Not being well meaning

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  Fire and rescue personnel help to remove the body of 11-year-old Khairul Amir Azri Lani.

SURELY we can imagine. No not only imagine. In fact, we can feel what the family of Khairul Amir Azri Lani is still going through now. The trauma, pain and sadness due to an incident a week or so ago. July 17 to be exact.

 

On that day, Khairul was in an elevator at Block 8 PPR flats in Desa Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur. The elevator stopped halfway between the second and third floor. According to reports, 11-year-old Khairul tried to climb out when the elevator suddenly moved, crushing his head against the third floor. He was killed.

 

To an extent we can also "feel the feeling" of the residents of the Desa Tun Razak flats, some of whom were witnesses to the tragedy as they were in the elevator then. Those who did not see it happen knew about it. Nonetheless all were and still are traumatised by the incident.

 

And then we had a minister saying this, a day after the incident: "The unfortunate incident should be a lesson and reminder for all tenants in public housing to pay their rent and maintenance fee." 

 

The one who said it was Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, minister of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government. Yes, the same Abdul Rahman who's getting a lot of "attention" lately for "justifying" and "defending" Datuk Ibrahim Ali's  "burn the bible" call.

 

Anyway back to the elevator incident. 

 

"The local authorities can only provide maintenance if maintenance fee is collected from tenants. In many incidents, the maintenance fee and sometimes the rent are not paid and this affects the maintenance schedule by the local government. 

 

"We should not point fingers but we cannot compromise in terms of safety and maintenance of public housing projects and it starts (with) the tenants," said Abdul Rahman, as quoted byfz.comwriter Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani in his report recently.

 

Just what was Abdul Rahman implying? That the residents of the flats have not been paying their fees for the maintenance of the flats? And that's why the sad incident happened?  

 

Definitely there are residents who pay the fees and rent on time every month. Without doubt, there are also those who are behind payment, for obvious reasons. After all the Desa Tun Razak flats, being low-cost, are home to folks in the lower income bracket. 

 

Hence taking the minister's words, are those good "pay masters" being asked to blame their neighbours who have not been paying regularly for what happened on July 17?

 

So, if all payments are up to date, the tragedy would not have happened? Is that it? Are the local authorities depending entirely on fees and rents to maintain the flats? If so, whatever happened to all theperuntukan we read and hear so much about? 

 

Let's just for a minute (just one minute) assume what Abdul Rahman said was correct, that he was merely stating facts and the reality of the situation. The question to ask then is this: was it the right thing to say? To simple folks who had just faced a tragedy? 

 

Was that something well meaning? You tell me.

 

 

Mohsin Abdullahis a specialist writer atfz.com. He likesrojak. Andnasi campur. And durians. Perhaps that’s why he writes about this, that and everything else. Pretty muchrojakandnasi campur. As for his writings, well, they can be like durians. Aromatic and delicious to some people, smelly and off-putting to others. fz.com