COMMENT I call them ‘backyard contractors’.

Till now, I am still wondering who the culprits are - the client, the main contractor and the sub-contractor - involved in a major sewerage job which is responsible for the near death mishap involving my school principal.

But my question is, where are the authorities concerned who are supposed to look into this aspect of public safety?

I know the Petaling Jaya City Council mayor can slap a stop-work order after the accident where the 86-year-old octogenarian (who is otherwise still very healthy, alert and capable of driving around), but this stop-work order means nothing any more once the hole is covered.

It is the attitude of all three parties concerned that needs to be looked at. Have the clients and the main contractors, for example, paid attention to the safety aspects of the construction works, especially since they are in public places?

Not a word from these two parties concerned, hoping that silence will quieten things down, and everyone will forget about the accident that nearly took away two lives.

This is nothing new

Because it involves someone who is very dear to us, we take particular interest. At two o’clock last night, an old boy from my class of 81 went to the site to take photographs near his home in Ampang at Jalan Pandan Aman, the road beside Sekolah Kebangsaan Pandan Indah that leads to Taman Lembah Maju.

The google map location is also given. My friend, Alex Lum, is very concerned about this same sewerage pit 12m deep because he points out that there are two schools nearby. “We are concerned because it is the younger kids who may be curious,” he say.

I can understand his point. What if some of the children from the primary school decide to check out whether they can find fish in the hole and one of them falls right into the pit?

On the same chat forum, another old boy, Alex Chan, posted pictures of the same project located along Jalan Bukit Belimbing (near Mines and Balakong Industrial Estate). “The nearest hole is just at the junction to Jln Balakong (now part of Silk highway),” he writes.

Chan is concerned that an accident can happen in Balakong similar to what happened in front of the Sin Chew office.

Another former schoolmate, Richard Voon, who is equally concerned, has together with Hafiz Hassan, who are the founders of The Biker Ranger Community on FB, have warned their biker community of the danger spots using their social media platform. To the Bikers, these seemingly victimless potholes pose a daily and fatal danger to Bikers who are on the road at all hours.

They, too, do not want their biker community to ride into the sewerage pit. The Bikers Community, which today consists of 60,000 members and reaches 2.5 million views per month, were all ready to talk to the press about their concern, but unfortunately, the press conference had to be called off after we checked out that the sewerage pit has been covered and the road resurfaced.

Voon said he is happy to mobilise The Bikers Ranger community to send GPS coordinates of potholes to the Selangor state government under a new initiative by Menteri Besar Azmin Ali, but it must be at least sustainable, or maybe utilise a small budget every year to compensate the members for carrying out the initiative.

After all, no soldier serves his country without some remuneration. If they are willing to do the job which should be done by local council, why not? After all, these are the people on the road all the time!

What about CIDB and DOSH?

All these pictures were communicated to the relevant authorities, but someone posted the question and I am asking now if anyone has even contacted the Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB) and the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) regarding this accident.

Someone asked why is it that these two authorities, as well as the Road Safety Department, are keeping so quiet since the accident happened on Wednesday? I have contacted the Road Safety Department but I hope someone will take the cue to contact CIDB and DOSH.

If it is foreign workers involved in the project, their safety should also be our concern. Or, are we saying that their lives worth nothing to us? I think having such a big hole as deep as 12m is also an occupational hazard to anyone working on the project.

The contractors who are on this project have failed to ensure public safety. CIDB should even consider pressing charges against them. Or, else, how can we see a change of mindset and work culture in this country, as we stride into becoming a developed nation by 2020?

It can happen to you and I

Frankly, as civic-conscious citizens of this nation, we all have a role to play in ensuring that public safety is never being compromised.

One failure after another shows that there are possible acts of negligence on the part of the contractors, consultants and even the clients.

Why do we allow these people to go scot free while the victims suffer in silence or are traumatised after the experience?

Where is the state of first class development which we have boasting to other third world countries? Or, are we, because of alleged corruption, willing to close one eye and allow such contractors to continue operating?

Today, they use company X to bid for projects. After company X has been blacklisted, they use company Y to bid. Why is it that the names of the client, main and sub-contractors have never been revealed to the public?

It is time for public pressure to build up so that the authorities do something to protect the precious lives of members of the public. It is time for the ‘backyard contractors’ as I describe them to be blacklisted and their contracts terminated, if necessary.

We cannot continue to enter into the next decade supposedly to be a developed nation, yet having such contractors operating in our neighbourhood.

Someone has to do something. There is some truth behind this saying:

This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.

Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn’t do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done

Is that somebody supposed to be you?

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.