I welcome the ‘gesture’ of Perak Menteri Besar YAB Zambry Abdul Kadir in joining Ipoh City Council workers to collect and clean up rubbish around the city on Thursday. It is indeed a good move and worth bountiful compliments.

After his ‘guest appearance’ on the ground, I sincerely hope the menteri besar could appreciate the hard work of city council workers and manage to observe several long overdue problems related to the city council.

Since Zambry started his day at Buntong new village market, he should have seen with his own eyes the cleanliness of new villages is generally below par. Many new villages in Perak are facing the problem of uncollected rubbish or unpunctual collecting schedule. Even if garbage were collected, the dumpsites are usually untreated, unbearable leachate and odour become grave nuisance to villagers. The situation worsens during festive seasons.

Secondly, if the menteri besar is observant, he should have seen various size potholes on the road surface of new villages. The infrastructure condition in most new villages is substandard. Although we were informed that hefty allocation were allocated through the Malaysian Road Records Information System (Marris) to improve road condition in all states. However, the road condition in Perak new villages does not reflect the amount of money poured in.

Last but not least, the menteri besar should be able to acknowledge the dire condition of the drainage system, especially in new villages. Despite the hard work of city council workers, most drains in new villages are clogged. The problem is either the council is understaffed, or we are suffering from a problematic tender system.

If the above problems are left unresolved, it would give great a impact on the cleanliness, safety and health of the public.

Therefore, the menteri besar should make use of this opportunity and take serious steps in solving these long overdue problems on the ground. Failing which, his one-day-rubbish-collecting act would be merely meaningless drama and a cosmetic public relations exercise.

CHANG LIH KANG is state assemblyperson for Teja and vice-chairperson of Perak PKR.