FIRST WORLD INFRASTRUCTURE? BULLSHIT!

I read with a heavy heart Malaysiakini’s report about the landslide in Bukit Antarabangsa.

It did remind me of an old Malaysian colloquial saying …. “No come, all no come. But once come, three or four would come!”

This expression seems to apply to the recent landslides that had occurred over the past one week or so. First, it happened in Ulu Yam, just on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur killing two young girls. Then it happened in the city, right between the buildings occupied by our foremost investment bank, CIMB (fortunately no casualties). And the latest taking place at the suburb called Bukit Antarabangsa or International Heights (todate 4 dead).

The latest trajedy at Bukit Antarabangsa is not very far from the more infamous one at Highland Towers, where just under 50 lives were lost in 1993. I remember a few years later, then PM Mahathir noticed blatant clearing of hill-side areas whilst travelling in a helicopter over the same Bukit Antarabangsa area and ordering a stop to those clearing ……. but the development still carried on subsequently …. after taking “certain precautionary measures” on the part of the developers.

It is so ironic that only when lives are lost, properties damaged, thousands of people displaced that the government decides that enough is enough.

What about those cracks on the Middle Ring Road 2 at Kepong that required the access to be closed several times for rectification works? What about the hillside development at Medan Damansara that has been causing residents to cry foul of procedures not being properly adhered to? Remember the landslide near the entry point to Genting Highlands that took away lives?

How can we say that it is “First World Infrastructure but Third World Maintenance”? My God, the “Infrastructure” is also Third Rate. And that mentality permeates right through …. be it the outskirts (Ulu Yam), in the city (Jalan Semantan, Damansara) or the suburbs (Bukit Antarabangsa). Will the banning of hill-side developments really solve the core problem? See Najib’s promise here. We’ll wait and see, Najib.

partial extraction from SCwatch