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INTERVIEWS VIEWS conversations
Councillor in charge
CRUSADING PETALING JAYA CITY COUNCILLOR DEREK
FERNANDEZ TELLS LLEW-ANN PHANG HE IS JUST
A REGULAR RATEPAYER WHO HAPPENS TO BE AN
AUTHORITY ON PLANNING AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
So, one year on, how are you
doing?
There have been changes but
not to the extent people have
hoped for. And one of the dif-
ficulties lies in the poor relation-
ship between the federal and
state governments, and the civil
service – those guys need serious
structural reform as they’re used
to certain practices and are not
willing to change.
The vision of the new govern-
ment requires massive change
in thinking in terms of who you
serve – the rakyat – they must
come first in everything but
these people are not ready for
that. They pay lip service but
in truth they’re not ready. And
there are powerful interest and
lobby groups that continue to
feel it’s business as usual.
Is the public expecting much
after one year?
Many don’t know how to dif-
ferentiate between local, state
and federal governments. They
think everything is the same, we
can get it done. So because of the
inability to compartmentalise
whose duty is what, it sometimes
leads to over-expectations. Look
at crime. They shout at the local
authority when policing crime
is the function of the police. All
this neighbourhood watches are
a lot of garbage because if you
don’t have enough manpower
no amount of effort by the com-
munity will solve the problem.
The police must have more
manpower but the people get
angry with the local authorities.
They want to put up barricades.
I understand, they’re frightened
but they must know whom to
blame. The problem is lack of
deployment of sufficient police-
men.
Crime aside, you can’t fault the
people for demanding basic
services.
Of course, it’s understandable.
They wake up, see garbage un-
collected for three days. They
expect it to be collected. So I
don’t think it’s over expectations
but sometimes they blame the
wrong people. In that sense, their
expectations are high. I suppose
they expected sudden change.
There’re also issues of equitable
distribution, they expected things
to be done faster but they must
understand this system has been
built over many years. Even if
you take over a public company
which is badly run, you’ll not be
able to turn it over in a year. It’ll
be some four to five years before
you see some improvement, so
they have to be patient.
Why did you agree to be a
councillor?
I often spoke about planning and
development controls. I often
protested. And I thought the
best way to implement change
is by being there. Instead of
fighting them, work with them
and try to implement change. In
areas where I’ve been allowed to
operate, we’ve seen significant
change, like in town and country
planning. Most of our problems
are related to old problems but
as far as new problems are
concerned, there is the highest
level of public participation in
planning matters. The decisions
are balanced, they are more
transparent. We invite every-
body to come – they can speak
and ask questions. So certainly,
in those areas there has been
improvement. But generally, the
management of people’s money
is still at a risky level. There is
not enough oversight and many
people are resistant about chang-
ing financial accountability. A lot
of resources are being spent to
cure problems of the past.
So I hope people are patient.
They must understand that 30
years of doing something one
way can’t be undone in a year or
two. It requires a more sustained
pace and people who are not
performing have to be removed.
The government must no longer
rely totally on civil servants.
They must bring in outside
professionals.
Especially at local council
level?
Yes. You cannot rely anymore on
civil servants. They’re too used to
doing things a certain way. You
need outside consultants. We
need to run a modern city with
some expertise. And there is a lot
of expertise in Malaysia.
What are some of the biggest
challenges facing good gov-
ernance?
The equitable distribution of
wealth is becoming a hot issue in
terms of contracts and employ-
ment. The government must
decide whether there is going to
be an affirmative action policy.
What about development?
Planning control is one of the
biggest headaches. Petaling Jaya
is over-developed. Infrastructure
has collapsed. Everybody wants
to build there. The public trans-
port system is not functioning
and again this is a problem with
the federal government. It should
realise that the inability to pro-
vide an effective public transport
system will inhibit development
of land. I do not know why the
federal government has not ad-
dressed this matter. There are
lots of interest groups who don’t
want a good public transport
system. They benefit financially
from a failed transport system.
And privatisation agreements?
This is the biggest challenge
faced by local governments
– one-sided agreements that do
not give any benefit to the gov-
ernment but all the liabilities. I
call them “piratisation” agree-
ments where all the benefits go
to the special interests groups.
We have substantial agree-
ments in Selangor where we see
a lot of the cream of the non-rate
revenue subcontracts has been
taken out and the local authority
does not enjoy the income and
has to suck on the ratepayer.
The government should
take a strong stand to cancel all
contracts against public policy.
Redistribute the wealth equita-
bly.
Do you think some services
should be re-nationalised?
There’s absolutely no justifica-
tion for privatisation in the
Malaysian context. When you
privatise the profit making and
leave the loss making to the local
government, that’s “piratisation”.
We’ve been running all along
our rubbish services, our sewage
services, and the government
was running water. There’s
no reason to have given it out.
These should all be taken back
and a commission of inquiry
be established to see whether
there was anything improper. If
necessary, this thing should be
taken back, but not to the extent
of bankrupting the public.
So MBPJ has no money?
