Sunday, March 23 is the polling day for the Kajang by-election. Although this by-election has been overshadowed by the issue of the missing airplane, some attention will be focused in Kajang now as the battle comes to the decisive day.
So far, while PKR’s candidate, party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has yet to make any blunders, her rival, MCA’s vice-president, Chew Mei Fun had already made two.
The first blunder is being on the same stage as a Perkasa state chief in early March and the second blunder is blaming the PKR-led Selangor state government for indirectly causing the deaths of six youths who had attended a concert when this concert was held in KL and has nothing whatsoever to do with the Selangor state government.
These two blunders will affect Chew’s credibility among the voters as it will give an impression that Barisan Nasional has no issues to harp on and therefore she had to clutch at straws.
Otherwise her campaign so far has been okay as the main issues are infrastructure, facilities and daily woes.
It must however be noted that the Kajang campaign by both sides of the political divide has been dull and insipid. No fiery speeches and no fiery issues and this caused it to be a low-key affair.
All said and done, the Kajang winner’s first task will be to stop the water ration exercise as the water level in the seven dams in Selangor are now above critical level. If she is successful in stopping the water rationing, her party will be remembered in GE14.
Currently, coffeeshop and restaurant businesses are the most affected by this water rationing. Cooking and washing of utensils, cups, plates and saucers require a lot of water.
Housewives too are affected as cooking is a problem and eating out is also problematic. The water ration schedule has to be referred to constantly so that one can go to a restaurant where there is water supply.
The whole thing is a great inconvenient nuisance. The relevant authorities must not torture the citizens anymore as the dams’ water level are no longer critical.
One can understand the need for rationing when there is no rain but it has been raining daily since March 17 so why continue?
The water ration exercise is not a machine programmed to run to March 31 and will malfunction if stopped suddenly so why can’t the exercise be halted immediately?
All it takes is a simple announcement in the 8pm news and those currently undergoing rationing can have their supply restored with immediate effect. Is there no such thing as television so that the public can be informed?
Garbage problem
Another matter to be taken note of is the garbage collection in two locations in the parliamentary seat of Selayang.
The collection is not efficient in the Sungai Buloh industrial area where this columnist’s uncle has a factory. The back alleys of Taman Desa Jaya in Kepong too encounter the same problem of not having an efficient garbage collection system.
These back alleys are strewn with rubbish and has become a breeding ground for rats and mosquitoes.
Therefore the state assemblyman must take note and act immediately. Selangor is also the state which has the highest number of dengue cases.
After water and garbage, the third issue is the ‘Jom Shopping’ programme which has been initiated by the Selangor state government to help the low income folks to meet their monthly expenses by giving them shopping vouchers amounting to RM100.
Lately there has not been much news about this programme which is always featured in PAS’ newsletter, Harakah. Is this programme still going on?
Ironically at this point in time, the Selangor state coffers have RM2.9 billion in reserves so there is no reason to be stingy. In addition to that, the increase in the business license fees will bring in more revenue, so why this stinginess?
From the above it shows that there is still room for improvement in the Selangor state administration.
Problems should be ironed out immediately by the Pakatan Rakyat state government in Selangor if they want to continue governing. Otherwise, who knows what will happen in GE14? The voters will surely not easily forget this water ration being inflicted upon them.