Selangor Times April 22-24, 2011 / Issue 21

commnty

april 22 – 24, 2011

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issue 21

Sea treatedas rubbishdump

lastline ofdefence

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6

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12-13

Malaysia’sfirst petcarnival

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Kept inthe dark

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By

Gan Pei Ling

hulu kelang:

Located astone’s throw away rom the auentneighbourhoods o Ukay Perdanaand Kemensah Heights are homeso 18 emuan amilies who exist with no electricity.Despite being relocated to thesite to make way or development in1963, development and basicamenities have eluded the villagerso Kampung Kemensah Orang Asli.Hidden rom view in the HuluGombak Forest Reserve, the 100-odd villagers rely on candles andkerosene lamps, as well as generatorsor the ortunate ew who can aordthem.Kia Sun, a mother o ve, said herchildren cannot study at night bycandlelight.“Not all o us can aord to buy agenerator and petrol,” she said to

Selangor Times

.A plaque in ront o Kia’s homestates that it was built by the ederalgovernment in 2009.heir homes come ready withelectricity circuit boxes, and thecommunity hall even has ans butno electricity.heir plight has caught theattention o state lawmaker SaariSungib, who has been ghting toget them the power supply theydeserve.Te Hulu Kelang assemblypersontold

Selangor Times

that he had written to the Orang AsliDevelopment Department(JAKOA) to highlight the villagers’ plight but received no response.Utility company enaga NasionalBerhad (NB) had also estimatedthat it would cost RM1.06 millionto connect the nearest electric cable– about 2.5km away – to the village.Saari has also explored the optiono building a micro-hydro system tosupply electricity to the village as itis cheaper and more environmentallyriendly.he irst community-basedmicro-hydro system in Selangoronly cost RM80,000 and wassuccessully installed in an Orang Asli village

Km Kmsh o asli sidt Ki S (lft) d h dht wit f lcticity t bcctd t thi hm which cm dy with  lcticity cicit bx wh th hs ws hddv t h i 2009.

in anjung Rambai last year.Unortunately, experts ound theterrain at Kampung Orang AsliKemensah unsuitable or such asystem. When

Selangor Times

visited thesite on Monday, electric cables andstreet lamps could be seen on Jalanaman Zooview, located about400m down the road rom the village.Te cable supplies electricity tochalets and the All-errain VehicleAdventure Park along the road, as well as Institut Budaya BaruMalaysia at the end o the road.Saari said the cost o connecting power supply to the village shouldbe cheaper as the existing cable isclose to the village.Gombak assistant district ofcerMohd Fauzi Mohd Yatim, who wasalso present, said he would instructthe rural development departmentto assess the cost needed to connectelectricity to the kampung. But village chie Ebak Pulasan and otherresidents want the state to expeditethe process.Te 70-year-old armer pointedout that the villagers had been waiting or decades or authoritiesto ulll their promises o electricityor the village. When contacted by

Selangor Times

, Elizabeth Wong said the state would be allocating unds or the village to nally get electricity.Te executive councillor said themoney would be obtained rom thestate’s Orang Asli rust Fund, which was established to nancesmall-scale inrastructure projectsand community programmes orthem.

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APRIL 22 — 24, 2011

NEWS

MogFriday Saturday Sundayafeoongh

Selangor WeaTHer

Source:

Malaysian meteorological department

By

Basil Foo

and

Gan Pei Ling

SHAH ALAM:

Local governments will saveup to RM20 million annually once they retakeresponsibility or cleaning public areas romsolid waste management concessionaire AlamFlora Sdn Bhd.“Local authorities were paying exorbitantees or the cleaning duties, but the result wasdisappointing, and the people [are] dissatis-ed with the services,” said an Sri KhalidIbrahim.Te Menteri Besar said this aer a weeklyexecutive council meeting on Wednesday.He said councils would be saving the 10%management ee they now pay to Alam Floraout o the RM200 million annual cleaning costs.Te move efectively removes Alam Flora’srole as acilitators, having previously out-sourced their cleaning duties by appointing subcontractors.Khalid said there might be hiccups at thebeginning o the transition, but he expressedcondence that the local councils will providebetter services to the people.“Te local councils have been handling thecleaning duties until Alam Flora took over the job rom them 10 years ago.“Tis is nothing new to them,” he said.Te duties will include cleaning drains,streets, roads and cutting grass.In addition, ve local councils are joining orces to ensure a smooth transition. Tey areShah Alam City Council, Petaling Jaya CityCouncil, Subang Jaya Municipal Council,Ampang Jaya Municipal Council and Klang Municipal Council.“I there’s a problem reported in Subang Jaya, MPSJ can ask or help rom the otherour local governments to solve [it] quickly,”said Khalid.He said they would be assisting other au-thorities with limited nancial resources suchas Sabak Bernam and Hulu Selangor districtcouncils.However, Alam Flora will still handle rub-bish collection.Alam Flora, a subsidiary o DRBHicomBhd, was awarded the concession rights orsolid waste management in 1998 or the cen-tral region covering Selangor, Kuala Lumpurand Pahang.“hey were handling too many things.Tey had too big a portolio,” Khalid had saidat a state government departments’ monthlymeeting on Monday.Sungai Pinang assemblyperson eng Chang Khim and state secretary Datuk KhusrinMunawi were also present.

Khalid at the monthly state government on April 18.

Alam Flora contract cutto save councils millions

• FROM PAGE ONE

Wong had also hit out at JAKOA during Selan-gor’s legislative assemblylast month or neglecting the welare o the indige-nous peoples.She pointed out that thestate had to step in to provide basic amenities such asroads, electricity and wateror the Orang Asli whensuch matters were supposedto have been taken care o bythe ederal agency.Meanwhile, Selangor JA-KOA director Azali Mohamedtold

Selangor Times

yesterdaythat the department would be providing electricity to the sixremaining indigenous villagesin Selangor by 2012.“Allocation has been pro- vided under the NKRA (Na-tional Key Result Areas) by theRural and Regional Develop-ment Ministry,” said Azali.However, he could not spec-iy a specic timeline or Kam- pung Orang Asli Kemensah toreceive electricity as NB would need to survey the siteand assess the cost.

‘Federal agency’s job to provide basic amenities’

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EDITORIAL

CHIEF EDITOR

KL Chan

COMMUNITY EDITOR

Neville Spykerman

WRITERS

Tang Hui Koon, Chong Loo Wah, Gan Pei Ling,Basil Foo, Alvin Yap, Gho Chee Yuan, Brenda Ch’ng

COPY EDITORS

Nick Choo, James Ang

DESIGNERS

Jimmy C. S. Lim, Chin Man Yen

PHOTOGRAPHER

Victor Chong

ADVERTISING

Timothy Loh, Ivan Looi

ADVISORS

Faekah Husin, Arfa’eza Abdul Aziz

Village houses located in the Hulu Gombak ForestReserve.Saari (left,wearing cap)meetingvillagers in thecommunityhall, whichhas lights andceiling fans butno electricity.

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