Much has been said about the way our council members conduct their affairs. The disapprovals over the increasingly popular 'lawatan sambil belajar' (study tours) in particular deserves a serious review before the situation becomes a lost cause.

To begin with, no person in his or her right frame of mind will ever object to opportunities that enable us to learn from others. And more so if these learning long hauls can bring a boost to our environment and service delivery, such efforts should be encouraged at all costs. In fact the rakyat will certainly give their support without fuss.

However, when basic services remain unattended despite efforts to bring it into public purview, efforts to justify such overseas trips will always remain suspect to the rakyat.

In this age of technology and speedy communication capability, much of the world is learning from each other through the Internet. It is therefore quite puzzling why our councillors are unable to use such medium to 'import' new ideas in addressing old problems.

Further, any widely traveled explorer, student or businessman will easily tell you that when you try to mix business with pleasure, the learning curve diminishes marginally. And, the several hours you take to meet some counterpart overseas to compare notes and exchange ideas against the number of days and nights needed to wrap other shopping and sightseeing obligations, let alone the travel time, one can be sure how grossly mutated is the 'lawatan sambil belajar' concept.

At the crux of this broiling and constipated issue is the fact that when basics are unmet, why waste so much time, money and resources to import new ideas. Our pot holes cannot be attended to in quick time; our drains remain clogged and stink to high heavens; rubbish collection and disposal is a perennial issue; street and traffic lights can remain non-functional for ages; missing man hole covers must take a life before it is resolved; and many more grouses and dissatisfactory service delivery remain the hallmark of today's municipal councils.

It is only right that the rakyat's call to the leadership to plug the nonsensical antics of local councils be permanently nipped before it is too late. If the battle against poorly performing and inefficient councils is lost, the government will be saddled with ill repute eventless, negating all the good work of the leadership.

Surely we are capable of stopping this rot in the head.