Crying foul over police inaction

New Straits Times, 22 April 2009

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/National/2537712/Article/index_html

KUALA LUMPUR: A suspect was in hand. The scene of the crime had been established. A confession was made. But that's about as far as the case has gone. After more than three months of waiting, a transport company director has had it with what he claims to be indecisiveness on the part of the police in solving his case. Lam Ng Nga, 61, said he found it baffling that the police had not acted on his report on missing cargo, which he filed on Jan 10, despite him bringing his former driver -- a key suspect -- right to their doorstep. He said the driver, who was supposed to transport 18 pieces of I-beams to Pasir Gudang, Johor, from here in December, admitted selling the cargo to another buyer in Puchong. Lam claimed that the investigating officer took down a confession from the driver, who even showed the officer where he sold the cargo. But no arrests were made. Lam said he had gone to meet the investigating officer seven times in January since lodging his report, and raised it with the officer's superiors in Bukit Aman three times in February, but to no avail. Another complainant, Lee Nai Sim, 40, said that in her case, she was also confused by the actions of the investigating officer who allegedly refused to even meet her. She said she filed a report against her stockbroker last Saturday, after discovering that all her shares had been sold without her consent, amounting to RM400,000 in losses. Lee claimed that the officer merely instructed his subordinate over the phone to tell her to file a suit directly with a magistrate. Segambut member of parliament Lim Lip Eng, who held a press conference for the two complainants, said it was the police's duty to investigate reports and not shift the burden to the victims. © Copyright 2009 The New Straits Times Press (M) Berhad. All rights reserved.

Illegal parking poser for Desa Sri Hartamas

From http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2009/4/16/central/3700393&sec=central
By THO XIN YI

MOTORISTS who park at Desa Sri Hartamas and Mont Kiara in Kuala Lumpur can ignore the parking meters because they are illegal, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng said.
Lim said that he had discovered that the roads in the said areas had not been handed over to the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL). “I visited Jalan Kiara 3 in Mont Kiara with some officials of the developer and the DBKL on April 1 to inspect the poor conditions of the road. The officer told us that the DBKL was not responsible because the roads are still under the developer,” he said.
Lim said he did not understand why the roads were still privately owned while the areas had been developed for about 10 years. “The developer told me that it had tried to hand over the roads to the DBKL three times previously but was rejected each time,” he said. “Who will be held accountable if accidents happen as a result of the poor road conditions?” he asked.
Lim, a lawyer, also questioned the existence of the parking meters in the areas as the roads were yet to be gazetted as public roads.
“Who has pocketed the parking collection?
“The DBKL has no right to collect the parking fees, so were the parking meters installed by suppliers without prior consent from the DBKL?” he asked. “What about the compounds issued to the motorists? “Should the authority refund the money to the motorists?” he said
When Lim contacted a DBKL officer in front of the reporters, the officer told him that the compounds issued were invalid and the DBKL would take action on the operator. Lim said he would write to the DBKL for an explanation.
On a related matter, Lim said the DBKL rented the electronic car park system from four suppliers and had appointed seven operators to collect the parking fees. “The operators pay RM5.50 per parking bay a day in the city centre and RM2.80 a day in the suburbs to the DBKL,” he said.
Repeated attempts to get DBKL to confirm Lim’s assertion proved futile. However, in a faxed statement, City Hall’s corporate communications manager Anwar Mohd Zain said that Jln 25/70A in Desa Sri Hartamas had been handed over to the authority. He added that there were three parking meters along the road and no individual or company had been given the rights to collect parking charges in the area. However, the faxed statement did not make any reference to other roads in the area.

Guarantee Letter from DBKL guarantees unknown

Lim and aggrieved Jinjang Selatan Tambahan residents

Surat Janji from DBKL

Two weeks ago, 14 out of 17 former Temporally Occupying Licensed (TOL) houses at Jinjang Selatan Tambahan received each a guarantee letter (surat jaminan) cum final eviction notice from DBKL informing them to vacate the area latest by Monday, 13.4.2009 in order for a road project. The letter did not mention the term of guarantee. Those TOL house owners have stayed there for over 40 years and have renewed their TOL every year until 5 years ago when DBKL refused to accept their renewal fees.
On Monday itself I received a reply from DBKL to my enquiry into the details of the guarantee letter and the answer is DBKL and one private company (a developer?) are yet to determine what to reward (ganjaran) the house owners. That means DBKL demands the owners to vacate their houses latest by Monday in exchange of an unknown or maybe nothing at all. Who would be that moron to accept such guarantee letter?

Lim Lip Eng

Chittirai Puthandu Vaalthukal (Happy New Year)

Malarum pookal pol sirithu manathil kavalaigal maranthu valkaiyel santosam ponga iniya Chittirai Puthandu Vaalthukal.

Lim Lip Eng

People queuing up to register as voters

The first voters’ registration campaign initiated by DAP started off at Tm Sri Sinar on 8:30am sharp as Election Commission Malaysia personnel were ready and people were waiting. The public response to this campaign was simply too overwhelming! Despite some light rains, the turn out increased by the minutes until 1pm when we have to call it off because it was already half an hour beyond time. At one time, we even ran out of forms but luckily one officer had supply in his car. Some 600 people came and we managed to have close to 400 new voters registered. Many were turned away because they haven’t had their IC address changed.

The very basic ingredient of democracy is voting and yet, more than 5 million Malaysians who are eligible to register as voters are not registered. Why? There are a variety of reasons. Some are very nonchalant about voting as they think this is politic. The other main reason is the whole voters’ registration process is full of hassle. One simple and 100% works solution to this is the government must let any Malaysian automatically becomes an eligible voter when he or she attains 21 years old. Easy does it.

Lim Lip Eng

New Voters Registration Campaign on 12 April (This Sunday)

Help from DBKL in Bukit Gantang By-Election

The two photos were taken yesterday at somewhere along Jalan Kuala Sepetang, Bukit Gantang, Perak. Why on earth a DBKL passenger van was doing in Bukit Gantang especially during the by-election? It was parked in front of a building where BN/Umno posters and banners almost covered the building frontage. Five to six people tried to get in the van when the photos were taken. I suppose they were there to help either the Election Commission or the police. Nevertheless, I will get KL city mayor to answer that.

Lim Lip Eng