Wasted waste management technology

A YouTube clip shows a young lady, possibly a college leaver, driving a waste compactor picking up and loading the wheelie bins into the waste compactor.

She has no support staff. She drives and operates the compactor efficiently, and all the while she is smiling and repeating this routine from house to house.

Malaysia is one of the first countries in the world to draft the solid waste management act and bravely implement it, too. However, we are in the same conundrum of who the political “boss” of the state really is.

We allow them to do waste management as a gift to their political heads of a certain political party. These “bosses” are not entrepreneurs who can think beyond dollars and cents; they just use the old lorries to pick up waste and claim that they are doing their job.

This practice has wiped out at least three decades of any technological advancement in our waste management practices, and today we are still using three or four foreign workers to work on the waste compactor and dumping our domestic waste into landfills.

It is shameful to boast of possessing advanced technology but still maintain unscrupulous practices behind the scene.

Recycling regression

Recycling is still hovering over 33% after decades of education. Hence, the Canadian model of one person to one compactor may only materialize in our country after another two decades.

Though waste management has been privatized, landfills are still under the control of some powerful corporations linked to political bosses.

The Waste to Energy (WTE) program that uses incineration is merely a pipe dream with no hopes of realizing its potential or success, as landfill owners are against the idea of WTE.

Disrupted drives

The tollbooths all around our highways are ill maintained and some considered obsolete. Yet, every concessionaire who operates the highways builds new toll booths with some sort of intricate and unique design.

This is a real nuisance to the paying citizens as it disrupts the driver or commuter from efficiently paying for and continuing his journey.

We have three types of gates at almost every toll stop – SmartTag, Touch ‘n Go and RFID. None of them works efficiently or effectively.

If you use the SmartTag lane, the scanner will often fail to detect your device; the RFID lane ensures failure for the scanner to read the code; and the Touch ‘n Go lane is a hassle, as driver has to stop, screen down his vehicle window and place the card on the scanning device before resuming his drive.

Whichever lane you choose to go through, there is an assurance of a long queue of vehicles due to some glitch in whichever system is implemented.

With comparison to a better and faster flowing drive-through lane, this clearly shows that we are still backwards in our technological progress.

Toll booths must be removed. Only electronic gadgets such as number plate recognition should be used to stop all these cronies from operating various platforms and yet screwing up the comfort of making a simple payment.

The Australian method is simple and effective – pay the toll and you are safe; avoid paying and you will receive a penalty notice in the mail soon enough.

The main thing is that smooth traffic flow is maintained and your drive is not disrupted.

We must change our operatives or else we will remain as a third-world country claiming to be champions of a village.

Ridiculous rules of attire

If you were mugged or had your car stolen, but you are in a short dress or have on a tight T-shirt with shorts, do not go to the police station – they will not help.

If you are having a heart attack or are very sick, put on your batik dress before heading to the hospital, or they will not treat you.

The police and hospital announced that they would refrain from coming to a victim’s aid should that individual be improperly dressed.

How is any individual supposed to know when he/she will become a victim, experience a wrongdoing, or sustain an injury throughout a normal day routine?

The police and medical sectors are to protect and support the people, not a form of ridicule and foolery for the world to laugh at.

Since when were police stations and hospitals lured into the world of fashion policing? Did Kuala Lumpur overtake Milan as the international fashion capital overnight?

As police officers, please continue to carry out your primary task of protecting the citizens. Do not take on the role of moral policemen. We have enough religious bodies with hefty national budget allocations looking into these kinds of things.

As hospital staff, we salute you for your deeds and contributions during the pandemic, but the sporadic illogical acts of a few immediately mar the image of the wonderful heath workers we have in our country. Let not a few rotten apples tarnish the image of all the great ones!

We must remind ourselves that we care for one another and always stand proud as one nation. Let us not have unnecessary and insensible conditions shadow our views on what is right and wrong.

Road robbers

To date, JKR (Roadwork Department) is struggling to keep the roads clean and pothole-free, and even keeping their streetlights on at least 70% of the time.

Crooks that pry on JKR assets steal their traffic light power connectors. There are no police reports on these culprits albeit its rampant occurrence.

Also, for a few months there will be no streetlight on a certain stretch of the road; the JKR will approve a replacement budget, only to have it get stolen again. A vicious cycle that is simply eating up the taxpayers’ coffers.

The JKR roads are the most unkempt with weeds and mini trees growing wildly on the kerbside. No one cleans them up. When it rains, the roads get flooded because the scupper drains are covered with silt and rubbish and plants. “No supervision nor maintenance” should be JKR’s tagline!

The JKR needs to find a mechanism or system to protect road equipment from unscrupulous thieves.

There must be a way to improve the security of these power junction boxes.

Perhaps more thinking and less talking would provide the solution.

Tactless telcos

Our telcos are still living in the copper age.

We boast of stepping into 5G or 6G era, but fail to have a simple decent conversation on our hand-held mobile devices.

Calls either experience sudden drops, reception suddenly disappears, or connection is weak. All the complaints made regarding these issues are met with the ever so tactless reply of “biasa” or “normal.”

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Stop boasting of being the best when customers are flagged by inefficiency and incompetent service deliveries on a daily basis.

Impressive annual sustainability reports coupled with awards for the best brand, top brand, superb service provider do nothing except bring more shame to telco companies that fail to find a solution to deliver good communication services within the cloud era instead of making empty promises.

Our consumers are immersed with rising costs of all food stuff where even eggs are difficult to obtain; high Grab costs and toll charges, shocking income tax dues, lack of job availability, life-savings being drained — yet the politicians are busy with their offshore bank accounts and further multiplying their net worth.

This is a real scene in our country… at whose expense?

The basic things are not discussed in our parliament. Instead, there seems to be more focus and interest in who is rich and in power, who is getting richer and gaining more power, who will remain rich and in power.

How this kind of connection can be of any help to our poor citizens is beyond my imagination.

As responsible citizens we should play a bigger role by making sure this kind of wasteful and irresponsible actions of both the authorities and the irresponsible thieves is to be stopped at all costs.

The society must observe and channel their observation and concerns to the relevant authorities and follow up too.

Change does not happen on its own. We are no more learning through classrooms or teachers; AI is here at our doorstep. We must change our operatives or else we will remain as a third-world country claiming to be champions of a village.

In exactly which direction are we headed to in terms of unity and development while these kinds of quagmire situations drain and drown our nation?

The government must attend to the rakyat and address these issues immediately and effectively without delay.

(Ravindran Raman Kutty is an active social worker.)