It has been 10 years since what was then Pakatan Rakyat took control of Selangor. New councillors, state assemblypersons and state exco were appointed but the services for Selangor residents, unfortunately, took a beating.

In short, the attitude of the elected representatives, as well as the appointed councillors, have gone from bad to worse.

I remember relaying a complaint to Peter Chong, who was then a councillor with Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ). Instead of solving the issue, he just  passed the buck. This was about two years ago.

Things have not improved much with newly appointed councillors. I raised the traffic safety issues with Tang Fuie Koh in the past, and the newly appointed councillor, Danny Chan.

Chan has a tendency of not responding to messages sent to him via Whatsapp, so till today, there is no traffic light at the junction of Lebuh Bandar Utama and Jalan BU3/1.

Even though this was brought to the attention of Jamaliah Jamaluddin, this issue has still not been solved after over a year. Her personal assistant, Hayashi Choong, just pretends she has not received any email, and despite my sending it to her on a couple of occasions, there is still no response.

I have made the same observations at Bandar Sri Damansara, Taman Wangsa Permai and Aman Puri. Both Aman Puri and Wangsa Permai are under the care of Selayang Municipal Councillor Ng Wei Keong.

Despite the complaints brought to his attention, there has been only silence or mere lip service. This has been the case for over a year.

The same can be said of Suriase Gengiah. Although pictures of illegal dump sites in Bandar Sri Damansara have been sent to him by Whatsapp, nothing was done until a reporter threatened to highlight the issue in the papers.

Although I sent the same pictures to then Subang (now Sungai Buloh) MP R. Sivarasa, till now there has not been even a single response. Pictures were similarly sent via Whatsapp to Bukit Lanjan State Assemblyperson Elizabeth Wong – these, too, went unanswered.

It is not only the state assemblypersons or councillors who do not appear to be attending to complaints. Emails regarding strata title issues that were sent to Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari and Housing Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin don’t seem to be attended to.

I usually try to troubleshoot issues but I find that things have gone from bad to worse.

While a number of good programmes have been initiated by the state government, Selangor will lose its lustre if politicians and their appointees fail to adopt a service-oriented attitude and if basic services are not improved.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.