Sometimes I wonder whether our nation's policy makers really have any inkling as to what they are talking about or whether all their statements are merely lip service to show they are deserving of the votes to become the rakyat representatives and thus are earning their keep.

Take the call to support home tourism for example.'Why go overseas when we have so many lovely tourist destinations to visit locally?' say the policy makers. And gullible rakyat like me take their word - Malaysians are really a most gullible lot - and bring our families to local tourist destinations only to end up very disappointed.

During the school vacations last week, I took my family to Cameron Highlands over the weekend. Yes, they have improved the roads - widening the Tapah-Ringlet road, and completing a new spacious highway from Simpang Pulai to Kampung Raja.

With such easy access and being gullible in heeding our ministers' calls, it was no wonder to see many other people also having the same idea and all of us flocked to the hill resort.

Once up there, we realised our woes - no one thought of widening the main road in the main town - Tanah Rata - or building more roads in the said town or its neighbouring town, Brinchang.

As a result, there was traffic jam in both towns. And due to the couldn't-care-less attitude of the local police, many inconsiderate motorists double-parked (there is also a dearth of parking lots) or waited by the road side, thus contributing to the traffic jam.

My family soon realised that the local authorities too, suffered from the same couldn't-care-less attitude. No one bothered to grow flowering plants and whatever plants there were left on their own.

We could not help but realise that the local authorities are not taking advantage of the climate that the resort is enjoying. Some town or city councils, for example Ipoh, have planted flowering plants and nurture them well.

If you ask me or my family, Cameron Highlands has become quite ugly and unsightly, also partly due to the increasing number of tourists who thoughtlessly litter and vandalise the place.

But the biggest shock came on our last night there. From evening till the time we left, we didn't get a drop of water in our apartment. We asked around and found many other visitors renting the holiday apartments too hadn't got any water.

We later heard from the local people that they too suffer the same problem and that this is a frequent event each time after large crowds of tourists converge on the hill resort - water taps run dry.

As we couldn't cook or wash (our toilets' flushing system also stopped), we decided to leave to warn other would-be visitors who may be gullible in heeding our nation's policy makers' call to support local tourism.

As I see it, there is really not much point in making such calls or widening the Tapah-Ringlet road or building the new Simpang Pulai-Kampung Raja highway when nothing is done to enlarge the water capacity for the hill resort.

While my family and I could just pack up and go, what about the locals? I really pity them as they have to stay there and literally clean up after us, the visitors. Maybe the Sultan of Pahang should step in since his subjects living in the Cameron Highlands are suffering.

All because some nitwit national leaders - without bothering to do their homework - have decided to implement unsustainable policies. We should stop taking our politicians' words at face value.