I heard an interesting story recently. It was about a privatised utility and told to me by a computer specialist, and it goes like this.

This monopoly utility wants to make money but is not good at it. It, therefore, decides to cut corners so the bottom line will look better.

A decision is made to invest less in resources (manpower, equipment, land, etc.) than the minimum needed to provide an interruption-free service to current customers, forget future customers.

When one customer complains that his broadband connection is not working, the problem is solved after a week by taking away the connection of another customer. Now the second customer complains and is left waiting for a week, after which a third customer’s connection is taken away and provided to the second customer.

Now, the third customer complains and he waits until it is time to satisfy him by disconnecting a fourth customer. This merry-go-round keeps customers simmering but just below the boiling point.

I am not sure if this story is true, but it reminded me of how the privatised monopoly for garbage collection and cleaning in Kuala Lumpur operates.

Complaints about irregular garbage collection or cleaning of roads are fairly soon attended to. So the complainant feels happy, for a short while. But some time later, a pattern begins to emerge if one stands back and looks at the overall picture.

If sweeping is done this week in a neglected area, garbage is not collected somewhere else during that week. If garbage is collected twice a week after a resident somewhere else complains, garbage is piling up at a third sport not too far away.

Residents simmer but do not boil over because the people at the monopoly are so responsive to their complaints.

They only simmer because although roads are not swept and garbage not collected in accordance with the utility’s public commitment, people generally like to feel their glass is half full rather than half empty.

Then, of course, there is the story of why zones populated by big politicians are more ‘equal’ for utility managers than zones not so populated, notwithstanding same assessment rates paid. Contrast Bangsar Heights with Brickfields.