By Sarawakian
Subang Jaya is no longer the young youthful Subang Jaya as before. Sadly, she has become a shadow of her former glory. For many years, we have seen how the local government from just a town and a city now actually regressed.
The filth we see in the back lanes of most commercial shops in the primary areas of SS114, SS15 and Taipan USJ still remain. No matter who has promised and no matter whatever people try to advice, commerce seems to take centre stage.
Just as an example, did you ever go through the lanes called SJ Uptown and the lanes in between shops? The potholed look never got fixed. The pedestrian walkways between blocks of shops never got better lighting nor the pavements taken care of. I am sure this has been going on for ages yet the whole of Subang Jaya has so many new housing areas and even plots of high-rise buildings.
The amount of taxes would be enough to take care of the required maintenance. The whole of SS15 seems neglected. SS14 has improved a bit but still, there is room for improvement. We have higher vehicular traffic and larger population now. Yet, the question of hygiene gets ever louder. The real reason is as to why hygiene does not seem to be an important requirement for the city government. Even in Taipan, the place does not seem to be improved in terms of cleanliness. Strange is it not? MBSJ is just across the road. I am sure they would have often gone into USJ 10 and even USJ9 and USJ 21 areas. Perhaps that is the quality we come to expect from the administration?
We have also seen many foreign nationals doing business openly especially when it comes to stalls in eateries ad even open areas. There were even Thai events which had many Thai speaking people staffing the stalls. Hopefully they have the permits to trade as we cannot just have events with two rules. One for Malaysians and another for foreigners. If one can do business easier than Malaysians, then you must ask if there is something amiss. We have no issues with welcoming great foreign events but ensure these are licensed. Have they got their injections and the food handling compliance followed?
Already we see how bad our pedestrian crossings are and the pedestrian walkways still not being looked at. No matter how much you complained nor bring up to the councillors or local government, it does not seem to be taken seriously. You may want to ask if public servants are really serving the people.
Politics is always here. Face the blunt fact. It will never go away. Some are in it to make themselves famous. Some are there just to lord over you. Some just go about travelling and without real care for the policies they created or manage. In the end, things will only move if the community and the people at large rise up. It is about ensuring whoever holds the responsibility to serve do what they are supposed to do. Serve.
Has anyone noticed that in SS15 where you have the Japanese restaurants; the ‘valet service’ or ‘jaga kereta’ appears? Is this not public parking space? It is easy to know where. Just head to Jalan SS15/5A. Seriously, when did we have to pay extra for public carpark spaces to private holders? They are definitely not from the city hall.
Let us look at the drains in Subang Jaya’s commercial areas. These are still not cleared up fast enough and repaired. One would also question as to why in some kopitiam stalls; the ducting exhaust directly into the drains seems to be ok with the local government. Is this acceptable? The same as preparation of food and washing at the back lanes.
Of course, we can also claim that some commercial entities do not care for cleanliness and responsible business, but then, it is because they do not fear any penalties for non-compliance. Or is this because of poor enforcement? We wonder.
Our football fields, our basketball courts, our little pockets of parks and the relevant infrastructure connecting them need attention. It is so important that our open green spaces stay better maintained. Perhaps it is also time for Subang Jaya to create a park where animals can also be brought into. A pet friendly park. We have to be open minded in order to progress. We cannot allow ourselves to be swayed by stupid political rhetoric and holier than thou attitude. Moral policing is a grave disease towards an oppressive environment.
Dataran Millenium SS13. It was a nice idea to do a food truck spot where the ex-golden bird was but on the hindsight; why create it there? It involved the flattening of part of the park for the Urban Street Dining. Why not just bulldoze those ugly looking unhygienic stalls on the same road of SS13/2 leading to the entrance of the Kompleks 3C? If you really want stalls and food trucks; then redo the space here and leave the Dataran Millenium alone. Whoever had that idea and created it must be irresponsible. We must ask that the park be restored as a park. Those trees took awhile to grow.
Subang Jaya is not getting better. At best we are stuck in a flux of repeating ups and downs. In reality we are actually decaying. We do not seem to see much efforts still from the local government to make Subang Jaya better. No need to look far. Even the main landing page of the website does not have the English option. If you click into any section, would this option appear? It seems the person creating the website think that patriotism lies in one language. This is Malaysia for goodness sake. One where we are proud to be multilingual and have unity in diversity.
Subang Jaya is in need of a wake up call. It is up to you as residents and the community of Subang Jaya to make yourselves heard so that Subang Jaya serves you.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
