By Brenda Ch’ng

SHAH ALAM: Selangor is considering halting all federal projects following yesterday’s High Court decision to disallow the Sepang Municipal Council (MPSepang) from removing the controversial Automated Enforcement System (AES) cameras.

“ T h e s ta t e g o v ernm ent i s disappointed with the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision that local governments have no power over structures built on Federal roads,

“If we have no right to control structures in the state then we cannot manage it well,” said Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim during a press conference yesterday.

The state has ordered the State Economic Planning Unit to prepare a list of Federal  projects on highways and Prasarana’s Light Rail Transit (LRT) project for review by the state executive council to ensure the interests of the public and state are protected.

Meanwhile, projects which have been approved should  be suspended temporarily until the issue is resolved.

Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Datuk Zaleha Yusof yesterday decided that the speed cameras were erected on areas that have been declared as federal roads by the minister.

The state is not the owner of the land and so neither MPSepang nor Selangor have a say over structures built on it.

She added that Selangor was under “constitutional obligation” to not interfere as highways are Federal roads.

“The Selangor government does not have jurisdiction on the North-South Expressway (Plus) and the South Klang Valley expressway (SKVE) as such powers lie with the federal government and the Public Works Department.

“Hence, the company (Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd)  need not have permission from the Sepang Municipal Council to erect the AES poles on the federal roads. The application is allowed and as this is a matter of public interest I make no order as to costs.”

However, Khalid said Selangor will be appealing the High Court decision.

“We will be getting the state legal

Freeze on federal projects?

COMMUNITY FEBRUARY 22 — 24, 2013/ ISSUE 111

p4

JUDICIAL REVIEW OVER EC INACTION

Children from PASTI Taman Permata and Ustaz Hafiz Hamidon (centre) putting on a show during the Tunas Mini Carnival at Up Town Gomback last Saturday. The event was launched by state executive councillor Dr Halimah Ali and Hulu Kelang assemblyperson Saari Sungib and is aimed at raising awareness about the state’s Tunas scheme. This scheme is open to children aged five to six, whose parents earn a monthly income of RM1,500 and below. They will be given a monthly RM50 allowance by the state.

p12 – 13p1414

TRUE MALAYSIANS AND LOWDOWN ON LAHAD DATU

adviser and the MPSepang’s legal department to review the judicial records and then file an appeal,” he said.

Khalid reiterated that the state and local governments should be able to have control over all structures built in Selangor including AES and advertising billboards.

The AES cameras were installed last year along the North-South Expressway (PLUS) and the South Klang Valley Expressway (SKVE) without the proper applications and approvals by MPSepang.

Following this, two notices were issued by MPSepang last November requesting the contractor to put in a formal application for the AES camera structures.

However, the notices were disregarded and the contractor was subsequently issued another letter dated Dec 6 to dismantle the cameras within 14 days.

The contractor then challenged the council’s directive and filed a leave application for a judicial review in the High Court on Dec 12, which was granted on Dec 19.

12 – 13

THE FACTS ON BATTLE OVER WATER

Freeze on federal

If we have no right to control structures in the state then we cannot manage it well - Khalid

2 february 22 – 24, 2013news

Putrajaya keeps on dilly-dallying

Puncak disappointed with MB’s statement

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EDITORIALCHIEF EDITOR KL Chan

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Selangor WeaTHer

shah alam: Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd yesterday lashed out at the state over what it described was a threat to compel the water concessionaires to accept its latest bid in the name of the people of Selangor.

“It is irresponsible and unacceptable for the Selangor government to link the state’s offer to the people and equate a rejection as a rejection to an offer by the Selangor peo-ple,” Puncak Niaga Holdings executive chairperson Tan Sri Rozali Ismail said in a

statement.Puncak Niaga Holdings is the parent

company of Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) and Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd.

Selangor offered to acquire four water concessionaires, including the above two companies, for RM9.65 billion on Wednes-day.

Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim had equated the elected state government’s offer to the people of Selangor’s offer in his

statement.Rozali said the Menteri Besar’s statement

is akin to a “threat” to the concessionaires to accept the state’s offers.

“The statement seems to be only directed to Syabas and Puncak Niaga as the Menteri Besar specifically mentioned my name,” said Rozali, aformer Selangor Umno treasurer.

He said Puncak Niaga Holdings, as a public-listed company, must consult its stakeholders including the Federal Govern-ment which holds a golden share in Syabas,

before deciding on the offer.Meanwhile, officials from Splash yester-

day said that the concessionaire is mostly “positive” on the offer, which analysts say will see the 40% Gamuda-owned company earn RM743 million cash.

A Splash official who reportedly spoke under condition of anonymity to online business portal KiniBiz said the conces-sionaire would meet with the state next week to get more details of the takeover offer.

By Gan Pei Ling

shah alam: Putrajaya remains non-committal over Selangor’s offer to break the deadlock over restructuring the fragmented and ailing water service industry.

“I wish Selangor (Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim) good luck and success. As regards to Federal Government, we have to wait and see.

“I have not received anything (related documents). Fed-eral AG (Attorney-General) will guide us on the issue of golden share,” said Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin in a short text message to Selangor Times yesterday.

Chin was responding to Khalid’s plea to Putrajaya to use its decisive power as golden shareholder to compel the com-panies to accept the state’s offer.

Selangor announced its third offer of RM9.65 billion to take over the four companies to restructure the water industry on Wednesday.

“We’re making this offer to solve the problem of water privatisation which has failed to provide quality service to the people,” said Khalid after the state’s weekly executive council meeting.

The four companies are Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas), Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd, Konsortium Abass Sdn Bhd (Abass) and Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sungai Selangor Sdn Bhd (Splash).

The state is making the offer via its investment arm Kumpu-lan Darul Ehsan Bhd (KDEB).

The four companies are being offered a 12% per annum return on equity, compared to the usual 6% return in the in-dustry.

Khalid said KDEB will also set up a Special Purpose Vehi-cle to take over the concessionaires’ liabilities.

“This acquisition will also end the era of monopolisation of the water industry by any individual or company,” he added.

Syabas is Selangor’s sole water distributor while Puncak Niaga manages 29 out of 32 water treatment plants in the state.

Both companies are subsidiaries of Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd, whose executive chairperson is former Selangor Umno treasurer Tan Sri Rozali Ismail.

Gamuda Bhd holds the majority shares (40%) in Splash while Abass is a subsidiary of KDEB.

Khalid said the people will continue to receive 20 cubic metres of free water after the state restructures the water in-dustry.

He promised the public that the state will manage the water industry efficiently and in a transparent manner.

The concessionaires have been given two weeks to con-sider the state’s new offer.

The federal government gave KDEB the greenlight to consolidate Selangor’s water industry back in January 2008.

But after Pakatan Rakyat took over Selangor, Putrajaya has not been supportive of the state’s effort to acquire the four companies.

In 2009, the National Water Services Commission inter-fered with ongoing negotiations between Selangor and the four companies and attempted to acquire their assets directly.

Selangor first offered to acquire the companies at RM5.7 billion in January 2009 and subsequently revised its bid to RM9.3 billion in June 2009. The first bid was snubbed by all four. The second was accepted by Splash and Abbas but re-jected by Syabas and Puncak Niaga.

In 2010, Putrajaya offered RM10.3 billion and Gamuda raised the offer to RM10.8 billion but both failed to close the deal with the four companies as well. Khalid hopes this time, the federal government will use its decisive power as the golden shareholder in Syabas to facilitate the state’s restructur-ing exercise and end the four-year stalemate.

Khalid reading out details of the state’s offer to the four water firms. With him are state exco members (from left) Ronnie Liu, Rodziah Ismail, Dr Xavier Jayakumar, Teresa Kok, Dr Halimah Ali, Yaakob Sapari and Iskandar Samad.

SELANGOR TIMES ⁄ february 22 – 24, 2013 ⁄ 3

4 february 22 – 24, 2013

News

By Lee Choon Fai

shah alam: After months of inaction by the Election Commission (EC), a judicial review was filed at the High Court yesterday to compel the EC to investigate and act on cases of doubtful voters in Klang.

Klang member of Parliament Charles Santiago said the EC is empowered to act under the Elections Regulations 2002 but they have been dragging their feet.

“During the last Parliament sitting I raised irregularities in the electoral roll and the EC held a briefing to respond.

“(EC chairperson) Tan Sri Abdul Aziz (Mohd Yusof ) then asked me to write a letter to the EC regarding the claims and we submitted it in December,” said Santiago at the High Court.

The lawmaker said the various irregularities found in his constituency are a valid cause for concern.

This includes some 6,000 doubtful voters, 3,457 voters whose names were removed from the roll without permis-sion or information, and 2,195 voters who were transferred without permission.

Santiago cited a case where more than 60 voters were registered in a single home and dubbed the case “Rumah 1Malaysia” for its multiracial composition.

“This ‘Rumah 1Malaysia’, has more than 60 names registered in it; in 2008, one Chinese, 13 Indians, 47 Malays were registered in the house.

“In 2011, 13 names were removed and the EC explained that those were names of squatters in the area and they have used the house owner’s address to register themselves,” said Santiago.

However, the explanation falls short as the owner of house 994, Jalan Papan, Pandamaran, has signed a statu-tory declaration that states he had not given permission to anyone to use his address since the 1950s.

Furthermore, two more names were registered under the address in 2012 and Santiago says he had documented evidence of the irregularities.

Another case involves a Klang voter who is registered in non-existent parliamentary (Butterworth) and state (Shah Alam) seats.

“It is a violation of a citizen’s fundamental rights to have their names removed from the roll without a reason, and the sudden registration of non-voters are a cause for con-cern,” said Santiago.

Despite the mounting evidence of irregularities, San-tiago learned in a follow-up letter a month after the initial one that his complaints were still being processed.

When asked to explain the delay, the EC replied that the person in charge of processing was in Sabah to par-ticipate in the Sabah Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI).

“Two months to process 6,000 names is unacceptable, and we need a court order to compel the EC to act.

“How long more do we have to wait? For all we know Parliament could be dissolved next week,” said Santiago.

Santiago’s lead counsel, John Fam, hopes the court will grant the leave application to ensure the integrity of the electoral roll.

“The electoral roll needs to be corrected, I won’t be so audacious as to claim that the roll is tainted but it needs to be reviewed and it is an immediate concern,” said Fam.

Judicial review to compel EC action

EvEnts

BKP shares CNY joy with seniors

mandarin Dhamma Talk

The Subang Jaya Buddhist Association will be having a Mandarin Dhamma talk every Sunday from March 10 from 11.30am to noon at their premises at Jalan Kewajipan SS13, Subang Jaya. Free transportation for elderly people living in Subang Jaya and USJ area will also be provided For more details, call 03-56348181 (Cindy).

Chinese art Classes

Chinese Calligraphy, Flora & Fauna Ink Drawing and Landscape Ink Drawing classes are being offered by the Department of Extra-Mural Studies, Malaysian Institute of Art. Classes are open to seniors, adults and children aged 10 years and above, once a week for two hours, either every Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday. Classes will be conducted at MIA Art Centre, Jalan Ampang (near KLCC). Registration is required. For more information call 03-21632337, email ems@mia.edu.my or visit www.mia.edu.my.

hands Percussion Recruiting

Malaysia’s creative artistic drumming group Hands Percussions will be holding a second round of auditions on March 3 at 9am. Those interested would be required to have at least five years experience in a percussive instrument to join them as trainee drummers. Practice sessions for trainees are held every Sunday from 10am to 5pm. Auditions will be held at the Chong Hwa Independen t High School, Jalan St Thomas, Off Batu 3 1/2 Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur. Only Shigu drums will be available so do bring along your own instruments and prepare a 3-5 minute solo piece. For more information call 012-2237769 (Miu Ng), 016-3819112 (Zoe Lee) or email siu2ng@gmail.com or zoelee@hands.com.my.

Diabetes Talk

Sau Seng Lum Diabetes Care Centre will be having a health talk titled “How Does Diabetes Affect You?” on March 9 at 9am. Admission is free. The talk will be held at the Sau Seng Lum (Puchong) Dialysis and Stroke Rehabilitation Centre, Jalan Industri PBP 3, Pusat Bandar Puchong. For more information, call 03-58829115, 03-58825891, 03-58821476 ext 2012, or visit www.sausenglum.com.my.

mt Kinabalu Charity Climb

Shelter Home will be organising their annual four-day, three-night Mt Kinabalu charity climb again on May 29 until June 1. This climb is open to both Malaysians and foreigners and needed is a photocopy of passport or identity card for registration. Registration fee for Malaysians is RM2,010 per adult package and for foreigners it is RM2,110 per adult package. Funds raised during the climb will be channelled towards the education, healthcare and protection of abused and abandoned children in the home. They are seeking about 40 climbers. For more information or registration, call 03-79550663, 012-2574305 (Edwin), 016-2713069 (Roland) or visit www.shelterhome.org.

CNY Toastmasters meeting

Open University Malaysia (OUM) new Toastmasters Club will be organising a Chinese New Year Toastmasters meeting on Feb 23, 3pm at Theatrette, Block B Area A, Open University Malaysia, Jalan Tun Ismail, Kuala Lumpur. All are welcome to join in to improve public speaking skills and deliver impromptu speeches as well. Admission is free. For more information, call 012-2102977, 03-27732395 (Arnie) or 012-9193190, 03-27732760 (Nazrai).

