A Broom Award!

Ha! The Selangor Menteri Besar (literally "Big Minister") Datuk Seri Dr. Mohd. Khir Toyo recently announced a Broom Award to land offices and local authorities in Selangor for not performing up to mark. The winner will bring home a broom! for that "distinction". "Yes, it is not a prestigious prize, but meanful. The broom is symbollic of the department head or local council chief having to clean up their act and sweep away unproductive work habits," said Dr. Khir.

The Datuk Seri himself was embroiled in some controversy over the Bukit Cahaya debacle for pronouncing "semua OK" (all OK) when things were not exactly allright (see post Environmentally friendly Prime Minister). Recently, because of the more open environment under the new Prime Minister, there were a couple of exposes of matters which would probaby not have seen the print in the previous administration. The MPPJ (now MBPJ or Majlis Bandaran Petaling Jaya, that is Petaling Jaya City Council) was exposed by Citizen Nades in his column Irrefutable proof: Concession linked to money as having some unsavoury dealings regarding funnelling funds meant for billboard approval to the MPPJ football team and double dealing.

The case of the wife of Klang Municipal Councillor Datuk Zakaria being awarded a large plot of land meant for the poor and builing a "palace" on it without approval was also exposed by Citizen Nades. The outcome - a paltry fine rather than the building being torn down for building without approval. Datuk Zakaria was also exposed as operating an illegal restaurant without any license and approval from the Council and on State land.

With all this going on, there should be plenty of cleaning up, otherwise there should be many candidates for the Broom award.

Credit should be given where credit is due. And in this case, credit should be given to the Chief Minister for coming up with a creative idea to push his subordinates into cleaning up their act. Let us hope that things will improve from now on and Selangor will live up to its status as the first "developed State".