Thesun 2009-02-24 Page13 Focus On The Cake Not The Icing

theSun

13

| TUESDAY FEBRUARY 24 2009

speak up!

Focus on the cake, not the icing IT IS understandery (theSun, Sept able for the 10 29, 2008). Has Pakatan Rakyat this body commembers of pleted its work? Parliament from Furthermore, Kuala Lumpur to KL Mayor Datuk be critical of the Ahmad Fuad workings of Kuala Ismail assumed Lumpur City Hall the post only in since they have no mid-December. official roles. ApIt is only fair to parently, the only LocalCounsel allow him some Barisan Nasional by Goh Ban Lee time to get things MP from Kuala done. There is no Lumpur, Datuk Seri Zuldoubt that he has received hasnan Rafique who is the much advice, solicited or Federal Territories minister, otherwise. As a former is also not satisfied. president of Subang Jaya Zulhasnan has formed Municipal Council and the a Modern City Managesecretary-general of the ment Committee for Kuala Housing and Local GovernLumpur, Putrajaya and ment Ministry, Ahmad Fuad Labuan headed by Tan Sri has travelled the world visitSamsudin Osman. “The ing well-managed cities and committee would suggest attending conferences on ways and means towards good governance. So have better organisation and senior officers of city hall. management of local auAs such, the leaders of thorities,” said its chairman city hall are familiar with (The Star, Feb19, 2009). modern city management Zulhasnan could not and concepts like accounthave picked a more qualified ability, transparency and person as Samsudin was the rule of law. Nevertheless, if chief secretary to the governAhmad Fuad needs advice, ment, the highest-ranking let him choose his advisers. civil servant in the country. The problem is not lack He is also the chairman of good ideas; it is the unof the multi-billion ringgit willingness to swallow the Employees Provision Fund. prescribed medicine. For As Putrajaya Corporation example, in the case of acpresident, he is practically countability, it is logical for the “mayor” of the adminiscity hall to have an elected trative capital. mayor and councillors However, there is no real rather than an appointed need for the Modern City mayor and advisers. While Management Committee. an elected city hall does not The management of KL cerautomatically lead to effitainly needs improvement. ciency and effectiveness, the But there is already the ratepayers have opportunimuch-heralded special focus ties to replace the leaders. If group appointed by Pemuthey are re-elected, they are dah and headed by Federal at least the people’s favourite Territory Ministry secrebunglers. tary-general Datuk Ahmad But local government Phesal Talib that is to work elections are the decision with city hall to address speof the politicians. Unfortucific issues of service delivnately, those in the Barisan

Nasional still believe in appointed local government while those in the Pakatan Rakyat state governments seem reluctant to push for elections despite their election promises. As mayor, Ahmad Fuad does have power over the degree of transparency in city hall. As such, it is fair to expect much more transparency in the workings of city hall, especially in development control decisions, recruitment and promotion of staff and procurements of goods and services. While transparency itself is not a panacea for poor decisionmaking, it reduces the temptation of the decision-makers to pander to favouritism. KL is not in imminent danger of being inundated by piles of garbage or becoming the worst place to live in Asia. On the contrary, in the context of Asian cities, it is a fairly attractive city to work, bring up families and have a life. The problem is that city hall seems to be better in coining catchy visions than managing a capital city. It is rather ambitious to promise a world-class “garden city of light” when the country itself is not yet world class. Chasing after a worldclass city status takes the eyes away from city hall’s core objective: a safe, efficient and pleasant city. Becoming a world-class city should be the icing on the cake. The focus of city hall should be on the cake, not the icing. Dr Goh Ban Lee is a retired academic interested in urban governance, housing and urban planning. Comments: [email protected].

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Slash credit card interest by half NUBE supports the call by the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry on banks to further cut credit card interest rates. Many a time, taxpayers’ monies saved the day for several corporate organisations including banks. During the Asian financial crisis in 1997 the government brought relief to many troubled banks and prevented the collapse of the banking industry by setting up institutions such as Danaharta and Danamodal. Danaharta successfully recovered more than RM30 billion from the NPL portfolio of over RM50 billion. The success of Danaharta is of course largely owed to the watchful eye of Bank Negara Malaysia that coordinated all activities through a steering committee. Resulting from this, banks that sold their NPL to Danaharta started off with a clean slate and in the subsequent years they were able to make continuous profits. The resilient banking industry today in Malaysia owes much to Bank Negara which ensured that the local banks were well regulated. Even to date, Bank Negara has taken measures such as the recent cuts in its overnight policy rate by 1% point to 2.5% a year. Taxpayers are truly the unsung heroes. Yet in times of distress, it is the ordinary worker

who suffers – the same taxpayers who had a hand in the bail outs. Banks cannot and should not forget the role of the taxpayers during crucial times. It’s now “pay back time”. The Association of Banks Malaysia has merely embarked on lip service in reducing the interest rate on credit cards by 0.5%, 1% or 1.5%. Ideally, interest rates on credit cards should be slashed further by half. Banks collect several types of charges and interest on credit cards. There is a late charge, finance charge, annual fee, cash advance fee, etc. Further, banks are also collecting a minimum of 3% from the merchants inter alia other hidden charges. The banks must assist the government now by lowering interest rates on credit cards and all lending which are artificially high. By doing so, banks will now show red in their financial statements but this will only be a temporary measure to assist the government and play an important role in stimulating the economy while fulfilling its social obligations to the nation. J. Solomon General Secretary NUBE