Caving Course

A Basic Caving Course will be organised by the Malaysian Nature Society in Kota Gelanggi Pahang from March 8-10. Participants will get to learn about cave geology, flora/fauna, archaelogy conservation techniques, abseiling and cave exploration activities. Fees are RM350 for members and RM420 for non-members. For details, call 012-3034780, email mnssue@hotmail.com (Sue) or 012-2055436, rj_rajiv@yahoo.com (Rajiv).

Nature Race

Race through the Chamang Waterfall in Bentong Pahang while raising awareness to save the rainforest on March 2. Organised by Pertubuhan Perlindungan Khazanah Alam (PEKA), this 10km race titled “Save Our Rainforest Race” requires participants to form teams of two. Those interested can register online at www.pekamalaysia.org, with a fee of RM80 per person. For more information, call 017-3182733 (Jules) or 012-3564717 (Sara).

Santiago (right) speaking to reporters yesterday after submitting the leave application for a judicial review. Lead counsel Fam is on Santiago’s right.

Kuala lumPuR: Residents of Rumah Victory Elderly Home here had a blast for Chinese New Year when Bukit Kiara Properties (BKP) Sdn Bhd visited the home bearing gifts on Feb 6.

A resident who wished to be known as Chan said the home was very excited about BKP’s visit, with some of them leaving their routine television hours to wait for BKP staff ’s arrival.

BKP group managing director Datuk NK Tong and chief operating officer LK Fan distributed ang pows to the

senior citizens and also donated 12 hampers to the home.The BKP team also performed several Chinese New

Year tunes much to the joy and laughter of the old folks, who also chipped in and sang along.

“We are glad to see smiles on the faces of the elderly and to be able to spread some warmth, care and joy during the festive season. It’s great to see the team bring sparkles of joy to them,” said Tong.

Guardian of the home Loo Choon Teong said it was great to have BKP to share the Chinese New Year joy.

The God of Prosperity delivering his well-wishes and blessingsto residents of Rumah Victory Elderly Home.

SELANGOR TIMES ⁄ february 22 – 24, 2013 ⁄ 5

6 february 22 – 24, 2013

News

By Gan Pei Ling

shah alam:  Selangor has refuted claims by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) transmission vice-president Datuk Rozimi Remeli that the  state is still refusing to give its cooperation to resolve the dead-lock over the construction of power lines in Rawang.

Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim on Wednesday said Sel-angor had accepted an alternative route proposed by the utility company during the Selangor Economic Action Council (MTES) meeting on Jan 30.

“(TNB representatives) came to see us at MTES. They had a proposal for an alternative (route). I accepted it,” he said.

Rozimi reportedly told national news agency Bernama on Mon-day that Selangor continues to block TNB from completing the missing link of the 59km-long Central Area Reinforcement project.

Khalid said the state will release the relevant MTES meeting minutes to prove that Selangor had agreed to TNB’s proposal.

He also confirmed that the proposed alternative route will bypass Chinese New Village Kampung Sungai Terentang and a Malay vil-lage in Batu 16.

Villagers at Kampung Sungai Terentang have been campaigning for the last eight year against the original route for the 275kV high-voltage transmission lines which would run through the village.

A total of 51 homes would have had to be demolished under the original route which would also be located near a maternity clinic, kindergarten and primary school.

In addition, they were concerned over the health impact of the power lines’ magnetic field on pregnant women, infants and chil-dren.

T h e n a t i o n a l utility company’s previous attempts to carry out con-struction work at the village in 2011 had resulted in a stand-off with vil-lagers.

Selangor subse-quently hired a for-eign independent consultant, Aecom Australian Pty Ltd, which proposed to rea-lign the power lines along Rawang Highway’s existing road reserves in 2011.

The state had approved TNB’s new alternative route on the grounds that it will not pass through residential areas, school and factory nor harm public health and safety.

It was Selayang member of Parliament William Leong who first broke the news and told the press on Jan 31 that TNB would not pass through high-density areas and villagers no longer need to worry about the project.

Selangor Times had reported the story on its front page in Issue 109 (Feb 1-3, 2013).

Leong had said it was TNB’s Corporate Services assistant gen-eral manager Mohd Jailini Abas who told MTES that the new alignment will spare the two villages.

shah alam: Selangor dispelled talk that it would announce the date of the dissolution of its state assembly next week after a meeting with the Sultan on Wednesday.

Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said the state will only make the announcement on the day of dissolution itself in accordance with Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah’s advice.

“The Sultan does not object to (early) dis-solution but he suggested that it should be done in an orderly manner,” Khalid told re-porters.

He said Selangor is ready for elections and has no problem if state polls were held simul-taneously with national elections.

Khalid had previously said that Selangor might consider an early dissolution if Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak does not announce the date of national polls after Chap Goh Meh (Feb 24).

If Najib does not dissolve Parliament within the next two months, it will automati-cally dissolve on April 28 - five years after Parliament first convened on the same day in 2008.

The Election Commission must hold the elections within 60 days of the dissolution.

Selangor’s state assembly will automatically dissolve on April 22.

Khalid denies TNB claims

Flashback: Our report in Issue 109.

Tree may have to goampang: Roots from a tree are clogging a storm drain in the interior of Kampung Baru Ampang and the decade-old tree may have to be felled to rectify the situation.

Resident Tan Chee Seng said minor flashfloods occur whenever there is heavy rain-fall as rubbish that could normally flow through the drains get caught up in the roots.

“The drain originally was about six feet wide, now the tree’s roots take up much of the space and only one and a half feet is left,” he said.

Tan, 52, said the one-me-tre-deep drain is filled to the brim whenever it rains and several houses along Jalan 17 were flooded during the mon-soon season last December.

Although the floods were not serious, he feared they could get worse if the problem is not rectified immediately.

Village Security and Devel-opment Committee ( JKKK) secretary Ee Wai Leong said the community had lodged complaints with the Ampang Ja y a Mu n i c i p a l C o u n -cil  (MPAJ) but so far only stop-gap measures were employed.

“MPAJ has only been cutting pieces of root from the trees; after a while, the roots grow back and the drain gets clogged again,” said Ee.

Meanwhile, Lembah Jaya assembl-yperson Khasim Abdul Aziz came to the site armed with a chainsaw and cut off several pieces of roots himself.

H e s a i d MPAJ will be felling the tree but may need to obtain permission from a private landowner first.

“MPAJ will be cutting the whole tree, but they may need the (land) owner’s permission first because it is possibly a piece of private land,” said Khasim who was accompanied by MPAJ personnel.

Khasim taking it upon himself to cut off roots that are clogging the storm drain. Inset: Ee.

Selangor ready for joint polls

By Chong Loo Wah

PUTRAJAYA: Calls for the approval of Catholic High School 2 and SJK(C) Yak Chee in Puchong are gathering momentum after campaigners submitted 60,000 petition cards to the Education Ministry here.

Catholic High School 2 Development Com-mittee chairperson Chong Fat Leong said the group had previously met separately with  Prime Minister Datuk Sri Najib Razak and his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin but their appeals had fallen on deaf ears.

“That’s why we launched a signature cam-paign to show Tan Sri Muhyiddin (who is also Education Minister) that the public is demand-ing for the schools,” said Chong.

Chong, along with 31 other representatives from Catholic High School, SJK(C) Han Ming, SJK(C) Sin Ming, and SJK(C) Yak Chee dem-onstrated outside the ministry before handing over the cards.

They had approached Muhyiddin on Dec 24 last year while they also met Najib on Feb 17 to raise their concerns.

There are currently 3,000 students in Catholic High School, which is situated in Petaling Jaya, and about 1,000 of its students live in Puchong.

Chong said students from Puchong have to wake up as early as 5am and may only arrive

home at 7pm due to the long distance of com-muting.

Due to the limited space available in Catholic High School, approximately 1,000 applications from parents have to be rejected as well each year.

He also said the ball is now in the federal

government’s court as the state government had already allocated land for the school.

“The state government had already alienated a piece of land for the school, right now we are only waiting for the federal government’s ap-proval,” said Chong.

7FEBRUARY 22– 24, 2013NEWS

Residents calling for the approval of two vernacular schools in Puchong demonstrated in front of the Education Ministry in Putrajaya on Feb 20.

1. Tender adalah dipelawa daripada perunding-perunding di Malaysia yang berdaftar dengan Kementerian Kewangan, Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara (SPAN), Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia bertaraf Sendirian Berhad dan Lembaga Jurutera Malaysia, berkelayakan dan berpengalaman untuk memasuki tender bagi perkhidmatan berikut:

2. Dokumen Meja Tender boleh disemak pada waktu pejabat di PEJABAT SETIAUSAHA KERAJAAN NEGERI SELANGOR, Seksyen Makro & Penswastaan, Unit Perancang Ekonomi Negeri, Tingkat 16, Bangunan Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, 40503 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan bermula pada 26 Februari 2013 (Selasa).

3. Dokumen Tender boleh dibeli bermula pada 26 Februari 2013 (Selasa). pada waktu pejabat di alamat:

PEJABAT SETIAUSAHA KERAJAAN NEGERI SELANGOR, Seksyen Makro & Penswastaan, Unit Perancang Ekonomi Negeri,

Tingkat 16, Bangunan Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, 40503 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan

4. Tarikh akhir penjualan Dokumen Tender adalah pada 07 Mac 2013 (Khamis). Dokumen Tender tidak akan dikeluarkan selepas dari tarikh tersebut.

5. Petender perlu mematuhi syarat-syarat yang terdapat dalam Arahan Kepada Petender. Kegagalan pihak petender untuk mematuhi syarat-syarat tersebut akan menyebabkan dokumen tender tidak akan dipertimbangkan.

6. Dokumen Tender akan dikeluarkan kepada wakil-wakil Perunding yang sah sahaja. Untuk maksud ini, wakil-wakil Perunding hendaklah membawa Sijil Pendaftaran Asal Kementerian Kewangan Malaysia, Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara (SPAN), Lembaga Jurutera Malaysia dan Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM), serta salinan bagi semua sijil pendaftaran tersebut semasa membeli dokumen tender.

7. Bayaran untuk Dokumen Tender hendaklah dibuat dalam bentuk Draft Bank atau Kiriman Wang atas nama Bendahari Negeri Selangor.

8. Dokumen Tender yang telah lengkap diisi hendaklah dihantar dalam sampul surat berlakri dan bertanda dengan tajuk kerja dan nombor tender berkenaan pada sebelah atas kiri sampul dan dimasukkan ke dalam Peti Tender sebelum atau pada pukul 12.00 tengahari 14 Mac 2013 (Khamis), di alamat :

PEJABAT SETIAUSAHA KERAJAAN NEGERI SELANGORSeksyen Makro & Penswastaan, Unit Perancang Ekonomi Negeri

Tingkat 16, Bangunan Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah40503 Shah Alam

SELANGOR DARUL EHSAN

9. Dokumen Tender yang lewat diterima dari tarikh dan masa yang ditetapkan tidak akan dipertimbangkan. Dokumen Tender yang diserahkan selepas tarikh dan masa yang ditetapkan berbangkit dari apa jua sebab tidak akan dilayan.

KERAJAAN NEGERI SELANGOR

KENYATAAN TENDER(TENDER TERBUKA)

Butir-butir Tender Syarat-syarat Pendaftaran Harga Dokumen Tarikh dan Masa Taklimat dan Lawatan Tapak

PELANTIKAN PERUNDING BAGI 1. Berdaftar dengan Kementerian Kewangan dan pendaftaran masih sah; 25 Februari 2013 (Isnin)CADANGAN MEREKA BENTUK DAN 2. Berdaftar dengan SPAN dan pendaftaran masih sah; Jam 10.00pagi MENYELIA PROJEK PEMBINAAN 3. Berdaftar dengan Lembaga Jurutera Malaysia dan pendaftaran masih sah; dan Berkumpul di:TANGKI AIR 1 MG DAN MEMBAIK 4. Berdaftar Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM), bertaraf Sendirian Berhad dan Loji Rawatan Air Sungai Langat, Batu 10, Jalan Hulu Langat, CherasPULIH BUMBUNG TANGKI AIR 2 MG tempoh pendaftaran masih sah.SERTA KERJA-KERJA LAIN YANG BERKAITAN DI LOJI RAWATAN Kod Bidang pendaftaran:- RM100.00 Lawatan tapak adalah diwajibkan. AIR SUNGAI LANGAT i. 330101 (Kejuruteraan awam); (Tidak akan Petender-petender yang tidak menghadiri taklimat dan lawatan tapak tidak layak ii. 330101 (Kejuruteraan Elektrikal); dan dikembalikan) untuk membeli Dokumen Tender.

iii. 330101 (Kejuruteraan Mekanikal).

60,000 petition for Puchong schools

8 FEBRUARY 22– 24, 2013NEWS

Moves to prevent more Puchong floodsBy Brenda Ch’ng

PUCHONG: Immediate action is being taken to unblock and widen the existing drainage along Damansara-Puchong Highway (LDP), which are believed to be the major cause of Monday’s flash floods in the area.

