Member punya pasal

or – I have friends in high places. In Malaysia it is not what you know but rather who you know. The MO is to tap into whatever resources you can bring to bear if you have a friend in the right place. Even in mundane things such maintenance and water bills.

Yup, you read right. I live in an apartment whose management (developer) threatens to cut off the water supply to residents who are behind by only 2 months' maintenance charges or Rm70 in water bills. Residents who are behind in payments are listed in a notice board located at the lift lobby for all to see; it also announces a monthly 'operasi kunci air' on recaltritrant residents who fail to pay up. I make it a point to to check out the board and once saw that there was a resident who owed 8 months' maintenance and over RM1000 in water charges – this resident was still enjoying uninterrupted water supply. I made an enquiry when paying my bill and was told ' this person has a special arrangement with someone in the management'. He also runs a dilapidated food court or shack near the apartments and the water is piped to it. The cheek of it all! Using water at residential rates piped to a food selling establishment and not paying the bills at the same time.

The resident committee is well nigh useless in fighting for the apartment dwellers' rights; being more interested in organising table tennis or other games. This is why not many people bother to join the committee or attend meetings.

On the same note, this is why strata titles takes umpteen years to be issued. The developer wants to keep on creaming the maintenance income which would be lost once the titles are issued because the residents can then set up their own independent management firm to handle everything. So they drag their feet as the delay serves their purpose. This situation will never improve, so perish those hopes for a speedy change to this.

Just grin and bear it. Meanwhile, try to cultivate some friends in high places. May do you some good.