taking over a government is different from taking over a corporation. In private sector, whenever a corporation is taken over, normally the management head team will be chopped, but this cannot happen when we take over a government, unless we have concrete evidence over malpractices or corruption of the civil servant concerned.
We as wakil rakyat and even as excos, do swallow a lot over the lack of cooperation attitude of certain officers.”
We as the rakyat should give more time to our PR reps to do their works, though it’s slow, we need to further support them. Give them another term when the time comes. It’s not easy to correct the wrongs and mentality of these people who have been there for too long.
When my fluorescent lamp started to flicker yesterday, I went to buy a replacement and do it myself. Little did I know that the lighting technology now is so easy, advanced, cost-effective (you don’t need a starter and ballast) and consumes less electricity. Maybe you also start shopping for good replacements.
When we encounter a difficult tool or part in an organization we need to look for better solutions towards continuous improvement. That is why good leaders don’t wait for things to happen, they make things happen. Thank you for being a good leader and keep up the good work. In whatever you do, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Malaysians have the misconception that the YB must be there. If the assistant shows up it is not good enough.
Our law makers at state and federal levels have to constantly do stuffs that local authorities are paid to do. In the end, we get failures at both end, or at least, unsatisfactory delivery at both ends.
The source of the problem is not getting the right people to hold the right position and there is no accountability process.
Figure why our structure is like this…no prizes for the right answer
YB Teresa,
Kongsi kongsi…. well done ! ur action has benefited tens of thousands of puchong residents in d long term.
u again hv created another ‘SCARY’ action to corrupted rejim racist umno to run for their life in d nex coming GE ! kakkaaakaka…..
Teresa, I think that you are still dealing with your learning curve.
But as you go along, and as your experience improves, you can pinpoint the culprit.
Bring him/her to book. Perhaps you can try to reform that person but if efforts fail, give him/her the sack.
Not the broom award or transfer; just the sack.
Be firm and you’ll be respected.
Dear Teresa,
It was wise of you to do a spot check and have been attending to the welfare of the community in Puchong. We the resident of the Puchong Hartamas and Bandar Puteri will continuous give you the support.
You have done a good job in seeing thorough the work in progress to the finish. Unlikely those days in the care of Dr Kow, ex-MCA representative, he is lazy, avoiding and corrupted in his resolution to solve our community woes and problems.
5 years his tenor was a tiresome and never ending sorrow for the community to him represent us to solve the infrastructure and community issues.
Because of this he has lost more than 300 voters support from this area.
You have learned well from his mistakes.
Keep up the good rapport!
Teresa,
We come to understanding because of massive development by IOI group property in both Bandar Puchong Jaya and Bandar Puteri has been truly crowded and congested with a limited space for car parks.
Don’t MPSJ before building approval ensure that there is ample car park to be allocated? The amount of population density is killing both building, apartment versus the car park facilities.
We hope that you can look and venture into this area. Many times because of non car park people are cause to double car park and cause a massive jam. MPSJ would issue summon without realizing there is no ample car park being provided.
We the community truly hope that you can place your attention in this matters.
Puchong Community
Teresa, I think the most reckless thing that cause traffic congestion is perhaps the developers irresponsible allocation of very few car parks in an apartment/condo developments resulting in the spilling over of cars to the main roads of apartment/condo units. An inspection early in the morning will be telling. I hope the Selangor government will look into this as to force the developers to provide for carparks even in low cost flats, if multi level ones are required to be built within the boundry of the developing land.
Furthermore, once there is traffic congestion the car owners are being summon by the police and local councils just because there were inadequate parking facilities.
These has been happening all over KL and Selangor, hope u could solve the problem in Selangor or at least any new housing development will not have this problems.
No wonder all those “hantu”s are so afraid of you, as the official exorcist of the new regime.
Hi YB Teresa,
When can we expect the link between Puchong road over the Kesas to Kampung Datu Harun and 6th mile old klang road?
Kinrara voters have been waiting for this link for years.
Well done YB Teresa!… syabas!….
All this hassle is bcos we have to appoint qualified and calibre people perform the job in Majlis Perbandaran as simple as that.
Many Blessing
Well done YB.
We’ve met during makan2 after Hari Raya celebration at Taman Mawar.
I need your help to solve another road issue, which is the link road from Kinrara (very near to your DAP cawangan Puchong) towards Sri Manja.
After the recent ‘tsunami’ election, we saw Dr Kaw photo in newspaper, on KESAS interchange side, promising this road will be completed within 6 month, but nothing happened so far.
From my observation more than 1500 users from both side of the area using this ‘cross country’ unfinish road daily. Only motorcycle, bicycle and pedestrian can use this road. Things will be worsen when raining and the road will be muddy and slippery.
Pls come and observe the road yourself and kindly assist wherever & whatever you can to expedite the construction. Or at least repair the road temporarily before the permanent road being built.
Regards.
(Teresa is working very hard on this missing link and in actual facts, there is a piece of land that need to acquire (private) before it can be connected. MBPJ have to connect it because it is under MBPJ area. The total cost of the construction of the road is RM20 million without the cost of the acquiring land.
The previous Adun tis daydreaming.) Moderator