Turning the Heat on Selayang councilmen

First, it was PAC Chairman Datuk Shahrir Samad hitting out at the 14 Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) councillors and 10 department heads for going on a RM240,000 trip to Mauritius, as well as to Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa, funded by the council "in advance" (whatever that means, at the end of the day).

He summed it up best in the following manner:-

"Councillors and local authorities must have a sense of accountability to the voters in their municipalities, and not think that because they are appointed by the Mentri Besar, they are only answerable to him." ...

"As members, leaders and representatives of the ruling party, they are answerable to their voters and residents living in the local authority. They must show and explain how the study visit is going to benefit the voters."

and,

"Their conscience should tell them if what they had done was indeed beneficial in any way to the people they are serving."

Really.

Since when has "accountability" and "conscience" been the criteria for holders of public offices as well as some Members of Parliament from our Ruling Party?

The Selayang council is under the auspices of the developed state of Selangor Darul Ehsan, right?

Should not the MB of the only developed state of the country be held "accountable" too?

Or is it that his conscience is telling him that his boys deserve to be rewarded for all the hard work they do to keep him in office? Never mind that the rewards ultimately came from the pockets of tax-payers.

Read what the SUN has to say about this in its editorial here.

And today, Citizen Nades came up with a very scathing piece in his Opinion page, but unfortunately I am not able to put up a link to it as it has yet to appear in the web version of the SUN.

It was an Open Letter to the Selayang Municipal Council written "for and on behalf of disgruntled and disgusted ratepayers of Selayang" titled "Welcome home, heroes of Selayang."

I think some of the interesting parts of the letter deserve to be reproduced here:-

{Quote}

Dear senior officials, president and councillors of the Selayang Municipal Council.

...
... The deep-sea fishing must have been great. How many marlins did you land in Mauritius? And what about the golf? They have some great golf courses, including one on a private island.

... We heard you never got to meet the councillors of the Port Louis Municipal Council. If you had, you would have learnt about how they work for the people. They would have told you how the people threw out the previous lot in an election because they did not deliver what the people wanted.

You would have been embarrassed to tell them that you never have to face the electorate to be in office. Perhaps you were shy to admit that you are occupying your council seats because of political patronage.

By the way, did you buy enough cenderamata or cenderahati for your political masters? They would merajuk if you did not bring any. After all, your existence is at their mercy.

And don't forget that some of them have moved to their new abodes in the Exco Villa in Shah Alam. Surely, a replica boat from Mauritius would sit quite prettily in their living rooms!

In Cape Town, did you manage that meeting with the municipal manager of the metropolitan municipality, Dr Amos Mgoqi? ... according to your schedule, you had six days in Cape Town. The meeting with the Dr Mgoqi would not have taken an hour. So, what else did you do?

The five-star Arabella Sheraton Grand Hotel (and it costs USD240 a night) where you stayed is in an excellent location - Cape Town's foreshore and most of the rooms and suites, with their fully glazed facade offer floor to ceiling views of the city.

One of you should have stayed in the Presidential Suite (USD1600 a night) overlooking Cape Town, which has its own sauna, fireplace, surround-sound entertainment lounge, study, fully-serviced kitchen and continuous butler service.

No, we never expected you to be locked up in your hotel rooms and we are sure you would have used the hotel's water taxi via the Roggebaai Canal to go to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront where there's plenty of shopping.

You would have gone up the Table Mountain or visited the nearby Blaauwklippen Vineyards. But please do not cut any hills in Templer's Park near Rawang to replicate the Table Mountain.

One of your councillors, Kohilan Pillay was quoted as saying that you were interested in looking at "investment opportunities." ...

By the way, we think that the word "investment" should not feature in the trip because it may anger some people. ... Rafidah Aziz and MIDA are spending large sums of money to attract foreign investment and by you wanting to invest in South Africa, it may be counter-productive.

By the way, Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo himself has led several such missions overseas. Avoid the duplication, unless of course, you are unhappy with the progress made by these two personalities.

Having enjoyed your trip, can you please tell us more about how you plan to re-coup the RM240,000 that you have spent. ...

More importantly, how did your conscience allow you to take a holiday when services at the municipality are not up to the mark?

It is said that you don't respond to rate-payers' complaints and even ignore letters and reminders from the Housing and Local Government Ministry.

Under these circumstances, it is true that councillors and council presidents are little emperors. It is said that Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned, but all of you collectively did better - you were busy trying to hook a marlin or listen to the sounds of coins dropping into a machine when the administration of Selayang township was turning into shambles.

Now that you are back home, have a good rest, stop worrying about repaying the loan and plan for the next lawatan sambil belajar.

{Unquote}

Well folks, I hope you enjoyed reading (parts of) this very entertaining letter as much as I did.

Ah ... I just can't get enough of Citizen Nades!