IT IS MAY!

By Sarawakian

The time to keep on talking and without much success in action has ended. Subang Jaya has had enough. Unity does not exist as the demographics had changed since the 2000s. Many have either relocated to Puchong whilst, in this gap, many have also come in to live in Subang Jaya.

The political scenes pre 2008 and post 2008 showed us how politicians cannot be trusted. It does not matter if a different party would in each time be in charge. Yet, the promises in any political campaign have begun to do nothing but sound shallow.

To those who have felt disappointed that all the sweat and tears spent in the year leading to 2008 and 2018 not achieving the required change, let us just say, we did what we could do. The key success was to get people to register and be aware of their rights to vote and the power each voter has in hand to decide the representative we want.

Then, it was the simple yet hard fight and most times against the tide of the large waves which many of us bravely pushed on, knowing the consequences of injustices that would have befallen any one of us. Yet we prevailed.

Today, we can believe that Goliath can be slain. That change can happen. That change is resolute with unity against injustice and lackadaisical attitudes of those given the power and failed the people. The automatic registration had come to fruition. There was no longer a need for us to harp and make extensive efforts on the importance of registration first followed by subsequent action based on reasoning to vote.

Today, Subang Jaya is at the precipice of another election. Have we really gotten what we deserved in terms of better improvements? Our roads are as crappy as ever. The ridiculous patch work coupled by attempts to justify the method of fixing simply were insults to the intelligence of Subang Jaya residents.

Some councilors who we thought would have been better have also decided to provide some united support to some lame leaders who have been more active of late with social media postings. We cannot sugar coat crap any longer. It is time we call it as it is. We are just freaking fed up.

The new street lighting installed is not working at all. We are having stretches of unlit roads where before, the older streetlamps which were working perfectly were replaced.

These new installations were placed in nearly the same spots and in nearly the same numbers and we wonder what these new lamps have that were superior to the old? If they said the lamps were brighter, then why the same numbers and almost the same locations? Do they have some artificial intelligence that would benefit our paid taxes? Was this how our money has been spent?

The trees. Our sad trees have been murdered. Chopped to its base in most locations. The only stretch seen with the trunks standing and the branches pruned and trimmed well are those at Persiaran Kewajipan near the Al Madaniah Subang Jaya Mosque. The rest of the trees, mostly murdered. One cannot make us believe reasons anymore which are just convenient excuses. Some would sound like this.

“It is because of the heavy wood. For safety it needs to be chopped down.” Then why did you plant those species in the first place? Have you ever thought about it?

“The tree is sick. Best to chop it down before it infects others” Then why was this not monitored until they grew the size which you want to chop down?

“The tree is in the way of street lighting illumination” or “The tree’s root system is damaging the pavements and roads” More and more reasons sounding more like excuses have been used.

The speed of work by the local government, which is in fact coming from the same DNA of the current political masters, has also shown a drastic deceleration.

The bus stop which was damaged in USJ 11 was quickly addressed the moment new councilors were sworn in. It seemed that MBSJ does nothing without new councilors barking at them. This bus stop was at the main road, Persiaran Tujuan. It is close to MBSJ. But after seeing work progress, the bus stop was left again idle and not opened back until recently. Easily more than 2 months! So much for being cekap dan pantas.

Enough of this nonsense which we all must live with in Subang Jaya. Two decades of having the same party leading has been half cooked. The first decade was the best. The second decade was a circus!

Do we think they will even change the way they treat Subang Jaya if we want to give them another chance on the back of so-called new familiar faces? Maybe one of the councilors is being prepped. This is a split opinion. For me? No. I will vote for someone else. Many may think the same but would not want to say for now.

Subang Jaya needs a new batch of community driven leaders. Those who would challenge status quo. Subang Jaya is evolving and the need to address the issues of litter, rats, illegal businesses, illegal migrants, sanitation, affordable quality healthcare and closer engagement would be the main agenda.

Our green lung of Subang Ria Lake is still not gazetted. The risk of this loss is extremely near. The bicycle lanes are a joke. The planning and execution are clearly ridiculous. Perhaps they should use ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and DeepSeek to get guidance.

The anger and frustrations of Subang Jaya is heading for an eruption soon. It is time we all sharpen our senses and make haste of our efforts to support change for Subang Jaya. The honey has become sour. A change is no longer negotiable. The past remains in beautiful memory and respected for the change and belief it brought us here. What is required is a change for the next decade.

Subang Jaya. Are you brave enough to do this?