While many lauded Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s (DBKL) decision to take back management of community halls, they believe that such halls should be given back to residents associations (RA) and Rukun Tetangga (RT).
This comes as community halls, structures, as well as pondok built on government reserve land are meant for use by Kuala Lumpur’s RA and RT sectors.
However, most of them have been taken over by individuals who are affiliated to political parties and rented out the land or building to third parties for a profit, reported The Star.
“Only the RA or RT should be given the right to manage community halls because they not only have the experience and expertise to manage them but they are also apolitical and have the best interest of the people at heart,” said Kampung Malaysia Tambahan RT chairman Mahmud Buntat.
In concurring to Mahmud, Kampung Malaysia Raya RA chairman Mohd Zainuddin Amran stated that he had seen several persons with no background in community work being appointed to take over government halls or community halls due to close ties to certain chairman or political party.
He believes an organisation needs people who are committed to the job in order that it may be effective in carrying out activities. “No bias or cronyism,” he added.
It is understood that DBKL has sent out notices to all RA and RT leaders within Kuala Lumpur to turn over management of community halls to local authority.
“We received a letter early December saying DBKL was taking back the management of the hall, and that it was a restructuring exercise. We have been asked to furnish the necessary documents pertaining to the building, land status, committee members and list of our activities,” said Brickfields RT chairman S.K.K. Naidu.
Kampung Malaysia Tambahan Residents Association chairman Kamarudin Sakhari and Mohd Zainuddin also received the DBKL notice, which they described as a good move.
“Many halls are controlled by political parties despite them being on government land; so if the local authority is streamlining everything, I see it as a positive move,” commented Mohd Zainuddin. “DBKL should take back the properties that are being mismanaged and abused, but it should give the halls back to RAs and RTs for better management.”
“We applaud DBKL for taking control,” said long time KMR resident Anwar Lajan@Anwar Hayatullah. “But don’t do a U-turn by taking it from one political party and passing the keys to another political party; that we will not tolerate,” he added.
Image source: The Star
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