Two sections of the LDP opposite the IOI Mall were hit by floods for about 30 minutes, with water reaching to almost 0.8 metres, and causing massive traffic congestion.

About 140 cars parked at the IOI Mall open carpark space were affected and about 15 cars needed to be towed away.

“MPSJ (Subang Jaya Municipal Council) will be engaging Prasarana (Syarikat Prasarana Ne-gara Berhad) to clear the debris and blockage immediately, as a short-term plan,” said Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim during a press conference yesterday.

Prasarana will be responsible for the works because the existing drainage is located at the Prasarana light rail transit (LRT) construction site beside IOI Mall.

Khalid was briefed on the matter by MPSJ president Datuk Asmawi Kasbi on Wednesday during the Selangor Economic Action Council (MTES) and they came up with a few solutions.

For the medium term plan, Khalid proposed for MPSJ to look into the planning approvals of buildings in the area and also to provide better water outlets if these were lacking.

“We want to see if the developments in the area comply with the building plans... We will do that now and then move on from there,” he said.

For a long-term solution, Khalid said a new water outlet may be built to channel water into a nearby lake instead of all water flowing into the Klang River.

“We cannot stop downpours from happening but we can try and ensure the speed of water flow-ing away (from the highways and surrounding area) is faster,” he said.

Prasarana is in the midst of widening the trench and making the winding ditch straight, to enable smoother flow of water during heavy rains and to prevent back flow.

“We suspect that there is blockage somewhere downstream that disrupted the flow of water from the Puchong Jaya area (upstream) to the Klang River,” said Asmawi.

He added that the existing trench is old and not able to cater to the heavy flow of water coming from higher ground areas like Bandar Puchong Jaya.

“We will call for a meeting with Litrak and our

Kok (right), Gobind (second from right), Asmawi (fourth from right) and Liu (fifth from right) being briefed by Litrak and Prasarana representatives

Choo (fifth from right) with other Klang councillors and organisers of the event.

KLANG: A street party coupled with singing , drum and dance performances will be held at Jalan Pasar this Sunday night in celebration of Chap Goh Meh.

Local singers Chow Kam Leong and Suen and dance and choir groups will be making an appearance during the festival from 8pm to 11pm.

Chap Goh Meh, also known as the Lantern Festival and Chinese Valen-tine’s Day, falls on the 15th day of Chi-nese New Year.

Klang councillor Robert Choo said part of Jalan Pasar will be closed from 5pm onwards.

Motorists are advised to use Jalan Nanas or Lebuh Gopeng instead.

The public can park at Goldcourse Hotel or Shaw Centrepoint and walk to Jalan Pasar to participate in the street

party.It is jointly organised by Klang Chi-

nese youth groups, the Klang Municipal Council and office of Sungai Pinang a ssemblyp erson Datuk Teng Chang Khim.

Meanwhile, the annual Chap Goh Mei celebration at Pulau Ketam 7A jetty will also be held on the same night from 7pm to 11pm.

Hundreds, especially singles, are ex-pected to attend the riverboat tour to throw mandarin oranges into the sea in hope of finding a romantic partner this year.

The boat fee is RM5 for adults and RM3 for children.

Proceeds will be donated to vernacu-lar school SJK (C) Wu Teck in Port Klang.

Chap Goh Meh street party

S

technical department to see what can be done to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” he said.

He further urged Litrak to check the existing culverts in the area and to fix any broken ones found.

Asmawi explained that the shopping mall has been hit by flash floods once before in 2006 but it did not involve the LDP highway.

“This is an extraordinary flood as the water was stuck on one spot along the highway. I hope a study will be done to check if there is a design flaw along the LDP,” said Puchong member of Parliament

Gobind Singh Deo.Gobind explained that this might happen again

if the problem is not rectified immediately as this is the rainy season.

Also present at the press conference was MPSJ councillor Loka Ng, Ng Sze Han and Kinrara as-semblyperson Teresa Kok who urged residents to not throw rubbish into the drains and on the streets.

“Shop owners and residents should be aware as littering will cause the disruption of water flow and cause floods,” she said.

9FEBRUARY 22– 24, 2013NEWS

By Brenda Ch’ng

PETALING JAYA: Residents along Jalan 14/20 here are fed-up with having to put up with a foul stench emanating from foreign worker hostels in the area.

Double-storey terrace houses converted into hostels are believed to house up to 10 migrant workers each and sometimes the number rises to about 20 tenants from Myanmar, Nepal and Vietnam. Residents claim that some of these hostels have been operating with impunity since 2004.

“Because of them and their unhygienic ways I’ve got this disease called chronic rhinitis and it’s causing me to slowly lose my voice,” said Tan Hong See, 62.

The former lecturer explained that the disease causes inflammation and irritation of the nose and throat and he is currently on medication.

Rhinitis is usually triggered by airborne al-lergens and may cause nasal itching, coughing, headache, and watery, reddened or itchy eyes.

Tan, who moved in 40-years ago, has her house right smack in the middle of foreign worker hostels, behind and beside her home.

Everyday Tan has to bear with the bad odour coming from the foreign workers, who she be-lieves do not shower or wash their clothes prop-erly.

“It’s so bad that when they come home, my tongue turns bitter and there is a bitter taste in my mouth. Maybe it’s because of the chemicals from the factory they work at,” she said.

Tan, who lives alone, explained that she has

to board up the holes in her home and shut all windows and doors to prevent the smell from entering the house.

“How can someone live like this? Can’t even air my home or get fresh air. It’s like living in a jail,” she said.

Tan had highlighted this to the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) a few times but enforce-ment officers came twice and left with just a warning or issued a summons.

According to the Petaling Jaya Local Draft 1 (RTPJ1), houses along Jalan 14/20, 14/24 and 14/14 are not allowed to be turned into hostels unless there is a 100% consent from all residents there.

The RTPJ1 further states that individual ap-plications will not be considered.

Sharing her plight is fellow resident Faizah Ali, who is also suffering from ulcers in her mouth and rashes on her skin due to the “toxic” air.

“It’s so smelly and toxic, the ulcers are also so painful and my voice is starting to turn coarse,” she said.

The grandmother, who is in her 70s, said she has to finish cooking by 6am everyday and shut all doors and windows immediately after to prevent the smell from entering her home.

In addition to the odour, the drain outside her home has collapsed since September last year and the clogged rubbish there is adding on to the stench.

“We’ve made so many phone calls to MBPJ, went there personally and even lodged an online complaint but still nothing. Why is it so hard to

just repair a broken drain? I do not understand,” she said.

Faizah is also worried that the collapsed drain might cause her house to flood during heavy rainfalls as water cannot flow to the outlet.

“The smell gets worse during hot days, and it’s getting more inbearable because of all the rubbish flowing down from commercial area up the street,” she said.

She hopes the authorities will do something quick so that she can call her house a home once more.

When contacted, an MBPJ spokesperson explained that the house owner did not convert it into a hostel and the usage still remains as

residential, so they cannot take any action.“We did a few site visits at that location but

we only found a maximum of five to six people living in one house, and that is not categorised as a hostel,” said MBPJ public relations officer Zainun Zakaria.

She explained that a residential home is only categorised as a hostel if there are more than 10 people living there, have their own compound and the home renovated to cater to more rooms.

“We are aware of the complaint but every time we check there are less than six people living there so we cannot do anything. But we will follow up on this matter and visit the house again,” she said.

Hostels too close for comfort

The drain that has collapsed and is now clogged up with rubbish.

FIND OUT THE TRUTH ATA FORUM NEAR YOU

“FORUM AIR UNTUK RAKYAT” www.selangorku.com

THE WATER ISSUE:

WHO IS REALLY RESPONSIBLE?

MDSB 22.02.2013 Dewan Sri Bernam, 8.00pm – 11.00pm (FRIDAY) Pekan Sg.Besar, Sabak Bernam

MDHS 22.02.2013 Dewan Dato’ Abdul Hamid, 8.00pm – 11.00pm (FRIDAY) Batang Kali, Hulu Selangor MBPJ 23.02.2013 Dewan Serbaguna PJS 6/3B, 9.00am – 11.00am (SATURDAY) Kampung Lindungan PJ (Morning)

MDKS 23.02.2013 Dewan Orang Ramai, 8.00pm – 11.00pm (SATURDAY) Bestari Jaya

MPSJ 24.02.2013 Dewan Kenanga, Bangunan 10.00am-12.00pm (SUNDAY) MPSJ (Morning)

MPAJ 24.02.2013 Dewan Komuniti, 8.00am – 11.00am(AMPANG) (SUNDAY) Bandar Baru Ampang (Morning)

MPKj 24.02.2013 Dewan Orang Ramai 8.00am – 11.00am(CHERAS) (SUNDAY) Batu 11, Cheras (Morning)

MPKj 25.02.2013 Kompleks Sukan Seksyen 15, 8.00pm – 11.00pm(KAJANG) (MONDAY) Bandar Baru Bangi

MDKL 26.02.2013 Dewan Sri Jugra, Banting 8.00pm – 11.00pm (TUESDAY)

MPS 28.02.2013 Lobi Menara MPS, Selayang 8.00pm – 11.00pm (THURSDAY) MPSp 28.02.2013 Dewan Orang Ramai 8.00pm – 11.00pm (THURSDAY) Taman Putra Perdana, Puchong

FORUM AIR UNTUK RAKYAT

10 februarY 22 – 24, 2013

news

Recycling business gone wrong

New link to ease congestion

Thousands at CNY doExecutive councillors and lawmakers together with Khalid, Anwar and Wan Azizah at the state’s open house. Inset: Khalid (right) and executive councillors Ean Yong Hian Wah and Teresa Kok giving out ang pow to children.

By Lee Choon Fai

KAJANG: An irresponsible recy-cling business owner has been caus-ing a stink and turning a corner of the Desa Ria commercial district into a dumpsite.

Kajang municipal councillor Ed-die Ng said it is unclear when the recycling business started but its operators have resorted to using sur-rounding areas to store their goods (and rubbish) much to the disgust of other businesses.

“People in this area have been complaining about it for about two years now; the recycling business has only rented one ground floor shop-lot but taken over the entire area,” said Ng.

Huge areas around the shoplot are stacked with rubbish waiting to be recycled, taking much of the avail-able parking space and also blocking other premises.

The trash piles permeate the air with a pungent smell of rotting re-fuse while waste water flows around the area; visiting the place is an as-sault to the senses.

Ng said the business is a health risk as it could become a hot bed for disease-carrying pests such as mos-quitoes and other insects.

He said the Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj) had issued com-pounds to the operator many times for the past two years but they have refused to pay up and the council stepped up the pressure by seizing a roro bin just before Chinese New Year.

“They (operators) met with the council immediately to reclaim their bin but we did not allow them to; they must clean up the place and relocate to an industrial area,” said Ng.

He revealed that a fire broke out from the trash sitting on the reserve land in the middle of last year and it took firefighters about six hours to

put it out.Ng also alleged that other busi-

ness owners where threatened with violence when they dared to speak up against the operators publicly.

The operators then said they would be relocating to the Taming Jaya Industrial District within a month, but as of Feb 19 it was busi-ness as usual until MPKj enforce-ment officers came knocking.

After speaking to the operators for about 10 minutes, the council seized another three roro bins, which is expected to be a huge blow to their operations.

MPKj Corporate Planning and Public Relations Unit head Shari-man Mohd Nor said the operators have violated Section 46 (1) A of local by-laws by obstructing public space and have also intruded into government property.

“We will be issuing them notices to vacate the premises and will also be issuing compounds of RM1,000.

“We have given them time to re-locate which they promised to do before the end of Chinese New Year; now Chap Goh Meh is coming and as we can see nothing has been done,” said Shariman.

He said the council will be giving the operators four more days to clean up and move out or MPKj will take drastic action.

“We may dig up the access road (to the reserve land) to prevent any vehicle from entering; this will not allow them to dump or store any of their rubbish there,” said Shariman.

Meanwhile, Serdang member of Parliament Teo Nie Ching, who was also on site with MPKj councillor Bryan Lai, said the state is always supportive of businesses but not if they affect others.

“I think recycling is good business for the environment, but you cannot it turn into a dump site and put the public’s cleanliness and health at risk,” said Teo.

By Brenda Ch’ng

seri KembANGAN: Construction of a new road linking Persiaran Equine Perdana and Persiaran Lestari Perdana to ease the worsening traffic conges-tion affecting over 10,000 motorists daily is underway.

The project, which started on Feb 1, will cost the state RM504,000 and is scheduled for completion on March 14.

“We’ve studied the traffic situation and the only way to mitigate the congestion is to build an access road linking the two main roads in the area,” said state executive councillor for local government Ronnie Liu.

He said during the ground-breaking ceremony on Tuesday that this project will cater to residents in Taman Equine Perdana, Taman Lestari Perdana, Ta-man Puncak Jalil and residents from Kinrara.

Currently, motorists who want to get from Persi-aran Equine Perdana to Persiaran Lestari Perdana will have to drive to the end of the road and make a U-turn to access the Damansara Puchong Highway and South Klang Valley Expressway (SKVE).

