I have lived in Section 12, Petaling Jaya for 20 years now and I have never heard of the Petaling Jaya Resident's Association. Nobody in my house has heard of nor took part in the purported 'Wakil Rakyat Performance Survey', which is said to have been conducted in October 2003 to assess the performance of the elected representatives of Petaling Jaya. As such, I do not give much credit to the survey nor the endorsements of candidates by the association because input from the actual residents of PJ has not been included.

In fact, the near 100 percent support shown by the PJ Resident's Association for the incumbents from the Barisan Nasional is mind-boggling to me because life in PJ has certainly not got all that better over the past five years.

To my knowledge, none of the people endorsed support the reintroduction of local elections! Surely any residents' association must have local elections at the top of their 'wish list'.

The jams are worse, garbage collection is still appalling, there is no proper systematic recycling programme and the drains outside my house are still broken.

My grandmother had a robber walk into our house and snatch her chain from around her neck. A visitor, walking to the main road to catch a bus home, had her handbag snatched from her shoulders by a thief on a motorcycle. Neither robber has been caught. Houses are still burgled. Robberies still occur.

There are insufficient public transport facilities - people wait half an hour for a bus.

But I am happy to note that the roads in my area, leading up to the schools where polling is conducted, will probably be getting re-tarred again soon. (The last time we had a proper re-tarring of the roads was a day or two before the previous elections in 1999 - the roads were promptly dug up again a few weeks after election day).

One of the 'criteria' used to make the endorsement is the availability of 'resources and facilities' to serve the residents of PJ. If this criteria were used by all Malaysians, we would have no opposition at all, since our ruling coalition continually confuses the operations of government with the operation of party politics (Those JKR signboards that say 'Satu lagi projek kerajaan Barisan Nasional' are improper use of government funds!).

Of course the BN candidates will have the best 'resources and facilities' - they always do. But will they actually do anything with those facilities or will they just toe the party line and sit comfortably in their ministerial or governmental chairs?

I have never seen my MP or state assemblyman. I did not even know who either was until I read the article in malaysiakini .

National and statewide politics was apparently not considered at all in the association's endorsements. MPs are not mere local functionaries serving the electorate in the relatively small areas we live in. MPs are supposed to shape our national policies and laws. Will the candidates subject draft legislation to scrutiny and debate or will they vote the way they are told to by their party masters?

What are their views on the deaths in police custody? What are the incumbents going to do about corruption in Malaysia? What about freedom of information and the press - will we see any positive opposition news on RTM during the election or will it be the usual propaganda hidden under the veneer of 'information'?

With respect, I feel the ringing endorsement made is without any foundation or basis at all and should be rejected. I do not think it is in line with the aspirations and needs of the people of Petaling Jaya. The voters must decide on the issues, both local and national, and each candidate's responses to those issues. But how will we know their responses?