We, as a group of concerned citizens, are getting worried about the state of affairs in Johor in recent years. We are seeing an alarming increase in crime that has caused rising fear among the general public. We also remember the two recent flood disasters that destroyed homes and caused huge losses to many industries state-wide. We have not forgotten the proposed crooked bridge across the Straits of Tebrau. The planned construction of the bridge that was aborted at the last minute illustrates just one of the many government projects that have wasted millions of taxpayers’ money.
Also, Chinese primary schools continue to be in high demand especially in Kulai and Johor Bahru but the government is still dragging its feet on providing any sound solutions. This can be seen when parents queue from night before school gate just to get their children a place in a local Chinese primary school.
Our society is terribly sick with the root of the problem being none other than the long time monopoly by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government. For the last decade in Johor, the state assembly has been almost monopolised by BN without a balancing force by the opposition parties.
We are in desperate need for an opposition voice. The presence of state assemblymen from the opposition parties will serve as the balancing force against those from the ruling party. This will reduce as well as deter corruption and the abuse of powers.
Therefore, we urge all voters of Johor to wisely vote for the opposition parties in the coming general election. We are compelled to tell BN that enough is enough – enough of racism and cronyism politics, corruptions and grafts. We want good governance, we want a judiciary system of high integrity and we want to live healthily and safely without fear.
Our recommendations:
1. On escalating crime rate
• Decentralise the police force, police should be managed by local government, appoint residents as committee members of ‘district security committee’, local government pays for the service instead of federal government. Therefore, residents can determine how much police personnel are needed and ensure police competency. This will save residents’ expenses in employing private security.
• Ensure police force is neutral, police should not be used to monitor or intimidate opposition parties. Numerous policemen are deployed to spy on opposition parties or civil society groups and crack down on peaceful assemblies. The government should restructure the police force, deploy more police for street patrol to prevent crime.
• Set up the IPCMC to resolve corruption and an inefficient police force.
• Have a full time internal security minister
2. On flooding
• Government must issue a White Paper and table it in parliament for debate. The paper should analyse the root cause and propose corrective action to prevent re-occurrence.
• Government should study alternative solutions for water draining. The recently built Smart Tunnel project in KL can be a reference, state government can build emergency tunnels at places most likely to be attacked by floods, for instance at Bukit Kepong, Segamat and Kota Tinggi
• People’s representative must ‘work together, suffer together’ with the rakyat. Prime Minister Abdullah attending a opening ceremony of a nasi kandar shop in Australia which was owned by his brother, Kluang municipal officers having a research trip to Shanghai, during the flooding period
• National Disaster Committee failed to forecast the disastrous flood for two times, NDC should walk the talk, Deputy Prime Minister Najib should select capable professional figure to chair the committee.
• Johor state government should establish ‘Flood Action Committees’ to cope with future flood problems. 3. On crook bridge and mega project
• Someone must responsible for this white elephant mega-project, Mahathir-time government must answer to the rakyat
• Government should review all clauses not favorable to the government in mega-project or privatisation tenders, especially construction projects and those involving Plus and TNB’s IPP
• ACA should investigate officers who approve dubious projects and their successful bidders.
• State government should not spend on projects not beneficial to the rakyat eg. Waterfront City, Danga Bay and beautification of Johor Baru city.
• State government should re-orient development strategy on technology transfer for SME, reform national education system, improve social security and environmental aspects of sourthen Johor, improve efficiency of government bureaucracy, combat corruption, design a comprehensive public transportation system, including LRT travel around Johor Baru district, enhance usage of wireless communication and broadband, provide aid to marginalised communities such as the indigenous people, estate workers and peneroka bandar .
3. On Chinese primary schools
• Abolish education policies that inherit ‘final objective’ as stated in the 1956 Razak Report which aimed to abolish language streamed schools and combine them under a national education system. Re-constitute education policies to meet the requirements of a modern and diversified society, substitute singularity with multi-culturalism
• Cultural diversity is a national treasure, to maintain and enhance cultural diversity, government should build an education system comprising of multi-language streams. National schools, Chinese schools, Tamil schools as well as indigenous schools must be built based on needs.
• The Ninth Malaysia plan allocates 5% of education expenditure for Chinese and Tamil primary schools and 95% to national primary schools. We think that Malaysians will contribute to society in different manners. Education expenditure should be distributed impartially and in proportion to the number of students.
• Government should also provides sufficient infrastructure and teachers for Chinese and Tamil schools.
The above letter was signed by 55 individuals.
