It all started in 2001. All the apartment dwellers, young and old, sick and healthy had to queue in front of the management company at 4 am, waiting to get their second car-park stickers on a first- come-first-served basis.

The manager of the management company, apparently related to the director of the company, was running our apartment with an iron fist. We were treated very rudely, all ideas and opinions were ignored, overtime claims were record-high and thousands in the amount of utility bills went unpaid.

Enough was enough. A group of residents rose to be heard like an uprising against a tyrant in the olden days. We had a pregnant lady running here and there arranging for resident meetings, a cancer-stricken resident who felt so strongly to correct the wrongs being done, an ex-army camp manager giving it his all, an insurance agent putting his great writing skills to good use, a meticulous secretary keeping all files in order, the list was endless. We all felt we had to do something to get back what was ours.

On top of the problems with the management company, we faced a bigger problem regarding our strata titles. Our developer, due to a class suit filed by the residents for late payment delivery, had wound up, leaving all matters pertaining to the developer under the care of the Official Receiver (OR).

As we all know, usually matters under the care of a government agency take longer time to get processed. In our situation, while on one hand, the resident association was trying to coordinate efforts to get the approval of the OR to manage our apartment, another party was trying to get ahead of us to wrestle the control from us.

Not only that, some of the more vocal residents had their cars scratched, tires slashed, wipers bended etc as a scare tactic to make us toe the line.

In 2004, through many visits to the OR office and many meetings with the residents to get majority support, we managed to get legal control of the management of our apartment. The existing manager and her cronies refused to had over the office and purposely closed the office on the day of the handover.

Not to be outdone, we made a police report, bought a bigger lock and locked up the office too. It was a stalemate that day - but since then we never had to see that Iron Lady’s face ever again.

The very first day of managing the place, we realised it was a gigantic deep financial hole we were looking at. Tenaga Nasional’s bill was almost RM100,000 in debt. Water bills were another RM50,000. Not to mention other overheads which were all outstanding in the thousands with bonuses paid in advance to all staff. We had practically zero funds and were RM200,000 in debt.

We even had final notice letters from the utility companies threatening to cut our water and electricity. I remember very clearly how we had to beg officers from Tenaga and Puas to allow us to pay our outstanding amount in installments.

That was in 2004. Today, I am very proud to say that Prisma Perdana after so many years of struggle (it wasn’t easy calling for resident meetings and ensuring the quorum was met, making sure everyone understood clearly what our roles were, the pros and cons of everything we do) has:

1. Prudent management by the residents association ( everything was made transparent, accounts are readily available at the management office, cost-cutting measures wherever and whenever possible undertaken and open tenders were done to ensure fairness);

2. Great cooperation among the residents (we cooperated to pay our management fees only after the residents association officially took over the management of the apartment, held elections fairly and smoothly and listened to differing views)

3. Has great help and sound advice from legal aid people and good Samaritans. We have managed to form our Management Company (MC) as required under the Strata Title Act. More than one-third of the residents have obtained their strata titles and new council members have been elected to replace the existing resident committee.

It is a success story not often heard of in the Malaysias context. Not many apartments are able to form their own MC. Many face hurdles like what we had faced and gave up after much struggle.

The story I feel very compelled to tell here is this - it is always an uphill task being involved in a residents association but to be able to finally be able to complete what we set out to do is really an indescribable feeling of satisfaction of a job well done.

Saying a big ‘Thank You’ just isn’t enough to those who have such big hearts like these people I am going to mention: Chang Kim Loong, Albert Soo, Salahuddin, Viji, Chow, Ms Chandra, Kelly and Jonathan and Mrs Ronnie Liew (I will never forget how committed Ronnie was in our endeavour).

There are just so many people to be included in this tribute. You all know who you are. If you are still staying there in Prisma Perdana, continue to make it a better place to live in.