Dirt under the carpet

“Duduk, duduk,” said the Syabas technical officer. He was what you’d describe as peramah. Jovial, middle-aged, a simple man in a blue Syabas uniform.

By the end of 20 minutes, I was reaffirmed of two things:
1) Design is a tee-eeeny wee-eeeeny fraction of what it takes to be an architect in Malaysia; you are a reluctant running dog most of the time. Design purist? Hahaha, try another country.
2) Pak Lah has done effectively nothing about corruption in this country. From big fish to small fry. Umm, correction – he has simply done nothing. Period.

Like the Syabas officer, I too am a simple man. All I want is to stay alive for awhile, see the house I am designing get built. The bureaucracy is there to make sure you don't enjoy it. It is a faceless black hole whose answer to every question is a murmur: "Maybe, maybe not."

Sometime in January, the Majlis Perbandaran Kajang’s One-Stop Centre (OSC) had written a letter saying the application to build a house had been approved on condition that the architect obtains a Letter of Endorsement from each of the three autonomous bodies: Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas), Jabatan Perkhidmatan Pembetungan (JPP or Sewerage Dept) and MPKj’s own Jabatan Pembangunan Persekitaran which oversees the sanitary layout and application.

The letter further stated that all three departments had given their verbal approval in an earlier OSC meeting. “Looks like we have approval to start on the house,” I told my clients. We were happy about the relative expedience. Or so it seemed.

It seemed then all that remained was the formality of obtaining the Endorsement Letters, pass on a copy to MPKj, and we’d be issued an approval to start construction in a short time. Dream on, kiddo.

“Ah, ada perkara yang kena pinda lah. Duduk, duduk,” said the Syabas officer at the Ulu Langat Branch in Kajang. He opened the coldwater supply drawings as I sat dumbfounded. It was a diagram which showed the schematic layout of pipes and water-tanks, details of a typical water meter, all done in single-line, coloured and labeled with specifications.

I interjected showing him a copy of OSC’s conditional approval letter, and pointed to the line which says: (iii) Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd – lulus secara lisan.

“Itu cuma secara lisan. Tak kira. Ha, sekarang ni tengok…..” the officer continued. Among other things, I was told to label my water tanks this way, and only this way:
Nominal Capacity: x gallons
Effective Capacity: y gallons
Type of Tank: z

It didn’t matter that in the original I had given all that information and more including the actual dimensions of the water-tanks. I was told to label every pipe although I had chosen to label systems of pipes like how we’d do it in the States eg primary incoming, primary outgoing, feeder pipes to fixtures – just so the drawing is not cluttered with crisscrossing arrows, a golden rule in working drawings. I was also told Syabas now requires a different set of Construction Notes to accompany the drawing, and the officer passes me an A4 sheet full of notes: “Ini you kena taip masuk semula dalam drawing, OK? Yang lama punye semua tak pakai lagi.”

As it turned out, nothing was in error that could result in the loss of life, just graphic modifications. A couple of arrows here, two colons there, use red colour for the Syabas main pipe etc.

When he was done, I asked why all this wasn’t brought up months earlier when I was making the submission. Another officer had looked through the drawings then and accepted it. “Oh, pengarah buat rule baru la.” It didn’t matter if you had submitted months earlier, the demi-god pangarah’s rules are retroactively applied to all projects.

What else to do but to take home the drawings, revise, reprint, re-colour, refold, and resubmit. That was two weeks ago.

I was lamenting to a contractor friend about all this. He said what I didn’t want to hear: “They want money lah. Let me meet them.” I was boiling. My client said he was potentially losing RM10k for every month delayed. Give it a shot, he said.

Friday evening I get a call. “Wah, Syabas pegawai very direct,” said my contractor friend. “He sat down and straightaway asked: Adakah?”

How many “Adakah”s lie ahead, I cannot tell. I can only smell rot.


