PD’s man in the hot seat
Municipal Council President Abdul Wahab talks about the problems he faces and the good things that lie in store for the tourist town
Ravi said it’s difficult for tourists to purchase the tickets on weekends. I don’t understand what the actual issue is. There are no parking charges on weekends. But still, to say that the coupons are not sold on Saturday and Sunday is a lie.
Zefry Dahalan, Free Malaysia Today
Many people would envy someone who heads the local government in a tourist town, but Port Dickson’s Abdul Wahab Samsudin says he has no time to bask in it, what with his state assemblyman constantly breathing down his neck.
In a recent wide-ranging interview with FMT, he complained that PKR’s M Ravi, sometimes aided by Ean Yong Tin Sin (DAP-Lukut), was always finding fault with his administration.
He rejected the allegation that he held a bias against Pakatan Rakyat politicians, although he admitted to withholding written permission for their programmes.
Abdul Wahab became president of the Port Dickson Municipal Council (MPPD) in 2009. He said it had been a hot seat for him since Day One.
Apart from responding to various allegations by Ravi and Yong, he also explained some the efforts being done to improve Port Dickson’s appeal to visitors.
Excerpts from the interview:
The Pakatan Rakyat representatives allege that you are denying them the right to put up festival banners carrying their party logos. What is your response?
Those allegations are not true. I gave them permission orally, but I told them I could not give them written permission. They asked why. It is within my authority to give either oral or written permission. What’s wrong with giving it orally?
I told my officers not to dismantle the banners. I have no problem with them having their party logos on the banners. But previously we did remove the banners. At that point of time, they had not asked for permission.
What about your recent rejection of their application to use the town hall for a badminton tournament?
They wanted to use the hall on Dec 3. I rejected the application because the town hall was due for upgrading works at that point of time.
They insisted that we give them a rejection letter. I said it was not necessary because I didn’t want them to use the letter for political purposes.
Recently, Pakatan representatives speaking at a public forum likened the Port Dickson beach to a rubbish dump. How true is that?
I’m aware of the allegations as they were reported in a newspaper. They are lies. In the pictures published in the newspaper, one of the Pakatan leaders was holding an empty plastic bag. If Port Dickson is a dumping ground, then where is the so-called rubbish?
We clean the beach regularly and consistently conduct cleaning campaigns with NGOs. How can they say that Port Dickson is a rubbish dump?
When I took over the MPPD in 2009, “Cleanliness is our priority” became our motto.
As an elected representative, Ravi should not tarnish the image of the Port Dickson with tags like that. It will give the town a negative image among tourists. It will have implications on the local traders and hotel operators as well.
Let me speak about another issue that Ravi raised. He questioned the rationale of installing convex mirrors at the end of every row of shophouses. He said those mirrors should instead be installed at road junctions, where they would be useful to motorists.
He did not check the facts with us. We installed the mirrors not for motorists, but for pedestrians. We fix them at the walls of banks and corner shops to alert the public against criminals hiding behind walls.
He said the mirrors were a waste of public funds. This project comes under the Local Government and Housing Ministry’s budget. We installed the convex mirrors as part of the Town Safety project under the ministry and we were accorded the Safe Town status by the ministry.
What about the drainage system in Port Dickson? The town is flood prone, isn’t it?
We are trying our best to maintain the drainage system. Some parts of the system are under our jurisdiction and the rest are under the Drainage Department.
Much of Port Dickson is below sea level. There will be floods no matter how big the monsoon drains are.
What about the status of the Lukut landfill? Wasn’t is supposed to be closed and rubbish redirected to a new landfill in Bukit Nanas?
I can’t comment too much on this as the matter as it is under the jurisdiction of the state and federal governments.
The landfill sits on state government land and MPPD just supervises it.
But I’ve learnt that the shift to Bukit Nanas is in progress.
Ravi told the State Assembly that the counters selling parking coupons are too far from the parking lots and motorists had complained that agents selling the tickets were late in opening those counters. He said that both these facts had resulted in many motorists being fined for parking without coupons.
Actually this is the result of the motorists’ habit of buying the coupons at the last minute. As locals from Port Dickson, why can’t you buy the coupons earlier?
Ravi said it’s difficult for tourists to purchase the tickets on weekends. I don’t understand what the actual issue is. There are no parking charges on weekends. But still, to say that the coupons are not sold on Saturday and Sunday is a lie.
Whatever we want to introduce is always seen as wrong. If they have the attitude of wanting to oppose everything, then it’s very difficult for us.
We initially gazetted 14 areas where we would use the parking coupon system, but we only implemented it in two areas. These two are business areas. We don’t have parking charges at beaches or other tourist areas.
The coupon system is superior to the coin machine system. Coin machines are very costly and prone to vandalism. We conducted a study on three parking systems—the coupon, coin and receipt systems. We found the coupon system to be the best.
We collected RM400,000 six months after implementing the coupon system. Just imagine that! The system also generates income for the agents who sell them.
Ravi spoke of cases in which motorists were compounded even as they were buying their coupons. This is not true. I told my enforcement officers to wait for the motorists to go back to their vehicles from booths or shops selling the coupons.
The cases in which they were compounded were when they disappeared after parking their cars, or reappeared only after 30 minutes.
