ada apa dengan datuk bandar?

Power Of The KL Mayor Under His Ministry, Says Isa - Bernama 8 June 2005

KL Mayor Should Have Appropriate Power, Says PM - Bernama 9 June 2005

Mayor Needs Adequate Power To Manage World Class City, Says Ruslin - Bernama 8 June 2005

Kuasa Datuk Bandar : Tidak boleh ada dua nakhoda dalam satu kapal, Norza - Agendadaily 10 Jun 2005

UMNO - Mayor row heats up - The Star 10 June 2005

Why the sudden brouhaha over the powers of the KL Mayor?

Well, read further.

DBKL is akin to a public listed company.

Like a company it collects revenue to pay its staff, maintains its roads and infrastructure as well as bankroll new infrastructure projects for its residents. The concept is the same as any other PLCs. That is to keep their biggest shareholders - in this instance, residents of KL - happy. And they have to do this by tapping their resources efficiently and effectively.

And this is where it gets interesting.

DBKL being effectively the municipal council of Kuala Lumpur is by far the largest among the 144 councils in country in terms of finances.

In 2004, DBKL collected RM2.08 billion and spend RM2.07 billion. The RM2.07 Billion expenditure comprised of RM1.17 billion on development expenditure and RM900 on admin and operating expenditure.

If compared to the other municipal councils in Selangor, DBKL is by far much bigger.

Its revenue is more than 1.5 times than MPPJ, MPSJ, MBSA and MPK combined while its total spending is 3.1 times more than theirs.

Some of the most lucrative projects in the country are under DBKL’s care.

This include the upgrading and construction of new roads, interchanges and elevated highways (Jalan Cheras and Jalan Ampang/Jelatek) whict cost around RM398 million. In addition, DBKL is also the agency in charged in the implemention of the Klang Valley Integrated Transport Project - which will include the building of pedestrian, sidewalks and special bus lane etc costing some RM147 million.

Now let us fit all of these into the current context.

We know that the economy is not in a good shape.

Basically, the boom days are over.

And those who were hardest hit are the local contractors, big and small.

While the bigger players are already plying their trade overseas – in India, the Middle East, Indonesia, the smaller contractors, those under the F Category are stuck at the bottom of the barrel. Almost 40,000 of them are sitting idle.

While may ecnomics may or may not be the prime motivator behind FT UMNO's move, perhaps what has appeared in the papers in the past one week could provide some clues behind this brouhaha.

This interesting piece appeared in Agendadaily:

“Pokoknya kita hari ini ingin melihat proses penyelerasan…kita tak boleh ada dua nakhoda dalam satu kapal.Kita mahu keberkesanan antara pentabiran Datuk Bandar dan kepimpinan Kementerian Wilayah Persekutuan itu dimantapkan lagi…akhirnya yang mendapat keuntungan ialah masyarakat wargakota kuala Lumpur itu sendiri,”.

And another as reported by The Star:

Two months ago, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) officers seized a makeshift cabin from an Umno branch in Wangsamaju that was being used as a meeting place.

This was done without any prior notice and in such a rude manner that the officers purportedly pijak-pijak (stomped on) Umno banners without any regard for the loss of face and embarrassment they were causing to leaders there.

“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said FT Umno Youth chief Datuk Mohamad Norza Zakaria

Malay Mail in its 8 June 2005 gave a very interesting insights.

“It is about tenders and contracts as City Hall is given an annual budget of more than a billion ringgit, and not about wresting the Mayor’s power".

“Everybody wants a slice of the cake through development projects like billboard, wholesalers and hawkers’ licences".

“They also want tenders for other work including cleaning of bus stops, even if they do a shoddy job after being awarded the tenders".

“Due to the big allocation to City Hall, there is always pressure and recommendations from politicians to be awarded tenders and contracts".

Some things never change in Malaysia.