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And so it goes. Extra over for services rendered. Funny how Pak Lah goes about like he’s forgotten what he promised in the budding days of his premiership. Those rosy, vote-earning promises of tackling corruption. That Syabas person is but one of a string of bodies sitting in the interface of the construction industry and sucking money like leeches.

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When I was in a mainstream architecture office, I witnessed a senior Bomba officer upon completing his CF inspection tell the contractor and developer: “We will be having a golf tournament next month. So we’d like to request a donation of RM2,000 cash from you for prizes lah.”

After a TNB substation inspection, the developer of the project I was handling was seen handing over a humongous Hari Raya hamper to the TNB chap at a shadowed portion of the building. Who knows what envelope was in the hamper. It's so commonplace, people find it blase.

The boss of a main contracting company once told me: “In a typical condo project, we hand out bribes of RM30K-40K a month to the many different authorities. When we first started, I thought I could be clean and straight. Run an outfit like the Japanese and Koreans, you know. But even if you play by the rules, keep your truck wash trough clean, fog the area regularly, have harnesses and safety nets, they can and will find something to close you down…. The odd nail sticking out, the odd debris lying around, workers’ quarters.

“Money keeps them away. Let's us do our job. And you know what though? This money has blood on it. Remember the incident of falling steel formwork at Hartamas? If you ask me, the blame reaches very far and wide.”

While at the old workplace, a colleague would tell about how blatant bribes are sought these days at both the Planning and Building Depts at MPPJ. It’s simply a queen’s nest that's ISO 9002 certified. This colleague had first-hand experience. At the foyer of the Planning Dept is a desk with a tag ‘ACA’. Nobody seems to man it. Not long after you greet the officer, he’ll tell you: “Ai say, sports club mau jersey baru lah. Macam? Boss boleh bagi hadiah gah?” They’re no longer coy about it. “Kalau mau cepat, kena bayar upah lah,” even the receptionist communicated to her.

I love architecture and I want to live an honest life. Simple as that. If this is what it takes to practise in Malaysia eternally, if the government continues to be in denial about this cancer, if one has to continue to conform that low, then I shan’t be in Malaysia. Simple as that.


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Post script

Among the many officials who deal with members of the building industry, I have met one who stands out as a true gem.

Ms Ong Ay Lee is Assistant Director at the Jabatan Perancang Bandar of Majlis Bandaraya Melaka Bersejarah (MBMB). She cares about her work and Melaka. Once at her office discussing the planning parameters for a parcel of land in the outskirts of the city, we got to talking about development in general. My boss had remarked that Melaka could do with a boost.

“Only if it is managed well, yes. But do you think we should follow KL’s model? I don’t. I have a sister in Cheras. I’m close to her but dread visiting her because of the environment there. But that’s just me.

“There is something in Melaka’s character we want to continue – finer grain, more soulful. We want development to perpetuate that quality. Many a time, big-budget offers have come this way – Singapore money, KL money – and they want to build these flashy townships. Thirty-, forty-storey towers. Whenever I am in the position, I tell them no.”

She spoke about the ideas of Michael Pyatok, urban community planner and champion of affordable housing, who had just been in Malaysia. She is well-read, informed of historic precedents, and has guts to hold her ground.

Her phone rang then. It was an architect reminding her of a CF inspection and offering to pick her up. “No lah. Don’t pick me up. I can find my own way there. I’ll be there in a half hour…. No, no. Really, you don’t have to pick me up. I know Melaka. Melaka is my town lah.”

Amazingly, those were about the same words she used some months earlier. Then, it was regarding a project of ours, although she didn't know it. The contractor had called her on CF inspection day and offered a ride. "No, don't bother. I'll find my way there," she had said. And true enough, she arrived in her basic Proton, did her inspection crisply and then left. In a week, the Surat Sokongan was issued.

Professional babe.

Ms Ong Ay Lee is my hero, a beacon in the murky civil service. I hope she keeps her strength for a long, long time. And I hope she becomes an example, never an oddity.