KUCHING, Jan 31: Kuching South City Council (MBKS) and other authorities, such as Padawan Municipal Council (MPP), must stop blaming the public or Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP), and instead examine and improve the councils’ public complaint channels before requiring everyone to use them exclusively.
Michael Kong Feng Nian, a special assistant to Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen, said this in a statement issued today in response to MBKS mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng on the dysfunctional escalators at both ends of the overhead bridge in front of Timberland Medical Centre (TMC).
During a press conference yesterday, Wee urged parties not to politicise the issue of the dysfunctional escalators, and instead file complaints through the proper channels rather than bringing it up on social media.
“It is a bit rich coming from Wee Hong Seng asking the public not to resort to social media when he has always resorted to social media to highlight and report issues.
“While Wee Hong Seng asks that proper channels be used to raise issues, it is unfortunate that Wee Hong Seng has failed to understand that even the ‘proper channels’ like Talikhidmat (as proposed by Wee Hong Seng) do not help to resolve the people’s issues,” Kong asserted.
He said that he has personally dealt with the authorities through the so-called proper channels, whether through letters or Talikhidmat, but the issues are rarely resolved or even looked into with any urgency.
“At times, there is never any courtesy by these authorities and/or agencies to even reply to any of my letters. This includes MBKS among others,” he added.
Kong also revealed that they had recently filed a public complaint with Talikhidmat about the uneven road surface outside Coffee Factory along Jalan Penrissen.
“Shortly after our complaint was made, we received a notification from the authorities that the matter had been ‘resolved’.
“However this morning, I visited the site to check on it and was astonished to see that it was not fixed at all!
“Therefore, the so-called proper channel as propounded by Wee Hong Seng has failed to fix a simple issue (and while doing so even make a false notification)!” he said.
Kong further claimed: “In respect of the Timberland Medical Centre escalator fiasco, members of the public had to turn to DAP because they had gone through the ‘proper channels’ as suggested by Wee Hong Seng, but were rebuffed and pushed around by both Public Works Department (JKR) Sarawak and MBKS.
“As such, we had no choice but to turn to social media as the last resort to get the authorities’ attention and immediate action!”
In addition, he claimed that history has shown that many authorities only act when the issue is brought to the public’s attention, whether through social media or viral WhatsApp messages.
“It is clear from these incidents that MBKS and other authorities like MPP need to get their act together and do their job properly.
“Instead of blaming the people and/or DAP for raising issues in the public forum, take the time to look at your current systems and make the public complaints channels reliable before asking everyone to use them altogether,” Kong stressed. — DayakDaily
