My wish-list for the new state gov'ts

My wish-list for the new state gov'ts

Charles F Moreira | Mar 11, 08 5:40pm

Dear brothers and sisters in the opposition, Congratulations to you all and your alternative parties for achieving this tremendous gain against the Barisan Nasional in parliament and the defeat of the ruling coalition in five states. Hopefully through your rule of the five states, you will show the people what an alternative government can do for them and build up their confidence in voting the alternative into parliament in subsequent elections. For once I will have a chief minister of Selangor whom I can respect. Put the right people in charge of the Petaling Jaya City Council, all local councils in Selangor, Perak, Kedah, Penang and Kelantan. If you can, introduce local council elections. Look into the local concerns of residents of Selangor like myself, who's in the state seat of Taman Medan. Local concerns such as increased assessment and quit rent imposed by the previous BN state administration. Reduce or abolish them. Within your power as state governments, abolish all state tolls where you can and if it is within your power, make all present and future tolls on highways running through your state illegal. Address local issues such as inadequate parking, harassment by local authority enforcers, violation of building codes where they don't build enough car parks, traffic congestion, potholed roads, local tolls, destruction of green lungs, destruction of the environment, taking away of public parks and playgrounds for profit-oriented construction projects. Either give us free parking or if there is a need to charge to ensure availability of parking places for people who need them, then please revert to the old parking coupon system where a human attendant puts a bill on your window which you have 14 days to settle and do away with this high-tech, automated system. Thus you can create employment for people and not fill the pockets of parking machine suppliers. I may be an electronics engineer and IT writer but I'm not anti-human and ‘kiasu’ over the adoption or technology. Adopt technology appropriately where it enhances and benefits the lives of people. Hi-tech systems which inconvenience people more than low-tech, human-based systems are not worth having and should be disposed of and that includes private car parks in shopping malls, etc. Human-based systems provide jobs and is the best system, despite what the marketing hype and hulbaloo the information technology industry may tess us. The residents of Section 14, PJ are also concerned about the development of high-density condominiums which are already resulting in increasing traffic congestion in the area. I've lived in this area since 1990 and am acquainted with it since the early 1970s and have seen the decline in the peacefulness, serenity and quality of life in the area due to greater construction and congestion in the neighbourhood, no thanks to the BN state administration and BN-appointed local council. Improve the public transport system in Selangor. Why can't I take a bus between Sections 14 and 17, PJ. Why do all buses go from PJ to KL and I got to change for Section 17 in SS2? Give us a minibus system which takes people around Petaling Jaya and do the same for other municipalities in Selangor state at very affordable rates controlled by the state government. Connect these municipal bus systems with bus lines running between municipalities across the KLang Valley, the state and nationwide. Ditto to you victors in Perak, Kedah, Penang and Kelantan. Make pedestrian overhead bridges more accessible especially to the elderly and infirm. Install escalators, rather than steep steps. Provide decent sidewalks for people to walk on, with facilities for the wheelchair bound to travel on. Hold regular face-to-face consultative sessions with the citizens of Selangor and hear our concerns and suggestions. The people of Selangor, Perak, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan voted wisely and hopefully the people of other states will wisen up and vote wisely in the future.