Faulty lifts at govt building force disabled officer to use stairs

The management of a government building in Kuantan, Pahang has apologised for inconveniencing a physically disabled Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) officer to use the stairs as the lifts were not in service, according to Pahang Jakoa director-general Johari Alwi.

This comes after a viral video posted yesterday on TikTok of 55-year-old Husny Hussain, who has physical disabilities, going down the stairs of Bangunan Wisma Persekutuan.

“The management of Bangunan Wisma Persekutuan came to the Pahang Jakoa office to provide (us) an explanation and apologised for the complications that arose and promised to fix the lift issue as soon as possible.

“Pahang Jakoa (has) always made sure the working environments are conducive and disabled-friendly as well as the cooperation of (the disabled person’s) colleagues and all staff at Jakoa,” he said in a statement.

Johari added that the building management vouched to rectify the issue of faulty lifts within the next few days.

According to Johari, Husny’s colleagues posted the video to express their sympathy.

He said Husny did not want the help of his colleagues as he was generally independent, including being a national athlete in lawn bowling.

Teruntum assemblyperson Sim Chon Siang told Malaysiakini that one staff member from the statistics department fainted on the 6th floor when climbing up to the 11th-floor office in the same building.

Sim clarified that all the four lifts in the 12-storey building are meant to be replaced with new ones by May, as they were 25 years old.

Two of them have been dismantled and new lifts are expected to arrive soon.

However, one of the other two lifts that were supposed to be working broke down due to rainwater in December last year.

The only working lift also broke down recently, probably due to the high usage, said Sim.

Therefore, he urged the Public Works Department to repair the lifts as soon as possible.

“I met with the maintenance team today, they said the fees would be about hundreds of thousands of ringgit, and the lifts will be replaced with new ones by May.

“But they have to consider using second-hand spare parts at the moment. The building cannot have only one working lift. If it breaks down again, people have to take the stairs again."

He also criticised the government building, which houses more than 10 agencies and over 200 employees, saying that it should not be facing this kind of issue.

“If any foreign investors come and visit, how would they see Malaysia? It would be shameful,” said Sim.

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