New Straits Times Property - December 2, 2006.
Click on image to enlarge.

The New Straits Times ran an objective piece regarding accessible facilities for disabled persons by G. Umakanthan in its weekly Property pullout today. Umakanthan is the Copy Editor for NST Property. This is in conjunction with the International Day of Disabled Persons that falls on December 3 every year as declared by the United Nations. Reading that article made me wonder how long more disabled persons have to wait before they can move about freely and safely in society.

As it is now, we have to brave life and limb whenever we go out. The modern concrete structures that symbolise Malaysia as a developing country is as good as a jungle still. Every step of the way is fraught with danger for disabled persons. Uneven and inaccessible walkways force wheelchair users onto the roads where they are at risk of being knocked down by speeding vehicles. This is just one of the many perils that disabled persons have to face every time they go out.

Legislation that was drawn up to ensure that disabled persons enjoy equal rights where accessibility is concerned is all pure hogwash. Without commitment and enforcement , it is as good as impotent. Time and again, we have listened to sweet promises from government officials that were never fulfilled. Truly, it was all nothing more than hot air. How long more before Malaysia can claim to be a fully inclusive society? Time will tell. And time is one thing that some of us do not have much left of.

The Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya (MPAJ) never responded to my complaint. Is this indifference common among the local councils in Malaysia? The silence is more than disappointing. It is a blatant display of the “tidak apa” attitude that is making me lose confidence in the people who are entrusted to look after the interests of rate payers and the safety of the public.

Just when I thought that the MPAJ would sweep the matter under the carpet and conveniently forget about it, I received a copy of the letter the Jabatan Kerajaan Tempatan (JKT) sent to the MPAJ regarding my complaint. The JKT had instructed the MPAJ to look into my grievances, take relevant actions and provide a response to me.

I am waiting with bated breath for that elusive response from MPAJ. Will they be moved into action or ignore the directive from the JKT? Time will tell. In the meantime, Wuan and I are still risking life and limb whenever we need to make a trip to the shops. Does the MPAJ care enough? Lets wait and see.

* A scanned copy of the letter will be put up as soon as I get back to Penang.

Related entries:
Inaccessible Pandan Perdana
How To Kill A Disabled Person (This entry was first published in MoNSTerBlog)

William, Cynthia, Wuan and I had dinner at one of the Chinese restaurant in SS2 Petaling Jaya last Saturday. It was a noodle house that served lousy tasting bowls of la mian. I will not recommend anyone to patronize this shop. The less than pleasant food went very well with the letdown that Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest flung on us. I do not like movies without an ending, or one with an ending that leads to a sequel. It is a pity that I liked Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl enough to bug the trio into watching it with me.

So, after a meal that I would rather forget, we got back to the car. After I was comfortably seated, William asked for my camera. While we waited in the car, he was outside shooting away with the camera pointed down at the parking lot next to ours. We wondered what it was that caught his attention. I thought it was something in the drain, a large fish perhaps, or an animal carcass.

When he got back into the car and passed the camera to Wuan, he said to me, “Put this in your blog.”

It was much later when I reviewed the images on my laptop that I realized what it was. It was a knocked-down sign for an accessible parking lot with text in three languages: Malay, English and Chinese. The English text read: “You have taken my car park. Please take along my disability.”

Photo by William.

Photo by William.

How To Kill A Disabled Person

It is not difficult, really. The solutions are plentiful but I have an easy-to-follow two-step guide that is very effective and widely used here. First: Plant a lamppost right in the middle of a walkway. Provide very little space for a wheelchair to pass through. Wait and watch out for one wheelchair user who is foolish enough to attempt the feat and witness the slightest misjudgement that will see him tumbling onto the road. It will not take long for a bus to pass by and run over him as he lies helpless on the road. Easy, yes?

If however he is so lucky as to escape that gruesome death, move on to step two. Ignore his complaints of the apparent danger. He will eventually get tired for being such a grouch and use the road instead. Due to the extreme difference in height, a man on a wheelchair may fall onto the blind spot of a driver high up in the cab of a speeding truck. The impact of five tons of hurtling metal against a wheelchair would be spectacular. Believe me, it is, the flying body and all! This, ladies and gentlemen, are two ways among many to kill a disabled person.

Scenes from an overactive imagination and paranoia? Not really. I should know better because Wuan and I fell onto the road while we were manoeuvring around a lamppost at Pandan Perdana. We suffered superficial injuries. My wheelchair was damaged. We were fortunate not to be hit by a vehicle while we were sprawled out on the road.

What hurt me most were not the wounds but the deafening silence to my complaints that were forwarded to the Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya (MPAJ), the municipal council whose jurisdiction covers Pandan Perdana. The letter was also copied to the Menteri Besar of Selangor, several relevant Ministries and government departments via post and email. Four weeks have passed. None have bothered to reply or acknowledge it.

This non-responsive attitude by MPAJ is not only disheartening but also renegades on its client charter. It states that they will reply to complaints within one week. What are we as ratepayers and citizens in the eyes of the council then when their client charter is not worth the paper it was written on? It speaks volume of how much lives are worth to the powers that be that run the municipality. Even Datuk Seri Shahrizat had pointed out that local councils think disabled persons and senior citizens are not important. There you go.

