Samy & MPPJ at War

Samy: We don’t need your approval

Is it true?

Permission from the Petaling Jaya Municipal Council (MPPJ) is not needed, Works Minister Samy Vellu said.

“The construction of a pedestrian bridge in Petaling Jaya is among the projects approved by the Cabinet. The Cabinet decides, not the local council,” Samy said this when asked to comment on Thursday's tiff between the MPPJ, the advertising company, Poly Dimensions Sdn Bhd, over the building of a pedestrian bridge at Section 10 in Petaling Jaya.

Poly Dimensions Sdn Bhd was given approval by the ministry to build five pedestrian bridges along the Federal Highway and federal roads in Petaling Jaya in return for advertising rights on these structures.

Samy Vellu said: “Historically, when the PWD wants to put up a building or any structure, we don't ask permission from anybody, since the PWD is the prime department and the government agency to do it.”

He said that if the PWD needed to get permission from the MPPJ for constructing the pedestrian bridge, it would take a long time.

Are we seeing a conflict between the executives and the civil servants? Or, the executives vs the local council?

Something is glaringly not right ... we are surely opening up the pandora boxes in the Paklahism era.

Mahathir must be observing attentively, watching the new LahSamy Code of Malaysia.

The newspaper called it a tiff between PWD and MPPJ.

I think it is not PWD per se. It is Samy Vellu and the Works Ministry vs MPPJ.

PWD had no part to play in this fiasco and tiff between the nutheads, and JKR may, by default, be construed as an overseer of a "private-privatised project" initiated by the Works Ministry of which JKR wasn't the authority, neither the superintendent officer of the project.

Isn't this a nice way to throw the fiasco to JKR and hold them responsible for things which they had no power to decide and of which they were never part of the decision-making and appointment process; neither is there project management, for if there is, the first and foremost requirement will be STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT, that is, to conduct a Stakeholder Analysis before the project begins.

More, more, more!

A lawyer and a politician shouting at each other in open court; the politician’s supporters joining in the slanging match; the presiding judge storming out.

It had all the ingredients of a TV drama, but it was not. It happened yesterday at the Ampang court. Policemen had to calm the two sides, with Sessions Court judge Noradidah Ahmad returning to her bench an hour later.

The judge, who looked agitated, then stood the matter down and walked off in a huff.

Court police officers finally got them to calm down.

Proceedings resumed almost an hour later when Noradidah returned to the bench to enquire if "things had cooled down".

Throughout the exchange, Kudus, who was in the dock, looked mildly shocked. But he did not say anything.



Judge walked out of court? In the mist of a trial?

Interesting?

Now, we have judges who are not able to control court proceedings because the case involve a politician who is a deputy minister, standing as a witness in a graft trial of a former President of a local council.

Have our courts lost their independence and power?