Wednesday, November 24, 2010

The Balcony Issue

You may have noticed a very nicely taken photo of my balcony on the Notice Board with a finger pointing up. Ha..ha.. Well, this balcony grilles were installed in March 1999 more than a decade ago ( and I still keep the receipt) when my children were still of very young ages from 2, 7, 9 and 12 years. At that time there were many tragedies of children climbing over open balconies and falling to their deaths and therefore, I took the precaution of installing the grilles at the balconies.


At that time, the developer, Berjaya understood the situation and as such they ostensibly allowed the installation since my apartment unit faces the park at the rear and not that visible or ugly. It is hardly noticeable as it is blocked by trees from the park view anyway.There has not been any issue with the grilles until recently when I took the MC to task with my letters of complaints to the Commissioner of Buildings on various issues questioning the MC's non compliance with the Act. For the record, I did not write directly to the COB first but wrote to the MC at least thrice to give a chance to resolve the contentious matters amicably but being high and mighty with so much self righteousness as they are, there was no room for settlement.

On the 4 November 2010, there was a letter from the MC demanding that the grilles at my balcony be removed by the 15 December 2010 citing reasons such as changing of facade and fire safety of which are mere excuses to further discriminate against me and several other residents. I have actually got quotations for the removal of the grilles at RM200 and have not yet decided whether to remove the grilles at the time of my posting in this blog since I have up to 15 December 2010 to decide so. As such, the MC's contention that I have breached the House Rules (which I again reiterate that it is not a legitimate House Rules since it did not get properly voted for its adoption in an AGM or EGM) and that I try to cover this up is so frivolous and empty of ideas! I still can decide to remove my grilles by 15 December 2010!! They are the ones who are trying to cover up their flaws of non compliance with the STA and are using this excuse of the balcony to plant their allegations against me as a diversion to the issues raised with the COB.


However, their retaliation against my little lone voice of dissent by pasting my name and apartment unit's photo on all the Notice Boards clearly indicates the immaturity and narrow mindedness of the council members; or was it only under the sole direction of the Iron Lady?

Be that as it may, I stand steadfast in continuing with posting my opinions on this blog without fear or favor; or with 'cowardice' as the council members so put, whether there be reprisals or otherwise. I will let all be a judge of that! Cowardice or otherwise, you decide.

My home's scanner is presently out of order otherwise, I will be able to scan some of the letters that were sent to the Commissioner of Buildings and Strata Titles Board questioning the legitimacy of some of the MC's actions. I regret to point out that I have received no courtesy of any copy of replies from this MC despite their claim on the Notice Board that they have replied to the respective authorities. I have always respected the MC by providing them copies of my letters to the authorities but being dogmatic and narrow minded as they are, they must have refused to copy their replies to me since until now the 24 Nov 2010, there was nothing in my mail box!!

For those of you who may wish to refer to the Strata Titles Act please follow this link: -

http://www.hba.org.my/laws/Strata/2007/A1290-2007%5B1%5D.pdf



Even when there are plenty of legal technicalities in which the MC has to be knowledgeable in; the most important component is the human relationship and sincere interaction with all residents that counts! Nobody likes to be imposed and slammed with rules, regulations and fines without the human touch to it and proper inclusion of dialogues, discussions and consent of all stakeholders. That ought to include residents, tenants and occupiers of the apartments and not merely the registered owners, who some don't even reside at AH; like Mr Foo, the Council member who chaired the recently concluded AGM! If that is the case, how sensitive or oblivious is he about the residents' feelings when such rules and penalties were imposed on the residents. The current MC practises an exclusive policy whereas we need an inclusive policy!

In Malaysia, even the present ruling coalition seeks mandate thru dialogues and discussion groups, stakeholders before imposing any new Act of Parliament. Then there is also the education process so people get acclimatised to them. Some laws like the increase of compound fines for traffic offenses to RM 1K was also rejected after strong opposition from the Rakyat! This is what constitute the good governance of an elected body like Parliament or the MC! Take a cue from there!

A check and balance by

The Shadow MC of Anjung Hijau Apts

5 comments:

  1. u r rite..i found tht photo also quite offensive and immature to be post on board by the management

    ReplyDelete
  2. TQ rain rainbow for your comment. A few of us intend to meet next Tuesday to initiate an EGM to be called. Would you like to join? If so, pl send me an e mail at greenfieldsblog@live.com.my

    TQ,

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Mr Rain_Rainbow, Please join force with us and bring some rain of blessings to our effort. Surely, we do not deserve to be treated like kids! Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  4. oh dear neighbours..im so sorry for late replying becoz not aware of this n been a while not blogging.
    yes i wud love to join any force in the future if this can bring benefits to all of us in greenfield. i will send my email to greenfieldsblog@live.com.my.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Rain, thanks for responding. Please let us have your contacts as we are meeting quite frequently to resolve this unpleasant attitude in Anjung Hijau. More and more people are now getting cheesed-off by this so-called MC. They never seem to learn and are getting more and more blatantly authoritative. They are even taking the laws into their own hands. I am sure they will be receiving a few letters from the lawyers. One thing for sure and that is we must not let them use our Anjung Hijau funds to defend themselves in the courts as they have been sued in their personal capacities and not as an MC. That is why I call them the "so-called" MC. We have to question the legality of this so-called MC. There was no election as such but just nomination of their own cronies and after barring people from the other camp, they very quickly closed the nomination and proceeded to accept those nominated. Besides, there were many prearranged and canvassed "proxies" to make sure the their own "yes men and women" got into the committee.How can 30 over people decide for 651 owners of the entire Anjung Hijau. I think Mr Green can bear testimony to that. We must either have a Resident Asociation (RA) or a properly elected MC (hopefully in October 2011)to manage not only our property and funds properly but to also be a friend and a help to all the residents here. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete