Mosquitoes attack!

Special Branch Officers

Police in full force!!

I and a group of us DAP members spent Saturday morning donating blood, not to save lives but to feed mosquitoes at Taman Emas, Mile 9, Penrissen. We from the DAP including Chong Chieng Jen decided to hold a protest in front of the company which has ‘invaded’ Taman Emas and set up roots there by dumping several spots with recycle tyres.

I am not against people doing an honest business but I do dislike those who do business at the expense of the discomfort of the people. And this is one of the cases where the people’s well being and welfare were not taken into consideration.

Two years ago, I was called by the residents there to look into their plights where a mountain of recycled tyres was dumped there. The residents were not only unhappy with the ugly tyres taking shape near their houses but the invasion of mosquitoes was too much for them to bear. They were also worried that if the tyres burned down, the air would be filled with poisonous gas.

I went there to see for myself. Then on October 2, 2007, I wrote to the Padawan municipal council, Department of Environment, Samarahan district council asking them to ensure that the company be moved to a more appropriate place. Actually, the owner had agreed to do so earlier on.

Alas, two years have gone, the tyres are still there although less, but the swarm of mosquitoes are happily making the area their residence.

We went there at 11 am and not long after that, the police arrived. Ok, they may have a job to do. I would be grateful if they were there to film the tyres or to report to the higher authority the suffering faced by the people. If only that would happen, Malaysia would have been a better place to live in.

While the residents were in the process of signing the petition letter, more police were seen to have arrived. To me, the horde of policemen appears like harassment and resulted in some of the residents were too scared to sign. There were at least a total of 5 police vehicles and about 20 policemen, which made the area looked like a place where a major crime has been committed.

One of the residents was heard complaining that in the past, when they reported cases of crime in their area, the police were either late in arriving or they would not bother. He said, “Now, we have a complaint against the company and they are so efficient to come and see what the DAP are doing here,” he said cynically.

I certainly agreed with the resident’s statement. If only the police are efficient to fight crime, solve housebreaking cases, snatching cases instead of concentrating their effort in running after opposition members, who were in fact trying sincerely to help the people.

If the authorities had acted years ago when the matter was first brought up, do you think we would have to go there today? Had the police, who were there this morning in droves, patrolled the housing areas or the city, I am sure there are less crimes happening today. Come on, you all have your priority all wrong. We were not there shouting slogans against the government; we were there to ask the authority to do something for the 100 over residents there who are afraid of getting dengue fever due to the invasion of mosquitoes.

The government spends so much money on advertisement in the electronic and printed media telling the public to be aware of dengue, keeping their house clean, changing water frequently to prevent breeding of aedes mosquitoes and here we have a classical case of mosquitos’ breeding ground, and they are all turning a blind eye!