As a pedestrian, I put my life on the line every time I go out. The authorities do not have the sense to build amenities that are safe and accessible. They allow vehicles to park on walkways thus forcing me to use the road instead. They build walkways without kerb ramps. Pedestrian crossings are severely lacking. Such bad architecture and the lack of enforcement not only affect disabled persons but all pedestrians in general. Still, I continue use these walkways. Do I have a death wish by foolishly subjecting myself to such risks again and again? No! But are there other alternatives for me? Are there alternatives for the mobility impaired community?

Finally, I have found some time to settle the one issue that has been foremost in my mind recently – the complaint letter to Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya (MPAJ). That letter was addressed to the President of the Municipal Council and copied to the Menteri Besar of Selangor, Setiausaha Sulit Kanan to the Menteri Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan, Setiausaha Sulit Kanan to the Menteri Pembangunan Wanita, Keluarga dan Masyarakat, Ketua Pengarah Kebajikan Masyarakat, Yap Soo Sun, the ADUN for this area and the President of the Persatuan Orang-Orang Cacat Anggota Malaysia (Society of the Orthopaedically Handicapped Malaysia).

Wuan took some photographs of the offending lamppost to illustrate how impossible it was for me to manoeuvre around the lamppost by myself. With some assistance from her, it can be done but that poses an apparent danger as evident from the nasty fall that happened to us the other evening. From the last photograph, we can see how close the vehicle was to the walkway. Picture the time that I lay sprawled on the road. I was in the path of oncoming vehicles. I could have been killed. That could have happened to Wuan as well.

The lack of accessible walkways, together with the lack of accessible transport service, is one of the many reasons why we do not see many wheelchair users out and about in public places. In Tokyo, it was not unusual to see the severely disabled moving around in electric wheelchairs. It was also easy for wheelchair users to board the trains and buses there. As far as I know, Putra LRT is the only accessible public transport in Malaysia, and that was only after disabled persons staged demonstrations to demand for accessible facilities at the stations. It is an uphill battle for us all the way.

May 28, 2006

YB Presiden Via email and post
Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya
Menara MPAJ
Jalan Pandan Utama
55100 Pandan Indah
Kuala Lumpur

Dear Sir,

INACCESSIBLE, DAMAGED AND OBSTRUCTED WALKWAYS AT PANDAN PERDANA A DANGER TO WHEELCHAIR USERS AND PEDESTRIANS

I reside at the address above. Several times a week, I patronise the shops at Jalan Perdana 4/5. I am a wheelchair user. I usually go together with my friend because I need her assistance with my wheelchair. We have two choices to go to the shops. One, I can either push myself on the busy road of Jalan Perdana 3/1 and risk being knocked over by a bus or a car. Two, to avoid that danger, my friend assists me by lifting my wheelchair onto the walkways. The walkways on both sides of Jalan Perdana 3/1 are not accessible. There are no kerb ramps to the walkways.

There is this lamppost at Jalan Perdana 3/1 (opposite the Jalan Perdana 4/5 shops) that stands right in the middle of the walkway. My friend always had difficulty manoeuvring my wheelchair around it because of the narrow space between the lamppost and the edge of the walkway.

While she was trying to manoeuvre my wheelchair around that particular lamppost on May 28, the front caster slipped off the edge of the walkway. We both lost balance and fell onto the road and were injured. All the time as I was lying helpless on the road, I worried that a bus may come and roll over us. Fortunately, three good Samaritans stopped their vehicles and helped me back onto the wheelchair.

The main reason we both fell off the walkway was because of the obstruction caused by the lamppost. It does not make sense to plant a lamppost right in the middle of the walkway. Additionally, many stretches of the walkways are damaged by the indiscriminate parking of buses, lorries and cars. These vehicles also cause obstructions that prevent pedestrians from using the walkways. This endangers our lives as we have no choice but to walk on the road.

As a pedestrian who uses that stretch of walkway often, I respectfully demand that you remove that offending lamppost immediately to prevent similar accidents from happening again. I also request that you make walkways, not only at Pandan Perdana, but in all areas under your jurisdiction accessible by constructing kerb ramps to allow accessibility to wheelchair users, prams and the elderly.

At the same time, the damaged walkways should be repaired without delay. The uneven surface is a danger to all pedestrians. Owners of vehicles that park on these walkways must be penalised. What is the purpose of constructing walkways that cannot be used? Does the MPAJ expect me use my wheelchair on public roads? Does the MPAJ expect pedestrians to risk their lives by walking on the roads?

I would like to remind you that time and again, our government has stressed that Malaysia is a masyarakat penyayang. How can we be a masyarakat penyayang when simple things like public walkways are not accessible to disabled persons and the elderly? The government should take the lead in instituting a caring Malaysian society by addressing, among others, the environmental barriers that are preventing disabled persons from participating in the activities of the community at large. The MPAJ can show its caring aspects by tackling the matters that I have highlighted. Please act now on these blatant examples of a non-masyarakat penyayang and non-pedestrian-friendly walkways before lives are lost.

I look forward to a positive reply from you regarding the resolution of this issue soonest possible.

Thank you.