This causes bottlenecks on both sides of the road during peak hours.

“We hope this new road access will make it easier for all road users and reduce traffic congestion in the area,” he said.

Liu added that the Subang Jaya Municipal Coun-cil (MPSJ) will be overseeing the construction of the road.

Among works involved are building new drains, relocating utility cables, installing traffic lights and streetlights.

In addition, MPSJ has been urged to collect the road construction funds from the developer of an abandoned project along Jalan Lestari Perdana 1.

“This project is actually the developer’s responsibil-

ity... but since they don’t have funds so we decided to help them first because residents need this urgently,” he said.

Liu hopes MPSJ will collect the money from the developer once the development resumes.

Also at the ground-breaking ceremony was Pu-chong member of Parliament Gobind Singh Deo, who is finding ways to solve the bad traffic congestion along Persiaran Putra Permai.

“Traffic at the Giant area is so bad that residents are finding it hard to access their homes, including neighbourhoods in Taman Equine and Taman Lestari Perdana,” he said.

Gobind met residents recently to hear their woes and has proposed the building of two new major highways to ease traffic.

“That is for long term, but for the short term I hope MPSJ will do a traffic study there and come up with a solution immediately,” he said.

Apart from that, the SRK and SMK Desa Minium will finally be getting a proper road built after a four-year wait. Costing the state RM1.43 million, over 4,000 students and teachers will no longer have to park their cars away from the building.

Since 2009, the road connecting the primary and secondary schools has been left as a gravel path, mak-ing it impossible for cars to drive in. 

“I’ve brought this issue up in Parliament many times and the Education Ministry is well aware but not doing anything. Finally I went to the state for help and the project was approved last October,” he said.

MPSJ is holding the open tender process now and is expecting work to begin either in April or May.

Also present at the press conference were MPSJ president Datuk Asmawi Kasbi and the Seri Serdang constituency coordinator Mohd Rosharizan Mohd Rozlan.

Rubbish stacked outside other shoplots has turned the area into a dumpsite. (Inset) Shariman.

By Brenda Ch’ng

petAliNG JAyA: Thousands joined in the festive cheer during the state’s Chinese New Year open house at the 1 Utama shopping centre’s park-ing lot last Sunday.

The crowd was entertained with music and dance performances, along with free food comprising local fa-vourites like the Chinese Fried Donut to China’s famous Dragon Beard candy.

Some parents were seen forming snake-like queues for food while some were getting their free  calligraphy

writing done on red paper.Children on the other hand waited

patiently in line for the free flour figu-rines, also known as Mian Ren in Mandarin, a Chinese folk art hand-crafted out of coloured rice flour.

Also present were state executive councillors, assemblypersons, mem-bers of Parliament, Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, his wife Puan Sri Salbiah Tunut, Selangor economic adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail,  Petaling Jaya mayor  Da-tin Paduka Alinah Ahmad and coun-cillors. 

I DON’T get it. I just don’t get it.

Sometimes the level of warped logic that permeates

this country simply beggars belief. Take the “invasion” of Sabah for example.

First off, let me be clear that I am glad there has been no vio-lence at the time of writing. I am not here to call for blood.

Indeed it is quite heartening to see a restrained approach taken by the Malaysian police and armed forces.

In fact it is more than restraint, there is a great deal of compassion as can be seen by Sabah’s Police Commissioner who said that they were dealing with human beings and thus the softly, softly ap -proach.

I just wish that compassion can be shown to Malaysians.

Let’s put this in context, armed men land in our country. They are not carrying baseball bats and machetes, they are carrying auto-matic weapons. The possession of such weapons unless in very spe-cific situations can carry with it a death sentence, so the mere fact that they are armed is seriously against the law.

But it is more than that; they are here to claim the Malaysian state of Sabah as belonging to their sovereign.

This looks to me like an act of

w a r . A Q u i x o t i c act of war n o d o u b t b u t h o w else can you describe it?

Yet, these people have been treated gently with no vio-lence or even threat of violence.

On the other hand, when Ma-laysians gather peacefully, with no weapons whatsoever, and de-manding nothing more than the upholding of basic democratic principles, they are tear-gassed and beaten.

Aside from these incidences during large citizen gatherings, we also read of cases where un-armed men, women and children die in police custody or are shot dead by the police.

Is it just me or is something wrong with this picture?

And the warped logic contin-ues.

The banning of Australian lawmaker Nick Xenophon has been hailed by some quarters as necessary to maintain the stabil-ity of the country.

He apparently creates instabil-ity by criticising our electoral process.

That is some seriously odd thinking. The thing that causes instability in a country is when the election system is flawed.

The best way to en-sure a peace-ful and sta-ble country is by making

sure that people have a voice and that they know

their voice matters.In mature democracies, you

don’t see any problems when there is a change in government.

This is because there is faith that the election was fair.

If people feel that then, win or lose, the result can be acceptable. This is because they realise that even if you lose today, there is a fair chance that through demo-cratic means, you will win the next time.

But take away that faith with an electoral system that is rife with gerrymandering , or phan-tom voters or anything else that will undermine the democratic ideal; that is when problems can occur.

If the powers that be and the academics applauding the depor-tation of Xenophon truly care about national stability, then they should look at the real causes of instability, not some noisy Aussie senator.

Work your socks off to fix the electoral system in this country so that citizens will have faith in it once more.

DRIVING southward along the PLUS highway on my return to the Klang Valley, my eyes were treated to a feast of candy ad-

vertisements. Every few minutes, just as I was getting

bored with the scenery, a billboard would surface to dispel the fatigue and provide a shot of amusement.

Each was of course a passing glimpse, but there were so many, they entertained and sustained the long journey: BB1M, KR1M, BR1M...

There is a national sale of things bearing the 1Malaysia logo. But this is an odd case.

Most of the products have been and/or will be given away.

And the recipients are invited to pay back not with ringgit notes, but election votes.

Some teasers: 1Azam, generating eco-nomic opportunities for the poor, and TUKAR, offering funding and modernis-ing assistance to sundry shops.

These ventures are potentially valuable and productive, but being long-term in scope and recently launched, it is a bit too early to assess their impact.

Anyway, in relative terms, the number of people who have benefited from these programmes and who ought to be grateful and indebted is small.

Hence, the billboards flashed just once or twice.

Up the scale of im-portance, youngsters and students are re-m i n d e d o f B B 1 M (Baucer Buku 1Ma-laysia). RM200 was first made available to all ter-tiary-level students to buy books a year ago, right now RM250 is for the taking.

Well, who could be against money for reading material? But I’m not sure if this is the most effective and sustainable method to spur book ownership and a culture of reading.

We could have embarked on an expan-sion of book markets on campus, for stu-dents to resell books and recover some of the cost, and to buy used books on a mass scale. New books would face more price competition.

Students may be encouraged to both buy and value books, since it was paid with their own money and they will be choosing which ones to sell and which to keep. But giving out vouchers, to the tune of RM300 million plus a year, is good for popularity.

So is selling basic goods cheaply. With inflation hitting pockets and minds, KR1M (Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia) came along, offering up a chain of government-blessed budget marts.

I’m sure some are frequenting the out-lets and saving money. But with only 85

stores nationwide, the vast majority of the population re-mains unreached by the network – even af ter the 90 new

ones approve d for 2013, mostly in Sabah and Sarawak.

Addressing the rakyat’s cost of living concerns will require tackling harder and deeper problems, including monopolies in supply chains (such as rice distribution, sugar) and fruitlessly high prices of cars and motor vehicles and highway toll.

The Najib administration’s loudest an-swer to these woes, though, is Bantuan Rakyat (BR1M), clearly the darling of the 1Malaysia pageant.

In 2012, about RM2 billion was dis-bursed to 4.2 million households.

On offer this year: RM500 for house-holds earning below RM3,000 and RM250 for individuals earning below RM2,000, with seven million recipients and close to RM3 billion to be dished out.

We should not belittle the genuine relief and happiness of BR1M beneficiaries. For a household earning RM1,000 a month, RM500 is a welcome bonus.

But we must not ignore how these hand-outs belittle the mature and democratic social protection system, and equitable and productive means of distribution, that we demand our best effort.

While lavishly dispensing BR1M, the federal government is resistant or tepid toward more purposeful and targeted as-sistance, like unemployment insurance and conditional transfers, especially cash for poor families with school kids.

We provide a meagre RM100 for each primary and secondary pupil, when the livelihood needs of large poor families presents an exceptionally legitimate and constructive case for transferring public funds.

In the interest of national development, a reallocation away from BR1M toward schooling assistance is warranted.

But the timing of the disbursement says it all. As you read, BR1M money is being channeled to thousands of folks, then mil-lions, and now and again a politician hints that more of such help could be on the way, if voters help BN on election day.

I wonder if KL to Penang PLUS high-way commuters gazing at the promotional signs of BR1M’s RM500 have realised that one month’s instalment out on a six-year car loan can swallow it all.

Before the generous giving there was bounteous taking.

For all the trumpeting of transforma-tion, BN’s return to power is riding on transfer payments from public coffers to the “bottom 40 per cent”.

A big net, no doubt. Whether it lands a big catch, though, is the aching question.

The bounteous taking before generous giving

11FEBRUARY 22– 24, 2013VIEWS

We live in warped logic

By Gan Pei Ling

THE recent Wangsa Maju pump failure which affected thousands of residents has put the spotlight on Selangor’s water industry again.

In fact, it’s been barely six months since consumers here suffered a scare when Selan-gor’s sole water distributor announced its intention to carry out a water-rationing ex-ercise last July.

News reports and certain parties have been warning the public of a looming water “crisis” but the Selangor government insists there is sufficient water supply in the state.

To understand what’s happening, we need to re-examine the state’s water industry and the power play between the concessionaires, the state and federal governments.

 Who are the players in Selangor’s water industry?

● 1st stage: Raw water collected at seven dams managed by State agency Selangor WaterManagement Authority (LUAS)● 2nd stage: Raw water treated by three private concessionaires since the 1990s Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sungai Selangor Sdn Bhd (Splash) – majority share-holder Gamuda Konsortium Abbas Sdn Bhd (Abass) – majority share holder state investment arm Kumpu lan Dar u l Ehsan Bhd (KDEB) Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd (PNSB) – ma-jority shareholder Puncak Niaga Hold-ings Total production capacity: 4,809 mil-lion litres per day [MLD]● 3rd stage: Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) – majority shareholder Puncak Niaga Holdings - distributes the treated water to consumers Total distributive capacity : 4,371 MLD● 4th stage: Total consumption in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya: 2,944 MLD Non-revenue water due to pipe leak-ages and theft: 1,389 MLD (32%)

 Both PNSB and Syabas are controlled by

Puncak Niaga Holdings, whose executive chairperson is former Selangor Umno treas-urer Tan Sri Rozali Ismail.

Puncak Niaga Holdings recorded a loss after tax of nearly RM84 million in 2011 but still increased the fees it paid to its 10 group directors.

It was reported that its highest paid di-rector received between RM8.35 million to RM8.4 million, higher than the annual fee Air Asia group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandez received in 2011.

Selangor plans to slash the RM5.1 mil-lion annual salary Rozali receives as Syabas’s executive chairperson if it takes over the company.

 Is there a water crisis in Selangor?

Despite what Syabas, Barisan Nasional politicians and the mainstream media would have you believe, there is currently no widespread water shortage in the state.

There have been sporadic water disrup-tions in some areas in Selangor due to Sya-

bas’s limited distributive capacity but noth-ing to the scale of the 1999 water crisis.

Rather, the “water crises” is a result of an ongoing tussle between Selangor, the federal government and private concessionaires over the state’s water resources.

Selangor wants to take over the water concessionaires and restructure the state’s water industry but Puncak Niaga Holdings, backed by Putrajaya, has been resistant to the state’s efforts.

 Why is the Selangor gov-ernment adamant in re-structuring the water industry?

In the 1980s, before the era of privatisa-tion, state-owned Jabatan Bekalan Air Selangor used to manage the state’s water services and was making annual profits of between RM50 million to RM80 million.

But in 1997, the Barisan Nasional-led state administration decided to split the industry and privatised the profitable wa-ter treatment service to three companies.

It wasn’t until 2004 that Syabas took over the loss-making water distribution service and was granted a 30-year conces-sion, allowing them to raise water tariffs every three years from year 2009.

Selangor believes it would be able to keep tariffs at reasonable rates by buying over the four debt-ridden companies and restructuring the fragmented water indus-try.

 What’s the federal gov-ernment’s role in this?

The Energ y, Green Technolog y and Water Ministry and the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) are sup-posed to regulate the country’s water sector under the Water Services Industry Act 2006 (WSIA). 

Indeed, Section 114(1) of the Act al-lows the minister to assume complete or partial control of water assets and business “for national interests”, which “shall not be challenged, appealed against, reviewed, quashed or questioned in any court”.

In the spirit of WSIA, the federal gov-ernment had originally given Selangor’s investment arm Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Bhd the green light to begin the state’s water restructuring exercise before the 2008 general elections. 

