Steven Sim

Sometimes, most of the time, heroes don’t come in capes and red undies.

For almost 10 years, or maybe more - the Indian auntie I met said it was already “sepuluh tahun”, it doesn’t matter, the point is, the people of Taman Permata flat had been living in a very run-down neighbourhood for a long time.

The water retention tank and the main pipes were leaking in block D. Water was leaking from the rooftop through the ceilings of the flat units. And the exposed water system means contaminated water for the residents. 

 
The stairways and the walkways of the flats had no lights. Certain parts of the staircase had no hand support on the side, these were stolen and sold as metal scraps. Imagine old people or children walking up the dark staircase at night, with no side support.

 
The the ugly sight are the many empty units in the flats. Some of the residents dumped their garbage, their unwanted furnitures, their old newspapers and used diapers into those empty units. The rubbish accumulated in them, so did the crocoaches and maggots.

 


 
They, the residents tried to ask for assistance from the Rukun Tetangga (RT) in that area. The RT community is just besides one of the flats. But the RT Committee refused to help citing their funds (which is huge from collecting fee from the weekly “pasar malam”, night market in the flat area) were only meant for the residents of the ground houses and not the flats. The residents were hopelessly left alone. 

 
Since the 8th of March, I have visited the area a couple of times with my boss to dialogue with the residents. We recommended them three immediate actions, all which the residents gladly adopted:

 
1. To set up a Special Welfare Committee to be the representative of the flat residents, since the RT had refused to admit them
 
2. To organize a gotong royong to clean up their neighbourhood

3. To set up the Joint Management Body (JMB) which is a statutory body given power to manage the flat buildings.


In one of the meetings which we organized, the residents turned up full force. This was rare, previously many had refused to come forward - some were just apathetic, some disillusioned and didn’t believe anything could be done. During the meeting, one of the local DAP members who was a resident of the flat, Saudara Veanu, offered himself to be the chairman of the Special Committee. The residents agreed unanimously.

A committee was formed to represent them with a view of finally setting up a JMB for the Taman Permata flat.

My boss approved an allocation to repair the leaking water tanks and pipes. And also a smaller allocation to purchase equipments and organize the gotong royong.

JR and I went there about 8.30am, by then the residents were already 30 minutes into serious and massive cleaning. 

A lot of people came out, but a lot more stayed at home. Yet as I was informed, those that stayed at home did send someone from that house to join in the gotong royong - usually the menfolks. But slowly into the noon, the womenfolks came out, picking up the lidi and brooms. They started to clean up the clogged drain while their men were picking up big furnitures and some almost decomposed rubbish from empty flat units. One group of about 5-6 men took almost two hours to clean up a unit. The rubbish collected was massive.

 


It was a community affair, people of all races came out, I can see the Malay lady chatting with the Chinese auntie while both of them were sweeping the road and drains. The Indian guy was putting the rubbish into a bag while the Chinese and Malay will carry that load and dump it into the big rubbish bin provided by the local council. There were old people, young people, children, men and women. All of them living out our Malaysian culture of gotong royong, which we hear so much, but seen so little.

 


A few DAP members came out to help, in fact some of us collected about RM150 among ourselves to buy breakfast for the residents. We could only afford a packet of nasi lemak for some and roti for others. Some residents said that previously when the RT called for gotong royong, they were paid RM30 each. That’s not gotong royong, that’s hiring cleaners. 

They managed to clean up block C that day, some worked till late afternoon. A lot of work still left to be done. Veanu told me yesterday, they have already planned another gotong royong this weekends. They will not stop until their neighbourhood is clean.



Looking back, when I first saw the flats, I thought it was impossible. 

But 50 people that day showed me heroes who make the impossible happens do not always come in capes and red undies. 

Some even have one arm only…

 


 
More photos here