Selangor government needs to implement policies and programmes in line with developed state status

What is the point of accumulating the reserves instead of spending for the benefit of the people?

V Thomas

The prices of  a large number of consumer items  are skyrocketing and pushing up the cost of living especially in  the Federal Capital and Selangor.

It is truly shocking to hear the prices of vegetables and fruits in the Klang Valley nowadays. If properly planned, Selangor can bring down the prices of a wide array of agricultural produce.

Selangor has tens of thousands of acres of idle land in the outlying districts of Hulu Selangor, Tanjung Karang, Sabak Bernam, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Langat, Kuala Langat and Sepang which can be used for large scale production of  agricultural produce.

A lot of the jungles in these districts consists of secondary forests and brushland which are of little economic or even environmental value. These lands can be used for more economically worthwhile projects such as farming of vegetables, fruits, livestock rearing and others.

The state can open up these areas and alienate or lease the land to experienced and genuine farmers with each one getting about 5 to 10 acres on a temporary occupation licence (TOL) basis.

Selangor can become a major producer of a wide variety of agricultural produce as  it has a large population and a higher standard of living, which will ensure that agriculture will be profitable and viable.

Selangor need not depend wholly on Cameron Highlands and other areas even for lowland-growing vegetables and fruits. With foreign workers easily available to work in the farms, there should be no excuse.

Selangor’s large resident population, combined with millions of foreign workers, tourists, migrants from other states and others have pushed up demand for food and coupled with the short supply has increased the consumer price index.

Presently, vegetable farming is done under power line reserves or on untitled land in a piecemeal  fashion. This is an unsystematic and improper way of farming, and supply will always be less thereby hiking  prices.

High prices for foodstuffs lead to a higher cost of living. Even the middle class cannot cope with the high prices prevailing today.

Additionally, Selangor had been declared a developed state in 2005 and therefore should concentrate more on bringing benefits to the existing population and stop behaving like  a backward state.

Selangor should approve or select only investments and industries that are clean and  high tech, factories not depending much on foreign workers and non-polluting industries that do not cause environmental degradation.

Selangor should send these industries to other less developed states. There is enough economic activity in Selangor to ensure that the spill-over and multiplier effect will always keep the state prospering.

About half of Selangor is urbanized and the rest is rural and this good balance should be maintained for the benefit of the people.

The urban sprawl is decreasing the quality of life as more and more green areas – parks and plantations – are developed for the insatiable demand for  houses, roads, industries, commercials areas, shopping malls, educational institutions and other purposes.

Selangor’s roads are congested, housing areas are crowded, rivers are polluted and public areas are dirty and insanitary.

The entire local government system has broken down with the exit of Alam Flora, which had the resources and the manpower as a large company to keep Selangor tidy.

It has, since 2008, been replaced by a large number of small-time contractors who in many cases do not even have the right tools to do a job competently, and this system has engendered massive corruption in the local authorities.

At the local government level, Selangor residents and rate payers are truly infuriated at the way things are and  may reveal their anger and frustration in the impending general elections unless there is a major spring cleaning effort before the polls.

All it takes is for the Immigration department to conduct an ‘operasi’ and there will hardly be any municipal workers to be seen for the next few days. This is how bad the present system is.

The Pakatan councillors are mostly incompetent and indifferent and are adding to the woes. The state Assembly representatives hardly monitor the situation.

The people may not be angry with the state government but definitely they are with the local authorities. The lack of local council elections has enabled this rotten system to remain unchanged for decades despite Selangor becoming more urbanized and in need of more democratic procedures and practices.

There is a need to control development in Selangor as the price of this progress is becoming too costly. Billions of ringgit are now needed for large scale water projects such as the one drawing water from Pahang, the incinerator plant in Broga (now abandoned), river cleaning and beautification projects, infrastructure such as  roads, highways, flyovers and large drains to control flashfloods in urban areas.

The endless increase in the number of employees in the local authorities and other Selangor government offices is now becoming a big drain on Selangor’s annual budget.

The large reserves accumulated – now more than 3 billion ringgit –should be used for various development, upgrading and other needs. Nowadays all it takes is for a heavy downpour and many towns and urban areas in Selangor experience flashfloods!

What is the point of accumulating the reserves instead of spending for the benefit of the people?

There is also a need to control Selangor’s booming population especially those migrating from other states and the number of foreign workers.

Selangor should aim to be a developed state in the true sense of the word: enable people to have a healthy lifestyle by having more playgrounds, parks and green lungs, reduce all kinds of pollution, go for clean rivers, less congested roads, less crowded housing areas, initiate more re-cycling efforts, clean and tidy environs and surroundings, monitor closely whether the local authorities are pro-active and meeting the high expectations of the people, have more affordable housing schemes, put an end to abandoned housing projects that are both an eyesore and causing hardship to house buyers, eliminate epidemics such as dengue and control strays, more benefits for senior citizens, better public transport to reduce the high volume of cars and air pollution, control anti-social behavior such as vandalism, begging, homelessness, have proper social welfare programmes to help the very poor and the handicapped, have better maintenance programmes using competent contractors, re-surface state and municipal roads regularly, ensure contractors complete their jobs fast before the deadline, ensure that the local authorities give out contracts on a multi-racial basis, and have stringent checks to ensure less wastage of public funds.

Since Selangor is a developed state the people have high expectations of living in a First World environment, and the government of the day needs to ensure that this ideal and objective is realized for the benefit of  the people.