However, after Pakatan Rakyat took over the Selangor state administration, its efforts to consolidate the water sector for the past five years have not been backed by Putrajaya.

Splash and Abbas accepted one of the state’s offers in June 2009 but Syabas and PNSB have consistently rejected all bids including from the federal government and Splash major shareholder Gamuda in 2010.  

Selangor’s subsequent proposal to use an international arbitrator to resolve the deadlock and ensure fair compensation for the concessionaires has also been met with silence.

The special cabinet committee set up last year to resolve the “water crisis” in Selangor, led by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, remains non-committal to the state government’s latest attempt to restructure the industry.

 Why does the Selangor government want to ter-minate Syabas’s con-tract?

Selangor’s water tariffs is already the fourth highest in the country and twice more expensive than Penang’s.

Syabas’s 30-year concession would fur-ther allow the company to raise water tar-

12 FEBRUARY 22– 24, 2013INSIGHT

THE BATTLE OVER WATER

iffs starting with 37% in 2009. Fortunately for consumers, Selangor

barred Syabas from raising the tariffs in

2009 as the company failed to reduce the rate of non-revenue water as stipulated in the agreement.

THE BATTLE OVER WATER

In addition, a 2008 audit report found that Syabas had breached several contract terms, including• Awarding RM600million worth ofcontracts in direct negotiation instead of via open tenders• ImportingpipesfromIndonesiancom-panyPTGrowth, linked toRozali, for aRM375millionpipereplacementprojectin the Klang Valley instead of sourcing for local pipes as required• OverRM325millionindiscrepanciesbetweenSyabas’sgeneralaccountsandthecontractsitawardedfrom2005to2007• SpendingRM51.2milliontorenovateitsofficewhenonlyRM23.2millionwasapprovedbythestate.

As a result, Selangor froze Syabas’scapital expenditure except for emergency works andwrote to Putrajaya to seek toterminateSyabas’sagreement.

Butsince2008,theMinistryofEnergy,Green Technology and Water has consist-entlyignoredSelangor’srepeatedrequeststo terminate Syabas’s contract. Selangorcannot cancel Syabas’s concession agree-mentwithout Putrajaya’s consent as thefederal government is also a party to the contract.

 Should Selangor be fault-ed for Syabas’s failure to maintain its pumps, pipes and other problems?

 Syabas and Barisan Nasional politicians havetakentheSelangoradministrationtotaskforfreezingSyabas’scapitalexpendi-ture.Theyhaveclaimedthatitisthecauseof the recent pump failure at the Wangsa MajutreatmentplantandSyabas’sfailureto bring down the rate of non-revenuewater.

However,oneofthemembersofSelan-gorWaterReview Panel, Tony Pua, hadpreviouslypointedout thatwhileSyabasmay request for state funding, the state is undernoobligationtofundSyabas’spipereplacement programmes under the con-cessionagreement.

Indeed,aspolicyadviserandnewspapercolumnist Tricia Yeoh has highlighted, if a private concession, having received sub-stantial public loans and grants, and yet is unabletodeliveritsserviceswell,itmarksthefailureofwaterprivatisationinSelan-gor.

 What’s the deal over the Langat Two project?

CostinganestimatedRM9billion,themegaprojectincludestheconstructionofa pipeline, a dam and awater treatmentplant to transfer water from Pahang toSelangor.

It is the largest water infrastructureprojectinthecountrytodate.

Barisan Nasiona l pol itic ians have claimedthatthemulti-billionprojectmustbecompletedbynextyeartoavoida“watercrisis”inSelangor.

ButtheSelangorgovernmentthinksitcan ensure adequatewater supply in thestate by upgrading the capacity of existing treatment plants and reducing non-reve-nuewater lost through theft and leakingpipes, which at 32% is higher than theWorldBank’srecommendationoflessthan25%.

The state believes it should fully explore thepotentialofitsrawwatersourcesandcheaper solutions such as rainwater har-vestingandwaterrecyclingbeforeembark-ing on an exorbitant interstate watertransferproject.

THERE was some hoo-hah down south about what it means to be a “true Singaporean”. What do you think it means to be a “true Malay-sian”? Does the 1Malaysia concept capture it? (Identity Seeker, via email)

Lord Bobo fails to understand what is behind this Earthly fascination with race or nationality. 

Elsewhere in the billion galaxies, folk don’t bother about these classifications. We don’t attribute particular characteristics (other than physical ones, obviously) or stereotypes to creatures just because of where they’re from.

This is the reason why His Supreme Eminenceness has no problem wandering around freely in other planets but faces a problem on Earth, where humans seem to have an issue with a wonder typewriting monkey walking the streets.

This false homogeneity just because one happens to hold a particular passport is really quite ridiculous. You’re all human beings, why would an artificial construct of a “nation” suddenly make you different, or exactly the same?

We know you struggle with moving away from this because it has been drilled into you your whole life, but perhaps the fol-

lowing will help get it through your thick skulls and puny human brains.

Think of a person as a home in the mak-ing.

Say someone is born into the Malaysian Chinese demographic. If they were to not venture out of this, holding tightly to what they think makes them “Chinese” instead of exploring and embracing other cultures, it is akin to leaving a concrete foundation lying abandoned in an empty field.

For a foundation to be a building, such as a family home, it needs walls, roofing, windows, wiring , plumbing, a Lazy Boy, LoyarBurok books, Yamazaki, and all the other components to turn a concrete foun-dation into a home.

That’s what other cultures do to the heritage of your birth. I believe they flesh us out and develop the true human in all human beings.

So, you are not made to be homogenous and fitting the mould of a “true Malaysian”.

As Dr. Martin Luther King said: “If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sec-tional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.”

Who the hell cares what it means to be Malaysian? You should busy yourself with working out what it means to be human.

What’s going on in Lahad Datu? Should we be fearing for our lives? Is Malaysia going to be invaded by en-emy forces? (Real Sultan of Sulu, via email)

His Supreme Eminenceness has been having problems with the intergalactic internet connection, but no worries we have been keeping tabs with Malaysian news via the trusty mainstream newspa-pers. Nothing much seems to be going on in Lahad Datu.

Apparently a small group of feeble folk have holed up in a village miles away from Lahad Datu, and the good ol Datuk Seri H2O paid a visit and things are going fine. H2O even had time to pose for photos with some mean-looking guns – obviously there’s no danger over there.

We overheard some young fellas at a mamak stall complaining about the lack of firm action by the army or police, but we’re not really sure what the big deal is. The newspapers don’t think that there’s any-thing much worth reporting, so it must be true that nothing major is going on there.

These same young fellas (obviously un-grateful youth who don’t realise that the government has given them a platform to great futures, enabling their parents to make enough money to give them a good education) were also comparing the inac-tion to the overzealous actions of the police against Bersih protesters.

Now, we’ve heard all sorts of stories about what happened at Bersih, but if Lord Bobo recalls, reading the same mainstream newspaper as we were referring to earlier, isn’t Bersih that event where a crowd of rowdy punks went wild and destroyed a police car?

Young people these days obviously need to read the mainstream newspapers more often to find out the truth.

Property&&

Selangor Times’ Property & Lifestyle Supplement focuses not only on property developments and launches but also on the latest trends affecting the home and décor. Join us to bring up-to-date news and insightful lifestyle features affecting the property industry, real estate sector and interior design. Publication Date 15 March 2013Booking & Story Deadline 5 March 2013Material Deadline 13 March 2013

Selangor Times’ Property & Lifestyle Supplement focuses not only on property developments and launches but also on the latest trends affecting the home and décor. Join us to bring up-to-date news and insightful lifestyle features affecting the property industry, real estate sector and interior design. Publication Date 15 March 2013Booking & Story Deadline 5 March 2013Material Deadline 13 March 2013 copies distributed weekly

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True Malaysians and the lowdown on Lahad Datu

Have a question for Lord Bobo? Call on His Supreme Eminenceness by emailing ask-lordbobo@loyarburok.com, stating your full name, and a pseudonym (if you want), or tweeting your questions by mentioning @LoyarBurok and using the hashtag #ask-lordbobo. What the hell are you waiting for? Hear This, and Tremblingly Obey (al-though trembling is optional if you are somewhere very warm)! Liberavi Animam Meam! I Have Freed My Spirit!

Ask Lord Bobo is a weekly column by LoyarBurok (www. loyarburok.com) where all your profound, abstruse, erudite, hermetic, recondite, sagacious, and other thaesaurus-described queries

are answered!

14 FEBRUARY 22– 24, 2013VIEWS

15 FEBRUARY 22 — 24, 2013

news

Jom Shopping for single mums gets thumbs-up

10-year wait for CF endsBy Lee Choon Fai

ampang: Buyers and residents of Seri Mutiara low-cost flats finally received Cer-tificates of Fitness (CF) to their homes after being left in the lurch for a decade.

State executive councillor for Housing Iskandar Samad said the flats with 254 units were built in 2003 and were supposed to be completed by 2005.

However, developer YTalis Sdn Bhd folded and the project was taken over by KPMG, which similarly failed to complete the building due to financial difficulties.

The project was then terminated and taken over by an unnamed developer on Jan 16, 2012, while residents who could no longer afford living outside started moving

in and occupied 100 units.“More than a year ago, residents started

moving into the building, which had yet to be completed and the liquidator was tasked to complete the construction,” said Iskandar during a visit on Feb 19.

Although the building is now completed, Iskandar pointed out there are still many defects that need to be fixed such as water tanks not built according to specifications and poorly done plaster walls.

During the visit, Iskandar was overheard saying “No, no, no. This should not be” in disappointment when his entourage came across a pool of water in the ground floor carpark near the elevators.

It was learnt that the pool was caused by poor drainage systems in the carpark which

By Gan Pei Ling

petaling jaya: Financially-strapped single mothers have welcomed Selangor’s move to extend its Jom Shopping pro-gramme to them.

For a start, 180 single mothers each re-ceived a RM100 voucher to shop at the Giant hypermarket in Kota Damansara last Saturday afternoon.

Jabura Abdul Rahman, 41, bought rice, cooking oil and other groceries with the voucher.

“This helps to relieve my financial bur-den,” said the mother-of-five from Sungai Buloh who survives on RM1,000 a month.

Jabura’s ex-husband contributes RM600 monthly while she receives the remaining RM400 from the Social Welfare Depart-ment.

“I limited myself and only bought what I need for this month,” another single mother Mala Naidu from Sungai Buloh told Selan-gor Times.

The 44-year-old earns RM700 a month by giving tuition and receives RM200 aid from the department.

Abandoned by her husband a few years ago, the former teacher takes care of her

eight-year-old daughter and 89-year-old father with the help of her aunt and uncle.

“This shows that the government recog-nises single mothers (as a marginalised group), I hope it will do more for us,” said Mala.

She has applied for the state’s micro-credit scheme to start a business but has yet to receive a response.

Executive councillor Rodziah Ismail said Selangor has allocated RM1.68 million for the Jom Shopping programme for single mothers.

She said any single mother who is a Ma-laysian national residing in Selangor is eligi-ble to benefit.

A single mother can register with the state’s portal http://e-bu.selangor.gov.my or visit their lawmaker’s service centre to sign up for the programme.

Currently, over 24,000 single mothers are registered with the state.

Among them, Malays number 18,001, Indians 1,574, Chinese 792 while the re-maining group is made up of indigenous people and women of other ethnicities.

The Jom Shopping programme was originally started in July 2011 for senior citizens aged 60 and above.

Iskandar (centre) flanked by Saari and Khor. They were joined by MPAJ officials and representatives of residents.

Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim (centre in blue shirt) chats with single mothers. Inset: Jabura checking out her purchases with her 13-year-old son.

School-leavers, undergraduates or fresh graduates with a keen

interest in community and local government affairs

along with a flair for writing in English are

encouraged to apply. A strong command of

Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin, written and

spoken, is an advantage. Candidates should have

their own mode of transport.Applicants can email their

curriculum vitae to: editor@selangortimes.com

Do you have what

it takes?

needs reporters

Do you

caused water to accumulate in several locations. Iskandar urged residents to list down de-

fects and take pictures of them to lodge an official documented complaint.

“Residents should make a list of complaints and take pictures of it (defects) so it can be properly documented and acted upon; make records of it, don’t just wash your hands of if,” he said during the CF handover ceremony.

The developer will be given 18 months to rectify the defects and Iskandar urged residents to cooperate with each other to keep the place

clean.“Take care of it (the flats) like it is your own

home; not just your unit but the whole flat.“It is the responsibility and duty of residents

to make sure that their flat is well-maintained and clean at all times,” said Iskandar.

The ceremony was attended by approxi-mately 30 residents in a small community hall at the flats. Iskandar was joined by Hulu Kelang assemblyperson Saari Sungib and architect Khor Meow Heong, who was appointed by the developer.

16 february 22 — 24, 2013

news

By Lee Choon Fai

KLANG:  Unlike the previous project an-nounced by the former state administration, the recently announced Third Klang Bridge ( JK3) is guaranteed to materialise.

Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said the difference between the last project and JK3 is that funds have already been allocated to the Klang Municipal Council (MPK) by the state assembly.

