We, the local citizens at Cameron Highlands, are fed-up with the rampant corruption.

How else can you explain the approval of temporary occupation licenses (TOL) for farms in our water catchment areas. Mind you, not one farm but for more than 60!

We must be the rare district where faecal matter from farm workers, cows and chickens drain smack into our water catchment ponds especially the supposedly brand new Sungai Terla water treatment plant.

So if you are planning a trip up to Cameron Highlands, please note that what is coming out from the taps and your showers is what we locals call 'international sh*t water'.

I am not making this up. Since 2005, maybe earlier, water testing done by our local health department, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and universities both local and abroad have consistently shown the presence of E.Coli, a faecal bacteria.

On occasions, the tests have shown the presence of E.Coli too numerous to count. And this is happening in Cameron Highlands, a premier tourist resort!

But the local government choses to ignore this contamination year after year. Police reports have been made but to no avail .The state government was told of this in November 2008 by our state assembly person Ho Yip Kap. But again, what happens? Total apathy. Rather, the opening of farms in this area has gathered momentum.

Doesn't our government of the day get it? If the local government is corrupt and incompetent, the local folks will assume that the present federal and state government are also the same.

If Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is serious about eradicating corruption, he should clean up the local governments in his home state first, especially Cameron Highlands where the evidence is overwhelming.

This is plain common sense as the grassroots is where you get your votes from. The worse the local government performs, the worse the people's opinion of the govrnment is.

How else too can you explain the issuing of land clearing permits without environmental impact assessment reports and without a care for the people living in the vicinity, exposing them to high risks of landslides.

Even as I am writing this letter, land clearing is proceeding with a vengeance. Of course, they don't care what happens to the community. They just fatten their bank accounts and leave the Camerons when their projects end.

After the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide tragedy in Selangor, Najib said that there should be no more land-clearing or new projects in Cameron Highlands. But what is happening on the ground is entirely different.

Recently, land-clearing commenced on the slopes of Gunung Jasar in pristine Montane Forest. This is where the mossy forests are. What happened to all the promises made by our politicians to preserve bio-diversity and so on and so forth?

This is also where the rare 'amorphophallus bufo' (a plant) is found. It is not sighted anywhere else in the Camerons. Clear this slope and the Pahang government has sent another rare plant species into extinction.

It is common knowledge amongst the local people that if you want favours from certain government departments here, the going rate is not in the thousands but in the tens of thousands ringgit. Otherwise, no deal. See, even corruption is not spared from inflation.

Then, of course, there is the explosive growth of 'gerai'. Certificates of Fitness are issued even when conditions are not fulfilled. Parking spaces are taken up to build ‘gerai' which resulted in massive traffic jams during peak periods.