PJ is not too bad as we have
enough revenue but smaller
councils can’t balance their
books. So the political will must
be there and the government
should take top advice. They
should look at people who can
give independent advice and
question every information dis-
seminated.
What has happened to the im-
plementation of local council
elections?
I don’t know why the delay. The
first way is to elect the mayor
and that can be done easily. At
least there is some form of elec-
tion because this was a change
that was promised so it should
be done.
But the state government’s
excuse is that it needs federal
approval.
There’s no need to fiddle with all
the laws because the guys who
are against this will say there’s
some law that says we can’t do
it.
Speaking of which, you have a
lot to say about legislation …
There are a lot of rubbish laws
which have to be amended.
There should be a full-time
job to un-do a lot of things.
Leasehold, freehold is another
issue, handling of land owner-
ship. There are viable models
whereby government can make
a lot of money.
People are willing to pay
a premium to convert their
leasehold into freehold. The
government is being ill-advised
by civil servants who say “oh
you’re mortgaging the gov-
ernment’s long-term revenue
by giving freehold”. That is
rubbish because if you allow a
conversion fee of say 50% the
difference in market value, the
government would get billions
in cash upfront. In 99 years
that money will be worth tons
more and you can increase as-
sessment and quit rent. Make it
optional and everybody will be
happy because they feel they’ve
got a stake.
Aren’t these ideas put forward
to the decision makers?
A lot of good ideas are turned
down because people have
vested interests. I called for the
revamp of the tender board sys-
tem. There should be civil serv-
ants; there should be members
of each political party, the NGOs,
even residents associations. The
more people look at the problem,
the less likely there’ll be abuse.
But this will be done in the next
term.
What about spending con-
trols?
Very poor. There are lack of
There are priorities in budget allocation. I
lots of give this department this much
money, it should prioritise what
interest is important. And excess money
should be saved. The sort of gov-
groups ernment policy to spend all the
who don’t money in one year is ridiculous.
The tools for change have not
want a been put in place after a year.
good It would be unfair to pin the
public blame solely on civil servants.
You should blame the lack of
transport political will on the new guys
at the top.
system. The civil service and its inability
They to reform urgently is a factor but
the political will must be there.
financially The political (will) seems to be
lacking and I don’t understand
benefit why because this is a simple
from a matter. For example, when you
spend money at a local council,
failed who decides how much you
spend on an item? This is left to
transport people without proper checks
system. done.
That’s where councillors are
supposed to come in.
The idea of having part-time
councillors is a joke. You can’t
run a modern city with part-tim-
ers. You need full-time, salaried
individuals. Paying your council-
lors RM750 to put in four days a
week will ultimately create a sys-
tem where corruption will thrive.
Basically the system is designed
to make people corrupt. Because
no person can stand putting in
the kind of hours and the kind of
work they do. PJ has dedicated
councillors but I don’t know how
long they can stand. I’ve been
fortunate because I have a pro-
fessional practice but how long
can my partner sit down and say
‘Why you’re spending four days
a week there, not sitting and do-
ing your business?’
So your business is affected
since you became councillor?
Everybody’s business is affected.
Of course you say public duty,
sacrifice but if you keep this up,
theSun | THURSDAY JULY 9 2009
you’re going to get a lot of people
who are not going to make ends
meet and are going to be suscep-
tible to corruption.
One of the biggest issues in
MBPJ is asset management.
First of all, I don’t think MBPJ
has got a list of assets. Coming
from the private sector, we’re
laughing. How on earth did you
manage so far without these
basic tools? Basic management
tools, basic audit tools. We have
formed an audit and corporate
governance committee this is the
first of the many firsts. In terms
of public participation, in the
planning processes, we’re one of
the first. We not only inform the
neighbouring landowners, we
allow everybody to comment.
We’re one of the first to open
town hall meetings. So certainly
we’re doing a lot but we’re not
getting the kind of backup that
we need. There’re too many
obstacles and I suppose the
obstacles are artificial because
there’s a lack of knowledge
and political will. Knowledge
is a factor because much of the
leadership does not know what’s
going on at the grassroots. How
money is stolen, how books
are manipulated and what are
the necessary mechanisms and
tools to stop this. The constant
referral to federal government
guidelines on financing is a joke
because those guidelines are not
implemented effectively. There’s
no oversight function to stop this
kind of money from going out.
Thirty years on, people are
asking the same questions:
How come the drains are not
cleaned? How come the garbage
is not collected? We should not
be having councillors looking at
drains, like I do. These should
have been done by the heads of
department failing which, just
sack the fellows, that’s all. They
need to change, if not get another
job. Nobody is irreplaceable.
Are you implying that you’ve
got incompetent people run-
ning the council?
Certainly! When I need to get a
job done, there’s a lot of bureau-
cratic rubbish and at the end
of the day, you can’t get the job
done. If I want to get it done, I
have to sit there everyday, call the
contractors, shout at them. This
is not the way to solve problems.
Basically all the old practices are
being continued and there’s no
substantial change.
Well if they continue like this,