“It’s a guaranteed deal….this is the lesson that we learned in March 2008, they (BN) didn’t give a guarantee of funding.

“They just did a ground-breaking ceremo-ny but there were no funds; but here, we have the funds first then only we do it, that’s the difference,” said Khalid during a press confer-ence on Feb 18.

The third Klang Bridge was a pre-election pledge by Menteri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo and former Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu but it failed to materialise after a change in state government.

After JK3’s ground-breaking ceremony on Feb 15, Khalid said the bridge will help ease traffic congestion in Klang, which he called a long-standing problem.

“This bridge is meaningful to the people of Klang; it can help solve several problems, especially traffic congestion, which is a prob-

lem with no end in sight,” he said at a post-ceremony confer-ence.

A competition was held to determine the RM300 million bridge’s design and MPK has shortlisted three.

The final design will be cho-sen in a week’s time while open tenders will be conducted short-ly after; it is estimated that it will take 18-24 months to complete.

Khalid said the money used was from the state’s massive re-serves, which stood at RM2.6 billion as of 2012, and the funds had already been allocated to MPK during the last state as-sembly sitting.

MPK acting president Ikh-san Mukri said the ground-breaking ceremony is a historic moment for Klang and the municipality has a huge potential to become the next develop-mental hub in Selangor.

He pointed out that in 2012, Klang had bagged more than 30%, or RM3.18 billion, of foreign investments in Selangor, which totalled about RM10 billion.

Khalid and Ikhsan were joined by state executive councillors Ronnie Liu, Yaakob

Sapari, Dr Xavier Jayakumar, Halimah Ali and Rodziah Ismail, along with Selangor PAS commissioner Dr Abdul Rani Osman.

Meanwhile, Khalid said in his opening speech that residents are anxious about the elections and are reluctant to invest or spend large amounts of money, causing an eco-nomic slowdown in the process.

He said it is irresponsible for the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to keep the public in anticipation and he should emulate Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s decisiveness.

Gillard had announced on Jan 30 that federal elections will be held on Sept 14, while Najib had been hinting at polls since mid-2011.

When pressed during the post-ceremony press conference on why Pakatan Rakyat had not announced the date of state elections,

Khalid said they are merely following BN’s footsteps.

“If the Prime Minister can play the waiting game, so can Pakatan Rakyat; but I think we should all stop playing games.”

He also said it was up to the Election Com-mission (EC) to decide on the date once the state assembly is dissolved as long as it is called within 60 days and the commission can line it up with GE13.

Lastly, Khalid described Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin’s statement that the Federal gov-ernment had no objections to Selangor’s water restructuring exercise as vague.

“It is very vague, he should say that the ministry agrees (to water restructuring); he must officially state that the Federal govern-ment agrees to it according to law (the Water Services and Industry Act 2006).”

Third Klang Bridge a done deal

(From left) Dr Jayakumar, Liu, a representative from the Public Works Department (JKR), Ikhsan, Khalid, Halimah, Rodziah, Abdul Rani and Yaakob at the ground-breaking ceremony for the third Klang Bridge.

AMPANG: School children and senior citizens at Nusa Kurnia low-cost flats will soon be able to use a safer route to reach the nearest bus stop.

The residents have been using a steep, narrow and exposed drain behind Block B as a “short-cut” to reach Jalan Bukit Permai Utama 2 and the mosque, primary school and bus stop beyond.

“Last year, an elderly woman fell down and injured herself,” Teratai assemblyperson Jenice Lee told the press during a visit to the low-cost flats last Saturday morning.

She decided to give RM5,000 to the flats’ joint management body ( JMB) to hire a contractor to cover the drain and build a proper stairway.

Residents had covered the lower, shorter part of the drain with a few wooden planks but the lengthier and steeper upper drain behind Block B remains exposed. 

Walking by the side of the drain, they can only put one foot for ward at a time and the concrete is slippery after rain.

JMB president Zamri Omar, 42, explained that residents without motor vehicles prefer to use the treacherous route

instead of the main road as it reduces the walking distance by half.

“There’s only one road leading down the hill and it’s a long way down, at least 1km,” said Zamri.

He said the JMB has identified a con-tractor and the company will be able to cover up the drain in a week.

He is looking for more funding to build a handrail to assist residents safely climb up the hill.

There are a total of 200 units at the three blocks of flats at Bukit Pandan. Block A is still without the Certificate of Fitness five years after residents started moving in.

Zamri said the state had last year ap-proved an allocation of RM56,000, under its Ceria financing scheme for low-cost flats, for the JMB to hire a contractor to complete the drainage system at Block A.

Road relief for flats residents

CorrectionWE reported that Tan Sri Megat Najmuddin Megat Khas was Subang Umno chief in 2001 in our front page story “Big guns get cheap land” published in Issue 110 (Feb 8-10, 2013).

He was Subang Umno chief from 1994 to 1995. The error is regretted.

17FEBRUARY 22– 24, 2013NEWS

By Brenda Ch’ng

SUBANG JAYA: Though a pack of salt and rice may seem trifling to many, to nasi lemak seller Lahmak Ahmad even  five kilograms is indispen-sable to his family of six.

“I only earn RM1,200 monthly from selling nasi lemak and all that money is spent on food and the impor-tant things only... most of the time it’s not even enough for food,” he said.

The 50-year-old father of four lives in the SS13 low-cost flats with his wife and children, aged between eight to 14 years.

To make ends meet, Lahmak turns to non-governmental organisations like the Food Bank in Subang Jaya for some help.

Set up by a team of 10 friends from around the Klang Valley in May 2011, the Food Bank provides Lahmak and his family a monthly supply of essentials like rice, salt, flour, sugar and oil.

Sometimes, if there are generous donors, the family gets Milo, biscuits, instant noodles, canned food and even potatoes.

“We are so thankful to them for helping us... though sometimes it’s not enough to feed my four growing chil-dren this helps lessen our burden and monthly expenses,” he said.

To date, the organisation supports 47 needy families consisting of five Chinese families, 25 Malay and 17 In-dian.

Two vans and a car are used to drop off the food in 16 locations around Sub-ang Jaya, Sunway, USJ and Putra Heights each month.

“Although it doesn’t seem like much, this definitely helps us a lot, especially with my husband earning only less than RM1,500 monthly,” said Lim Geok Kim, 58.

The mother-of-three  has her hands full looking after one of her son who is suffering from leukaemia, along with her six-year-old granddaughter.

Her 32-year-old son had to quit his job when he was first diagnosed with the disease about six-years ago and this has left her husband as the sole bread-winner of the family.

Among the others getting aid are single mothers, families which have members who are disabled or those who need dialysis.

“Some of the families even have two disabled children to look after and we have a few cases where the husband has just been released from prison and un-able to work yet.

“In another case, the father who is the sole breadwinner of the family met with an accident and was forced to quit his job, leaving the family with no source of income,” said the Food Bank chairman Richard Chong.

Chong and his team of volunteers also helped a group of foreign workers last year, whose pay was withheld by their employers.

Coming here from places like India to work as a rubbish collectors, these workers had their passports withheld by their employers while they were forced to work without pay. 

The group of about 10 migrant workers got provisions from the Food Bank while a dinner was also organised for them by the volunteers. 

“They were so grateful and touched... one or two brought their children and I could see tears in their eyes and how thankful they were,” Chong said.

It’s situations like these that keeps the Food Bank growing because many rely on the monthly provisions to keep food on their table.

“This just makes us feel how blessed we are and how capable we are to help those less fortunate than us,” he said.

Chong hopes that they can expand their Food Bank to other parts of the Klang Valley, but cannot do so at the moment due to the lack of manpower.

“Sometimes we also get other or-ganisations wanting to help and giving the families Tesco and Carrefour vouchers... Once a really needy family got RM500 voucher from the organisa-tion,” he said.

Chong is also planning to talk to some universities to see if the students are interested to become volunteers and help out once in a while.

“When we are short handed, some-times my son and the children of other volunteers will help out. This is also good because we can raise awareness among the young and let them see how fortunate they are,” he said.

So far, the Food Bank has been get-ting financial help and support from the office of Subang Jaya assemblyper-son Hannah Yeoh, who donated RM12,000 to the organisation last year.

Yeoh also helps the organisation by referring families in need of help to Chong, who will then send food to them.

“When we first started out we did

Food bank proving vital for urban poor

Illegal massage centres face utility cuts

Chong (fourth from right) together with other Food Bank volunteers giving out food stuff to the needy.

not have that kind of resourced to find the families and so we approached Hannah’s office, as we know many of these families will go to her for help,” he said.

Chong is aiming to help 60 families by end of 2013 and is hoping to get more sponsors and donors as their monthly expenses of RM2,500 now will increase to RM4,600 in future.

He further urged others who wants to set up a Food Bank in their area to

contact him.“I can help them and share my expe-

riences.. We can also partner up and work together to help more people,” he said.

The Food Bank is located at Jalan SS15/4B and is looking for both indi-vidual and corporate donors and vol-unteers.

For those interested to help out, call 012-2880883 or 016-2353443 (Day-an).

KAJANG: In a bid to promote cleanliness in the area, the Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj) distrib-uted 83 bulk bins to 44 low-cost flats throughout their jurisdiction.

MPKj president Datuk Hassan Nawawi Abd Rahman urged resi-dents to do their part and properly dispose of their wastes.

“We will collect rubbish, but the public must do their part; put your waste in plastic bags, tie them up properly and throw them into the bins, if not we will not collect,” he said.

A handing-over ceremony was held in Dataran Kajang, formerly known as the Kajang Stadium, at-tended by Serdang member of Parlia-ment Teo Nie Ching and MPKj councillor Eddie Ng, Commissioner of Building (COB) director Siti Rosmawar and about 20 representa-tives from the flats.

The bins have a capacity of 660 litres and a market price of about RM1,000 each; MPKj got it for RM880 due to a bulk purchase dis-count.

So far 340 bins have been distrib-uted to 233 flats.

Bulk bins for low-cost flats

Hassan Nawawi (centre in red) accompanied by (from his right) Teo, Siti, and Ng posing for photographs along with representatives from low-cost flats that received the bulk bins.

KLANG: Construction work has begun on a retention pond that will ease flood woes in Taman Sentosa, Bandar Puteri and Bandar Putera.

Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim officiated the ground-breaking ceremony for the 19-acre pond at Jalan Raja Nong on Monday afternoon.

Khalid said the state government exempted Bandar Botanic developer Harum Intisari Sdn Bhd from build-ing low-cost homes at the township in exchange for the land.

“As compensation, we allow them to build affordable homes (which have a higher profit margin) instead.

“It’s also in the developer’s own interest (to build the pond), other-wise they will be building something that will be flooded,” he told report-ers.

He said the land that the Gamuda Bhd subsidiary has given up is worth an estimated RM1 million per acre.

Khalid added that the state will ensure that the low-cost homes are

built elsewhere.Executive councillor Dr Xavier

Jayakumar, who helped to close the deal with the developer, said there is already an oversupply of low-cost homes in Klang.

The Sri Andalas assemblyperson said the retention pond will be linked to another six-acre pond built by IOI Group and should be ready by year-end.

He said the Klang Municipal Council and Department of Irriga-tion and Drainage (DID) will build a link to channel the stormwater store at the pond back to the river next year.

Meanwhile, Khalid also took Klang town planners and DID to task for the bad planning resulting in unchecked development and fre-quent flood problems plaguing resi-dents.

Before granting future develop-ment approvals, he said the authori-ties must ensure that relevant infra-structure including drainage is put in place.

Pond to ease Taman Sentosa flood woes

Khalid operating the excavator to launch the ground-breaking ceremony for the 19-acre retention pond.

According to Hassan Nawawi, the municipality of about 780,000 uses up to RM500 million a year for waste collection and the council currently has 47 contractors on its payroll.

Teo said while the bins are not particularly valuable, it is a meaning-ful contribution to residents as many have been requesting for extra bulk bins for their flats.

She said several flats in her con-stituency have received the bulk bins but also noted that the onus of maintaining cleanliness lies on resi-dents.

“At the same time, we need coop-eration from residents; even though MPKj has given you bins, if you do not take care of cleanliness then it will always be a problem,” said Teo.

18 FEBRUARY 22– 24, 2013REVIEW

By Brenda Ch’ng

SHINING bright like a diamond in the dark, amongst the shops in the SS15 commercial vicinity sits an unassuming Japa-

nese yakimono restaurant called Sumi-Ka.

Located on the first floor right above a brightly-lit laundrette is the Japanese run restaurant which serves anything and everything grilled on a skewer.

Blink once and you are sure to miss the signboard but taste it once and you will never forget how flavourful chick-en innards can actually taste.

Yes you read right, Sumi-Ka serves a long list of grilled chicken innards from blood vessels to gizzard (chicken’s digestive organ), seafood, vegetables and other meats as well.

As adventurous as we lot are, our heads are instinctively turned and noses scrunched up the second we hear word of animal organs being served on the table.

No, we are not fans of chowing down animal innards that most people might label as a delicacy, but somehow being grilled Japanese style made it sound somewhat tasty.

