Flash Floods 2009!

At 6pm today just after a short downpour of heavy rain, flash floods happen at all over Segambut. Some residents told me it’s the worst they have ever seen! The affected areas include the flood-prone Segambut Estate, Segambut Tengah, Segambut Dalam, Segambut Bahagia and surprisingly for the first time it happens at the affluent Mont Kiara area where mostly the upper class and expatriates reside. The resulting traffic jams clog up motorists at Jalan Duta and some parts of Sprint Highway.

I don’t have to be a flood expert to know the main cause of this flash flood. It is due to overdeveloping without having the proper drainage system.


Lim Lip Eng

“Gong Xi, Gong Xi, Gong Xi Ni!”

As the Chinese New Year approaches, the people especially the chinese are having shopping frenzies from replacing wardrobes to moving into new house. They don’t even mind paying a higher “premium” during this.

Every Chinese New Year I will try to visit a charitable organisation. This year, I went to the office of Beautiful Gate Foundation For The Disabled. I made acquaintance with its Executive Director, Pastor Sia Siew Chin, after last year’s general election when she came to me for legal advice. During the visit, I gave the foundation some money as my “ang pow” to contribute in its operation cost. The foundation has 6 centres all over Klang Valley for the psychical-challenged people.

If you wish to assist the foundation, please call 03-7873 6579 or go to http://beautifulgate.my.diip.net.


Lim Lip Eng

Pakatan duo lodge report over KT ‘corrupt acts’

Taken from Malaysiakini 22.1.2009

Two Pakatan Rakyat MPs have lodged a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over alleged corrupt practices by Barisan Nasional during the Kuala Terengganu by-election. The report was lodged by Lim Lip Eng (DAP-Segambut) and Loh Gwo Burne (PKR-Kelana Jaya) at the Federal Territories MACC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today. Their report was received by Federal Territorities MACC director Azni Hamzah.

In their report, the duo cited four instances of alleged corrupt practices and attached four newspaper clippings to support their claims. The four articles touched on:
(1) RM1 million fund for fishermen.
(2) RM23.8 million allocation for SJK (C) Chee Wen.
(3) RM15.8 million projects for Class F contractors.
(4) RM300 each for journalists covering the by-election.

Speaking to reporters later, Loh said the funding announced during the by-election appeared to be a method used to fish for votes using the government machinery. “The government and Barisan can say the funds were already approved. Our question is, why wait until the by-election to make the announcements?” he said. Loh said he hopes that the MACC would conduct public awareness campaigns in order to educate the public on what constitutes as corruption in order to discourage such practices during elections. Lim said that this report should be treated as a test case for the newly formed MACC as the anti-corruption watchdog has more power now since it is a full-fledged commission.

Flash floods a matter of ‘good faith’

Reported by P Stek in Malaysiakini on 20.1.2009

Civil servants and local authorities cannot be sued for the decisions they make, provided they act in “good faith”. Because the current legal interpretation of “good faith” is very narrow, it is very difficult to hold local governments accountable for their decisions. Even if federal planning and design guidelines are ignored, local authorities cannot be sued. “Section 95 of the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974 grants immunity to the state and immunity to civil servants if a decision is made in ‘good faith’, but is a decision in ‘good faith’ if it is in disregard of existing policies, and repeated complaints by residents or warnings by experts?” asks Derek Fernandez, city councillor for Petaling Jaya. Fernandez explains that civil servants often make bad planning decisions because of political pressure from city councillors or state officials. “Some are corrupt and close their eyes to the dangers,” says Fernandez, adding that local authorities often lack independent expertise. They rely heavily on the developers’ experts to make decisions. The consequences of planning failures are significant. Flash floods caused by poorly-planned development continue to cause significant damage. “These are not natural disasters. A natural disaster is when a river in a forest floods. These are our disasters, they are caused by human error,” says Piarapakaran Subramaniam from the Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations (Fomca). “Old development areas were designed for their own water runoff generation. When huge drains from new developments are connected, the old drains are simply under-designed,” explained Subramaniam.

Once a flash flood occurs, the local government’s response is often inadequate.
“The way (Kuala Lumpur City Hall) solves the problem is that they unclog a particular drain, but they never look at the whole system. Following a heavy downpour the water simply has nowhere to go,” says Lim Lip Eng (DAP-Segambut), whose constituency is regularly hit by flash flooding. “City Hall overlooked drainage in the Draft Kuala Lumpur 2020 City Plan.
"They looked at the zoning of land, but how can Kuala Lumpur be a world class city without a good drainage system?” Lim asked, noting that he had repeatedly complained to City Hall about the matter.

Malaysia has some excellent guidelines related to flash flooding, including the Urban Stormwater Management Manual 2001 (MSMA) which requires “control at source” for runoff water generated by new developments. However these measures have failed to prevent flash floods in Kuala Lumpur as recently as Aug 2008.

Immunity is not acceptable
“Of course civil servants should not be sued if they are performing their duty to the best of their ability. But if there is gross negligence they should be held accountable,” said Lim. It is a sentiment that is shared by Fernandez and Subramaniam.

