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‘Ministers, solve our problems instead of mocking us’

YOURSAY | ‘Everyone living in the city knew waking up early to beat the traffic is a joke.’

Rahman Dahlan vows legal action against Malaysiakini

Odin Tajué: Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan, sorry to say this, but your idea of getting developers to prepare an area in balconies for agriculture is harebrained.

The width of a typical three-bedroom flat is around 12,000 mm. "Typical" means for the ordinary, middle-income folk. Obviously, flats for millionaires and billionaires would be much wider, but those people do not need to plant their own chillies or whatever.

For aesthetic reason, you cannot have a balcony that runs the whole width nor have it at both the front and back. At the very most, the balcony can run only 50 percent of the width. So, let's say 6,000mm.

Again for aesthetic reason as well as construction cost, you cannot have a balcony that juts or cantilevers out more than around 1,500mm or 1,800mm. Let's take the maximum, 1,800mm. That means the total area of your balcony would be 10,800,000 sq mm.

You need at least 30 percent of the area for what is known in the industry as "traffic", that is, for you to move around in when tending to your plants. So you are left with 7,200,000 sq mm.

When mature, a chilli plant would take up an area of roughly 456,220 sq mm. Therefore, on that balcony you can have at the very most 15 chilli plants. Of course, you wouldn't be planting only chillis but other types of vegetables as well for the simple reason that you are not going to eat only chillis.

If we assume that any type of vegetables you plant will each take up 456,220 sq mm, you can have only 15 pots or plants. (Each of the vegetables such as aubergines actually takes up more than 456,220 sq mm.) That, Rahman, simply means you would not be able to grow more than 10 or 15 pots and only one or two types of vegetables. And that further means you would not be able to grow enough even for your own family.

The next point you need to consider is sunlight. We are talking about direct sunlight. I am very sure that no developer would be able to build blocks of flats with balconies for agriculture exposed to direct sunlight for at least one-half of a day and keep the cost of the flats within reach of the middle-income folk.

By the way, you can't grow climbing vegetables such as long beans and cucumbers in pots. Besides, you also need supports for such vegetables, with the vertical height of these supports at around 1.5m to 1.7m.

And by the way, flat dwellers usually hang their laundry to dry in their balcony. So how, Mr Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister?

If you haven't even figured these things out, one doesn't wonder why you are silly enough to want to sue Malaysiakini .

FellowMalaysian: The problem lies with Abdul Rahman himself - he has totally underestimated or failed to comprehend the negative reaction from the public.

In both instances, his “reverse migration” and the “waking up early to avoid toll” are similar in nature to Najib Razak's “ kangkung ” call in January 2014.

They both share a similar trait; i.e. a concealed element of insensitivity and mockery over the plight of the poor and the suffering.

If Abdul Rahman refused to accept these facts, then suing Malaysiakini over something which is not their fault will make him look like an asinine fool.

Res Ipsa: There is always a price to pay when someone, especially those in high positions, open their mouth to utter words that may come back to haunt them at a later stage.

In Abdul Rahman's case, this has been seemingly endless and gone on for one time too many. All Malaysiakini has done was to provide a platform for the public to express their views on the words he uttered.

As it stands, even cabinet colleague Khairy Jamaluddin (KJ) has subtly suggested that ministers should not be making senseless comments , without mentioning names. Innuendo? Any intention to sue KJ?

It would therefore be advisable for Abdul Rahman and the rest to give more thought before they utter anything in public. Prevention is always better than cure.

In Abdul Rahman's case, even the element of cure may not be applicable since the court is unlikely to find any wrongdoing committed in this instance.

Democrat: Yes, take a lesson from the bright guy, Khairy. He does not have a verbal diarrhoea problem like you, Ismail Sabri Yaacob and Ahmad Maslan.

Anonymous #7856234569: Everyone living in the city knows waking up early to beat the traffic is a joke. We expect a minister to help solve our problem, not make a mockery of us.

If you are smart, solve the traffic problem. We pay high toll fees to join the traffic jam every day. That's the real problem.

Quigonbond: There's no more reputation to protect for Abdul Rahman after he waded in and made some darndest comments over 1MDB.

Hamzah Paiman: When you live in a glass house you are not to throw stones. So be careful what you tell the press next time. Don’t do it even if you have to ‘ cari makan ’.

Hplooi: Abdul Rahman is the urban wellbeing, housing and local government minister. His ministry also chairs the international EAROPH (an organisation accredited to UN Habitat).

But unfortunately, reverse-migration (as he put it) is not part of the agenda in the debate on human settlements (or cities/towns).

Perhaps he should attend a quick briefing on the latest trend on urban settlement e.g. neo-urbanism (google this term to find out more).

Migrating back to rural areas? It’s more like suburban sprawl taking over peripheral rural outpost - a trend new ideas on urbanism aim to arrest. This means more compact cities with affordable and sleek urban transportation systems.

Ipohcrite: Suing Malaysiakini for his own gaffe? This has got to be a first. You can't stop the rakyat from criticising, nay even ridiculing, you if you have messed up.


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These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.

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