Before our minds are changed, off we went boldly ordering a skewer of mind-boggling items like the chicken blood vessel, gizzard, ox tongue, chick-en soft bone and heart.

For courage, we got ourselves a sake set, Jyunmai-shu sake served hot in a Tokkuri (Japanese sake jug).

Recommended by the waiter, this sake is made purely out of rice and water, and is a

Grilled gingko nut and chicken gizzard.

Jyunmai-Shu Sake.

By BBy BBy renda Crenda Crenda h’ng

SHINING

SHINING

Sbright like a

diamond in the dark, Sdiamond in the dark, Samongst the shops in the Samongst the shops in the SSS15 commercial vicinity SSS15 commercial vicinity Ssits an unassuming JapaSsits an unassuming JapaS -

Sumi-Ka Home to Japanese grill

The stylish black and white decor of

J&R.

looking thing sandwiched in the strips of bone?

Oh what the heck, just eat it all!And that we did, shoving the whole

thing in our mouth, resulting in a long long jaw aching chew.

It was a soft, salty, tasty dish but chewing even a small inch-long bone took us about two minutes each.

Next, we ate the gizzard, which was also chewy like eat-ing meatballs.

It did not have a strong smell, as it was also well mari-nated with their own Japanese sauce and surprisingly we were not put off by it like how we initially thought we would be.

Meanwhile, those not as adventurous can try their

special brew which went really well with the yakimono (grilled items).

Judging from the rows of labeled sake bottles on display at the small restaurant, Sumi-Ka serves quality sake and has a number of loyal cus-tomers who come back to dine and enjoy their unfinished bottle of sake.

Finally our food was served, and placed right in front of us was the chicken blood vessel, which to be honest looks like squid on a skewer.

Sure tasted like one too, for its texture was chewy and comparable to eating squid and with every bite we were expecting to taste something gory or bloody but it just never came.

The blood vessel was very well marinated and did not have any pun-gent smells which will put off first-time eaters.

For the first time, we could actu-ally mean it when we say we loved the grilled chicken blood vessel which was coated in what tasted a little of teri-yaki but with something else added in it. Sumi-Ka’s special sauce perhaps.

With expectations high, we impa-tiently anticipated the other stuff like the ox tongue, which was equally flavourful and tender, comparable to eating a slice of fatty meat.

Then came the chicken soft bone, which was definitely something un-like anything we’ve tried before and most certainly worth trying.

With about four portions of white soft bone attached to a skewer, each measuring about an inch to two inches long, we hesitated at first.

Should we eat the bone or just suck the juices? Should we only eat the round meat-

Momoniku (chicken thigh), Muneni-ku Yuzu (chicken breast with mayon-naise), Tukune Orosiponzu (chicken meatball with vinegar), scallops, Piri-kaka Gyu (spicy beef ) and their vari-ety of vegetables like gingko nuts.

All the meats were succulent and tender, perfectly grilled and marinated with a variety of different sauces which we summed up to be a very flavourful dining experience.

For those interested in giving Sumi-Ka a go, we recommend prior bookings

because the place is small, with limited bar seatings in front of the grill and only about no more than 10 tables for bigger groups.

Though always known to be packed with both locals and foreign diners, the service is fast, considering the grill is only manned by one Japanese chef.

Opening hours are from 6pm to midnight daily.

The outlet is located at No 19, 1st Floor, SS15/4, 47500 Subang Jaya.

For bookings, call 03-56329312.

Baked Egg Plant.

Chicken Soft Bone.

S w e e t p o t a t o

baked with butter.

19 FEBRUARY 22 — 24, 2013

MEDIA

Oxy pure white for brighter skin

First women-only marathon likely to attract thousands

shah alam: A US skincare company re-cently released two new affordable facial products to help teenagers achieve smoother, brighter com-plexion.

The Oxy Pure White Wash cleanses the skin of dirt and oil as well as exfoliates dead skin cells to prevent clogged pores.

The Pure White Face Cream contains Ethyl Ascorbic Acid, a new generation of vitamin C de-rivative that lightens dark spots and creates an even skin tone.

In addition, it is oil-free, non-greasy and comes with a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) 30PA+ to protect your skin from ultraviolet, according to the company’s Feb 20 press release.

This range also contains aloe vera extract to moisturise the skin and hyaluronic acid which prevents aging.

Regu-Fade – a skin-whitening ingredient and a known antioxidant found in red grapes – can also be found in both products.

Some 90% of the respondents said their skin tone became brighter after using the products, according to a market research conducted by Insight Asia Research Group.

About 92% said they experienced fairer skin while 95% said their skin felt less oily with OXY Pure White.

The range is made by Mentholatum Company Inc, founded in 1889 and has operations worldwide includ-ing Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, among others.

The American manufacturer also produces lip care,

sun care and skin care products for adults.The Oxy Pure White range will be available at all

leading pharmacies nationwide from April.The Oxy Pure White Wash will be available in two

pack sizes – 50g (RM8.50) and 100g (RM13.90) – while the Oxy Pure White Face Cream only has one pack size of 45g (RM15.90).

shah alam: Ice-cream maker F&N Magnolia launched its delicious Passion Fruit sherbet on Wednesday.

Zesty, light and refreshing, it is the latest collection to the brand’s de-lectable sherbet series which includes the Luscious Lychee, Marvellous Mangosteen and Magnificent Melon.

The citrusy flavour is paired with delightful mouth feel of real fruit bits, giving a burst of taste and sensation with each spoonful.

It is available at hypermarkets, petrol marts and grocery stalls at RM2.50 per cup and RM9.50 for a variety pack of the four.

Founded in 1937, Magnolia is a well-loved ice-cream manufacturer in Singapore and later extended its production to other dairy products includ-ing milk and yogurt drinks.

It was acquired by dairy giant F&N in 1995 and renamed F&N Mag-nolia.

shah alam: About 3,000 participants are expected to compete in the first marathon organised especially for South-East Asian women at I-City on April 7.

Coordinator Karen Loh said the Malaysia Women Marathon (MWM) provides women with an avenue to bond with their soul sisters while prov-ing to detractors that the fairer sex can indeed run in marathons.

Loh is a seasoned marathon runner and has completed in several marathons overseas,

“Who said we can’t do it?” she issued a challenge during a press conference in i-City on Feb 5.

She was inspired by world-renowned marathon runner Katherine Virginia Switzer to organise the competition with Ironman Malaysia, which will take place in Shah Alam and is mainly sponsored by Nestle Fitnesse.

Switzer was the first woman to officially partici-pate in the famous Boston Marathon in 1967, even though women were banned from the competition.

She managed to enter the competition by regis-tering with initials and and race official Jock Semple tried to physically remove her from the 42km run but was shoved away by Switzer’s boyfriend Tom Miller.

After the incident, women runners banded to-

gether and pushed for their right to run in the prestigious event, a feat which was achieved in 1972.

Switzer, who expressed her excitement about MWM through a recorded video message, will be present at the marathon as a special guest and will be having a dialogue with the participants.

MWM will be divided into three main catego-ries, which is the full marathon of 42km with a cut-off time of 6.5 hours, the half-marathon of 21km with a cut-off time of 3.5 hours, and a fun run of 8km with no cut-off time.

The categories are further divided into sub-cat-egories of open (18-39 years old), veteran (more than 40 years old), and a couple category where a male partner is allowed to run with the participant (does not apply to fun-run and is limited to 100 slots).

Registration for the competition will end in mid-March and Loh said there are already 700 en-tries.

Tourism Selangor general manager Noorul Ashi-kin Mohd Din said Shah Alam, with its beautiful scenery, is the perfect place to have such an event.

“The city’s clean and healthy greenery and well-manicured gardens can be enjoyed along the route, as well as make the run a pleasant and memorable one,” said Noorul Ashikin.

Magnolia’s new dessert

20 february 22 — 24, 2013

travel

ANY road trip that extends to Kuala Selang or and beyond will involve Route

54. This particular route takes you past Assam Jawa, a small town in the district of Kuala Selangor.

Federal Route 54 is also called Jalan Kuala Selangor-Kepong. It links Assam Jawa to Kepong. It now stands in the shadow of the Latar Expressway or the K L-Kuala Selangor Expressway.

For decades there was nothing special about this place unless you like grass, trees, river and lots of jungle creatures, big or small.

A couple of years ago, an en-terprising young woman had a family discussion and was all fired up by the idea of starting a cendol business.

The location is Assam Jawa which is next to the trunk road where motorists have consis-tently but unconsciously ignored the village for decades.

According to Rifhan Farhan Mohamad Arif , to whom al l credit must be given, her grand scheme was to sell “cendol bakar”. Besides being rather catchy as a selling point, burnt cendol, as it were, also had to do with her grandfather’s name, Abu Bakar Saidin.

Her enthusiasm had the en-couragement of her father who had more than 20 years’ business experience.

Today, after a couple of entre-preneurial hops, skips and jumps, the family has about seven “cen-dol bakar” branches.

Business has become so good of late that the menu now boasts a list of cendol variations that include Cendol VIP, Cendol V VIP, Cendol Tapai, Cendol Durian and Cendol Durian Pulut.

If that does not make you stop and order a bowl of one of Malay-sia’s favourite desserts then you can sample the slightly ambiguous “keropok udang geragau Melaka”.

As far as Assam Jawa is con-cerned, I am one of the Johnnys-Come-Lately who finally spotted its colourful banners advertising the area’s specialty after driving through for the fifth time.

Since it was hot, humid and not hazy at this time of the year in that particular stretch of Assam

Jawa, I pulled over and checked out its unique selling point.

A number of passers-by and local residents were already hav-ing a mini feast and were having their fill of “cendol bakar” when I parked my car.

My co-navigator was most in-trigued by another big poster that says “Cendol Bakar Drive Thru”. 

I am no stranger to “Drive Throughs” at McDonald’s outlets and other fast food joints in KL city but out there in the boon-docks, to see a drive-thru that sells burnt cendol simply demanded a thorough investigation.

According to its founder, burnt cendol is not what it seems. The term was not a sales gimmick.

In reality, it alluded to the process of heating or “burning” of gula merah (brown sugar) that was used in sweetening the cen-dol.

The not-so-big secret cendol recipe involves rice flour, corn

flour, pandan leaves, brown sugar, alkaline water, coconut milk, plenty of i c e s havi n g s and perhaps a pinch of salt.

Not e ver y cendol seller uses the same recipe, others who do not want to make a public declaration of their fam-ily trade secret will have their own secret concoctions.

In Assam Jawa where Cendol Bakar has added a modicum of fame, the recipe, of course, is Rif-han Farhan’s family treasured se-cret. Not that any passing motor-ist wants to ferret out the “other special ingredients”, but it is al-ways good to make an educated guess on what goes into the bowl.

Since its inception, Cendol Bakar Assam Jawa has taken off like a rapidly spreading forest fire. There are branches now in Ijok, Chengkau Ulu, Negeri Sembilan, Batu Tujuh, Tanjung Karang , Kluang railway station in Johor and Sikamat in Seremban.

Next to the cendol stall is a small eatery that offers nasi lemak for breakfast and assam pedas Melaka and masak lomak cili padi for lunch.

Other attractive items include soto, mee jawa, mee kari and laksa. Customers are assured of a satisfying meal because the banner in front of the stall clearly says “Rasa Sekali… Nak lagi”.

After I had ordered two bowls of the VIP Cendol, I sneaked over to the “Rojak King and Cucur Udang” stall. I have a soft spot for cucur udang due to those memo-rable hungry days during my teen-age years.

I stole a look at the kuali or hot wok and noticed that the fried pieces of cucur udang had a light-er colour than the common ones.

Naturally, my curiosity got the better of me.

The Malay woman who was the cook suggested that I try a piece. I promptly ordered two pieces. A few minutes later, I found out to my delight that it had a different flavour.

The cucur udang had a unique taste which was delicious without being over the top. When it was dipped in cili sauce, it tasted even better.

After I had finished the cucur udang, I ordered three more as takeaways just in case I got hungry in the night. If I recall correctly, it was two pieces for one ringgit. It was practically a steal. This was after all kampung life which many city citizens were unaware of.

Her husband who helped to

Drive in and get your burnt cendol

february 22 — 24, 2013

Drive in and get your Every kampung has its story. In Assam Jawa where LIN ZHENYUAN was a passing guest, the short visit left a lingering sweet taste.

Assam Jawa’s claim to fame – Cendol Bakar.

Ample parking space for passing motorists.

The Cendol Bakar menu for discerning customers.

Otak-otak for those customers who want something extra.

21february 22 — 24, 2013

travel

run the family stall told me that they were staying just beyond the trees. And there were a lot of trees in the vicinity.

However, I noticed one rambutan tree that was filled with ripe fruits.

Apparently, the owners were not very interested in plucking the fruits. The scene reminded me very much of my childhood days when we had fruit trees in our neighbourhood.

These days, rambutans, mangosteens, guava and starfruits are treated as some-thing special by city folks. Assam Jawa residents, I suppose, have more than their share of these “buah-buahan tempatan”.