“It will cost more in the short term, but less in the long term,” Fernandez explains. He proposes local governments take three important steps: (1) In the planning and design stage, flood risks and other geohazards must be properly investigated. Local authorities must have the financial resources to hire independent expertise. The cost of these experts should be covered by a higher building permit application fee paid for by the developers. Engineers and local authorities should be publicly liable for their actions. (2) Someone should be held responsible for the construction and the work of sub-contractors. Currently, if standards are found to be lacking, no one takes responsibility. (3) Long term maintenance must be addressed. If a new development requires the construction of a retention pond, then the owners of the development must also be charged for its maintenance. If they are bankrupt their properties should be repossessed.
In addition, all three agreed that the immunity of civil servants is not acceptable.

Restoring trust in civil service
They insist on the abolition or amendment of certain laws, including the Public Authorities Protection Act 1948 or a re-interpretation of the term “good faith” by the courts.
Malaysiakini has tried to contact several civil servants about how they view their legal immunity, but all declined to comment. A better legal definition of ‘good faith’ is sorely needed. This is not to punish the civil servants but to restore trust in the civil service and the decisions that it makes.


Lim has asked the Works Ministry in Parliament for proof that the new SMART tunnel is actually working. The SMART tunnel was completed in 2007 at a cost of RM1.8 billion to prevent flash flooding of the Klang River in central Kuala Lumpur. When asked if the proof was really necessary, Lim said: “You can’t blame me. If you look at the majority of huge projects, they haven’t worked very well.”

Money For Nothing

How many of them are useless?
From NST 20 Jan 2009, By K. Harinderan

A large number of electronic road signs installed under the city's Integrated Traffic Information System (ITIS) are spoilt. The number could be as high as 60 per cent of the 140 Variable Message Signs (VMS) installed to date, according to Segambut member of parliament Lim Lip Eng. The figure, however, is disputed by City Hall which said that only 30 per cent of the signs are not working. Lim said the spoilt signs were a waste of public funds as the material and installation cost for the VMS were more than RM67 million, which averaged out to about RM481,000 per sign. City Hall, he said, would have to spend another RM8 million over a period of two years to repair the spoilt signs and faulty closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) in the city. Lim said yesterday that a reply he received in parliament had stated that of 140 VMS installed in the city from 2007 to Oct 2008, 78 were not functioning. Lim, who feels that the cost was too high, said: "With this high fault rate over the last two years, why was ITIS not queried on the matter or had their contract terminated as they had failed to deliver?" The VMS units were installed to alleviate traffic congestion and display traffic information to road users, especially in areas with high traffic volume.

"Officials from the Transportation Department of City Hall had said that the problem was not due to any technical failure but was caused by thieves and road accidents. "I am curious to know how a vehicle can reach that height that it is able to damage a VMS?" said Lim, who also called on City Hall to be transparent and make public the actual amount invested in ITIS. Meanwhile, City Hall's director of Urban Transportation Leong Siew Mun said repairs were being carried out on the spoilt VMS. He blamed it on thieves who stole the copper wires leading to the communication cables. "The cables have been re-laid over the last few months and we have taken preventive measures to ensure that the problem does not occur again," added Leong.

Lim, together with 10 Pakatan Rakyat MPs whose constituencies fall within Kuala Lumpur, has called for a dialogue with KL mayor Datuk Ahmad Fuad Ismail. The dialogue is expected to be held tomorrow. "We have to monitor the feasibility of the ITIS project as it involves public funds and all aspects of the contract must be fulfilled. "For this, we call on the mayor to allow us to go through the contract to allow us to have a better understanding of the details involved," said Lim.



Raising a stink over smart public toilets

One of the six smart toilets installed by City Hall.

The smart public toilets installed by City Hall is causing grief among some users, claimed Segambut member of parliament Lim Lip Eng. Lim said many had complained that the toilets were not user-friendly as it had a time limit and infringed on a user's privacy. "I have received complaints about the smart toilets, which cost RM500,000 each to install in 2006," said Lim, adding the project was given to a third party. To date, six of the 20 smart toilets have been installed by a private company which was given the contract by City Hall. The hi-tech, self-cleaning toilets are placed in busy areas including in Bukit Bintang, Jalan P. Ramlee and Jalan Raja Laut. The total allocation for the project is RM10 million. Users have to pay between 20 sen and RM1 depending on the duration they use the toilets which measure 2.25m by 5.25m, with a height of 3.25m.

These complaints will be among the issues Lim will be raising with mayor Datuk Ahmad Fuad Ismail at a dialogue tomorrow in City Hall. He will be joined by nine other Pakatan Rakyat MPs. Lim had outlined 22 issues which he hoped to raise with the mayor. Among the issues is the award of parking contracts to four private companies which owe City Hall arrears amounting to RM7.5 million. Lim said the amount has been outstanding since 2004 and City Hall should have terminated the contracts and take legal action against them. He said City Hall had awarded a contract to keep the street pavements clean to a private company with a concession of more than 10 years. Lim claimed that the contract was not awarded through an open tender.

"We call on the mayor to follow the example of Works Minister Datuk Mohd Zin Mohamed by allowing the MPs to go through the contracts and awards. The implementation of the contract clauses have to be monitored and there should be more transparency." Other issues to be discussed include the status of the stop work order of the Damansara 21 project, illegal dumping and poor rubbish collection at many housing schemes in Segambut. Illegal telecom towers, soil erosion in Damansara Heights and the status of Bukit Kiara as a "green zone" are also among the issues to be discussed.