Recently a truck came by my housing estate with an engine pumping white smoke out of it. I presumed there must have been a dengue outbreak in the area.

When I had dengue 10 years ago, the authorities came and fog every house within a radius of my home - front, back and inside the house. Then they came back o­ne week later and did the same. There was no recurrence then.

A new group of people seem to be in charge of dengue control now. They drove past in the comfort of their jeep and o­nly o­n the front road. All the mist did was irritate us. They did not go into the backlanes. And they did not fog the houses. And they did not come back o­ne week later.

When will Malaysians take their jobs seriously and openly? My nephew fell into a man-hole when the town council was cleaning the drains recently. No barriers, no signboards, etc. He is still in hospital with a bleeding liver. Who will pay his medical bills and compensate him for the trauma he went through?

This time we are engaging lawyers to sue the town council for o­nce so that the " tidak apa " attitude should not be allowed to rest in peace. I hope those affected by the dengue will also sue the authorities and the Health Ministry if the first case reported has not been dealt with promptly and effectively. Maybe then, the dengue will go away.

It is about time we stood up and be counted.