This particular section of Assam Jawa which faces the main trunk road could be experiencing minor floods because the ground on which the stalls are doing busi-ness are covered with square slabs of rub-

ber.They add a firm foundation to the

place and make it easier for customers to walk steadily. The shacks had attap roofs, long wooden tables and long benches, just like those in kampung cafeterias.

The atmosphere was quite pleasant. Perhaps that was why so many customers make repeat visits. The set-up reminds them of a bygone era that probably holds many nostalgic memories.

Assam Jawa personifies the agriculture facet of the landscape where fruit trees are cultivated alongside with rubber and coconut plantations, padi fields and oil palm estates.

But for the present, the arguably big-gest news about Assam Jawa is Cendol Bakar where it lords over the other hawker stalls.

community

May 20 — 22, 2011/ issue 25

TI-M head disputes Christian state claim

Wesak Day: a time for giving p 4 p 15

may 13: recollections & reconciliation p 12 & 13

• Turn To page 2

Facelift for old flats

By William Tan Petaling Jaya: Dilapidat-ed low-cost flats throughout Sel-angor may get a new lease of life if a pilot programme to rehabilitate such homes is successful.The ambitious and first-of-its-

kind project is being carried out by the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) in collaboration with Veri-tas Design Group, a private com-pany, and Rumah Air Panas, a community-based charity.The single block at the  Taman

Maju Jaya apartments here, which houses 59 families, will be the first to undergo the transformation, which includes renovations and re-furbishments while keeping the physical aspects intact."All works are based on the deci-

sions made by the residents," said social activist Wong Hay Cheong.

Wong, who mooted the idea, pointed out that many of the resi-dents were forced to move into the flats when squatter settlements were demolished, but the buildings and facilities were hardly adequate.

“The entry of Veritas Design Group, which has contributed RM100,000 and the skills [of their architects], means that is going to change,” said Wong.As many as 50,000 families were

relocated to low-cost flats between 2000 and 2008 under former Men-teri Besar Dr Khir Toyo's Zero Squatter policy which has been crit-icised for creating high-rise ghettos.

Wong said the private firm is car-rying out the project as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, having spent the last two years laying the groundwork for the project.The company has been liaising

with the families regularly to get feedback on their needs and help them decide on practical solutions.

Their architects, using the latest technologies and techniques, will remodel the building on a tight budget, which is estimated to be less than RM500,000.“It is very challenging; almost

everything needs to be redone. The wiring is horrible, the roof is leaking, and the septic tank emits an awful stench,” said Veritas Design Group

architect Iskandar Razak.Iskandar added that it was very difficult to obtain commitments from various parties at the start of the project, with funding still a seri-ous issue.

The success of the project rests on sponsorships for the various compo-nents, such as the supply of metal parts, and the company hopes to

obtain what they need from  their business contacts.“Despite it all, this is a very im-

portant project for us as we believe that a city should not be inhabited by the wealthy only, but by every strata of society. In a way, we are re-juvenating the city,” said Iskandar.

If the pilot is successful, the com-

LB_246391_Sun_m14.ai 1 5/12/11 9:56 PM

Keeping abandoned babies safe: Faizah Mohd Tahir (left) demonstrating the use of the baby hatch as local celebrity Datin Sofia Jane looks on.

• STory on page 10

Where to get your Where to get your LRT Stations (Distribution by hand) – MorningAmpang – Sentul TimurAmpangCahayaCempaka Pandan IndahPandan JayaSentul TimurSentul

Kelana Jaya – Terminal PutraKelana JayaTaman BahagiaTaman ParamountAsia JayaTaman JayaUniversitiSri Rampai Wangsa MajuTaman Melati

Sri Petaling – Sentul TimurTaman MelatiSri Petaling Bukit Jalil

Bandar Tasik SelatanSalak Selatan

Shopping Malls (From Saturday noon)1 UTAMA Tropicana Mall Sunway Pyramid The CurveIOI MallPlaza Damas Ikano Power CentreEmpire Subang MetroPointCentro Mall, KlangBangsar Shopping Complex

Hypermarkets (From Saturday noon)

Tesco (Puchong, Kajang, Mutiara Damansara, Rawang, Bukit Tinggi, Setia Alam, Ampang, Extra Shah Alam, Kepong)

Giant (Puchong, Kajang, Bandar Kinrara, Klang, Pandamaran, Bandar Selayang, Kota Damansara, Taman Setiawangsa, Putra Heights, Taman Connaught, Kelana Jaya, Bukit Antarabangsa, Subang Jaya, Bukit Tinggi, Setia Alam, Kota Kemuning)

Carrefour (Bukit Rimau, Subang Jaya, Wangsa Maju, Sri Petaling, Kepong, Puchong, Ampang, Jalan Peel, Jalan Kapar, Bandar Tun Hussein Onn, S23 Shah Alam)

Jusco (Bukit Tinggi, Tmn Maluri, Wangsa Maju, Bandar Baru Klang, Mahkota Cheras)

Commuter Stations (Distribution by hand) – Morning

Sentul – Port KlangPort Klang Bukit Badak Shah Alam Subang JayaJalan TemplerPetaling

Rawang – SerembanKuala Kubu BaruSungai BulohKepong Sentral Kepong

Morning Wet Markets (Saturday morning)Jalan SS2/62 Taman Medan Jalan 17/27SS15 Subang Jaya Taman Kuchai Lama Taman OUG Pasar Taman Megah Pasar Jalan OthmanPasar Jalan 17/2Pasar Sek 14

Pasar Seri Setia SS9A/1Pasar Kg ChempakaTaman Tun Dr Ismail

HospitalForrest Medical Centre

CollegesHelp InstituteCollege Bandar Utama (KBU)Universiti Kebangsan Malaysia

Another culinary choice posted on the attap roof in case you are still hungry.

The rambutan tree with plenty of ripe fruits tempts city residents.

That’s the Rojak King stall which also sells very tasty cucur udang.

22 FEBRUARY 22– 24, 2013GALLERY

Selangor Speaker Datuk Teng Chang Khim (left) explains the state’s political system to alumni from Tshinghua University, one of China’s top three universities. The 20-odd delegation was led by the university’s education foundation vice-chairperson Prof Yang Jiaqing (third from left). They paid a visit to the state assembly and secretariat on Tuesday. Kajang assemblyperson Lee Kim Sin (second from left) and Kampung Tunku assemblyperson Lau Weng San assisted Teng to entertain the guests.

State executive councillor for education Dr Halimah Ali (right) giving out a

prize to one of the winners of the colouring contest held last Saturday

during the Tunas Mini Carnival at Up Town Gombak. She was

also present to launch the event aimed at raising

awareness about the state’s Tunas scheme.

Also present was Hulu Kelang

assemblyperson Saari Sungib

(second from left).

Residents of Rumah Victory Elderly Home stirring Yee Sang during a visit

by staff of Bukit Kiara Properties Sdn Bhd on Feb 6 for Chinese New Year.

Abdul Razak Ismail, political secretary to executive councillor Dr Xavier

Jayakumar, visiting a student from SJK (T) Effingham, Bandar Utama who was

injured in a road accident on Tuesday. A van transporting 10 students collided

with a car 500m from the school. Eight students were rushed to University

Malaya Medical Centre while another two were sent to Sungai Buloh Hospital by

their parents. Abdul Razak hopes to secure state funds to assist two seriously

injured students with their surgery and physiotherapy costs.

Telok Datok assemblyperson Philip Tan Choon Swee (right) dotting the eye of the lion with red ink, as done by the Chinese, to symbolise ‘waking the spirit of the lion’ before the lion dance performance during the Chinese New Year celebration at Telok Bunut, Banting, last Saturday. About 2,500 hampers were also given out by him to the needy seniors, single mothers and the disabled residents in his constituency.

23february 22 — 24, 2013

culture

By Dominic Luk

Last May, Dama amazed audiences with their highly acclaimed production “The Moon Speaks For My Heart”.

In essence, the show was a tribute to the beautifully talented Taiwanese songbird of the 1970s and 80s, Teresa Teng. Indeed until today, many still speak of the show and remember the burst of colours and the visual impact it gave to everyone, not forgetting the excellent music and singing during the show.

Dama is a multiple award-winning music theatre company based in Malaysia. Since 1994, Dama’s musical theatre and productions have been staged to critical acclaims throughout the region. Dama is led by Khor Seng Chew as the music director, and Pun Kai Loon as the artistic director. It has performed works from the east and the west, and

have had their unique brand of music performed at international music festivals. The musicians have also been invited to play with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and have participated in the Tsunami Charity Concert to help raise funds for the Tsunami victims.

This year, Dama will restage the show to once again pay tribute to the legendary songstress. The show features popular songs by Teresa Teng, including The Moon Speaks For My Heart, What Have You Got To Say, and When Will You Return, all melodies that have remained a big part of many people’s lives.

If you’re itching to be a part of this production, and to work with professionals who are focused on bringing magic to the stage, DAMA is conducting an audition. It’s definitely going to be a dogfight as many people are more than eager to be a part of a show like this one. So, it could be your turn to stand under the spotlight and experience being part of a grand musical production.

A chance to dazzle likeTeresa Teng

GENERAL AUDITION INFORMATIONOpen to male and female candidates between 17 and 35 years of age. Ability to meet the rehearsal schedule is essential Candidates are to bring along a headshot and a completed application form.

AUDITION DATES & TIMEMarch 1 (7pm - 9pm) & March 2 (11am - 5pm)

VENUEDama Studio, M-2-10 Plaza Damas, 60 Jln Sri Hartamas 1, Sri Hartamas, 50480 KL AUDITION FORMwww.damaorchestra.com PERFORMERS REQUIREDBackup Singers / Dancers Backup Singers• Prepare one Mandarin song and one English song.• One of the vocal pieces has to be

lively and the other sentimental.• Songs may be selected from i) songs of the 30s to 70s; or ii) jazz numbers; or iii) songs from musicals.• S o n g s t o b e p e r f o r m e d w i t h movements and/or dance element.• Candidates may bring along and perform with minus-one CD(s) for the audition.• Songs are to be sung from memory. Dancers• Prepare two different routines in their chosen dance form.• Candidates may bring along and perform with CD(s) for the audition.• Please wear comfortable clothing for the audition. PRODUCTION DATES14th - 23rd June 2013 AUDITION IS BY APPOINTMENT ONLYTo schedule an audition appointment, please call 03-6201 9107/8 during office hours (Mon-Fri 9.30am - 6pm)

CaLeNDarTwoDance; Feb 22-23 (8.30pm);The Actors Studio @ Lot 10 Roof Top; 03-21422009 & 03-21432009; aswara2011@gmail.com; RM15-RM33.

TWO is a contemporary performance by two young choreographer-dancers who are professionals in the arts – Fairul Zahid and Naim Syah Razad, both hold Bachelor of Dance degrees from ASWARA as well as members of the professional ASWARA Dance Company. They have taken the initiative to produce a performance in collaboration with ASWARA Dance Company and The Actors Studio Theatre.TWO tells the journey of people who sometimes become marginalized from mainstream society either through circumstances or by the choices they make. Through the language

of dance, the performance will take you on a journey of the highs and lows of life, and invites you to reflect on your personal experiences and to share these emotions together. The performance is approximately 45 minutes long.

Shakespeare on Film Season 7Film; Feb 24 to April 14; Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts centre; RM15 - RM50.

The first part kicks of a two-part series of Shakespeare’s works with some of the favorites drawn from ‘Shakespeare on Film’ . The second part is a small collection of new films; the latest less than a year old, and three of them never before seen on the screen. They feature a couple of amazing traditional interpretations and a couple of equally excellent transformations. Part 1 kicks off on Feb 24 with Julie Tamor’s Titus (1999). From the nice lady who brought Disney’s

‘The Lion King’ to the stage, a violent, vengeful, no-holds-barred telling of Will’s most savage play complete with graphic dismemberments and a people-pie. Set in an eclectic, superbly designed setting, neither past nor present the film was something of a preparation for

Hopkins’ portrayal of another great cannibal. Starring Anthony Hopkins & Jessica Lange.On March 3, KLPac brings on Kenneth Brannagh’s Much Ado About Nothing (1993). Principally a vehicle for the theatre darlings Ken and Em (Branagh and his wife Emma Thompson) and a bunch of their new-found Hollywood friends, romping and flirting and laughing and cavorting through Shakespeare’s lusty comedy and through the beautiful Tuscan countryside. It’s quite a treat, watching a bunch of actors obviously having the time of their lives. Also starring Keanu Reeves and Denzil Washington

Open Mic @ The VenueMusic; Feb 25 (7.30pm); The Venue, Pavilion; www.azsamad.com/openmic; 03-2143 3022 or 03-2110 2800.

Guitarist AZ Samad’s Open Mic returns on Feb 25

with another 15 slots up for grabs. Together AZ in this fifth installment are Shelley Leong and Set Lael. The duo, who perform folk-Americana originals, will entertain you with with songs accompanied by guitar and banjo. Also joining in the act is singer-songwriter Anna Chong. At the beginning of her composition career, Anna wrote songs for Mandarin artistes.

Published by Selangor State Government and printed by Dasar Cetak (M) Sdn Bhd No. 7, Persiaran Selangor, Seksyen 15, 40000, Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan.