On 29 July 2009 several residents in the Danau Kota area and I presented a Petition signed by more than 500 residents protesting against the Danau Kota Uptown Pasar Malam. The biggest gripe of the residents here is that it operates daily from 10.00 pm to 4.00 am and the miseries the Pasar Malam had brought about.
Datuk Bandar KL and DBKL, to be utterly honest, shouldn’t pasar malams be strictly a once-a-week affair and be confined to the sanely hours of 5.00 pm to 11.00 pm?
A little history: This Pasar Malam was initially operating at Uptown Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya, and due to protests from the residents and shopkeepers in the area, it was moved to Section 2 in Wangsa Maju. Again, the residents of Section 2 protested and it was then relocated to Danau Kota.
Originally DBKL announced that this Pasar Malam would be limited to the trading of “barangan kering” and souvenirs/gifts. It was also supposed to be confined to an empty land. Now it seems there is no restriction of what can be sold and we now see food of all sorts also being offered for sale here.
The said Pasar Malam is so close to the residential houses that it has resulted in numerous inconveniences, to put it mildly. What’s most disconcerting is that, for quite some time now, the residents have been complaining of social problems and noise pollutions which had, in many ways, been contributed by the inaction of the previous MP, Datuk Yew Teong Look, and nothing had been done to address these problems up till now.
Hence, as a last resort, they have taken a group decision to hand over a Petition to Datuk Bandar Kuala Lumpur in the hope that Datuk Bandar will look into their plight and relocate the Pasar Malam to another place away from a residential area. Some of the residents have also voiced out their displeasure to me to what they feel is an affront to the wishes of the community by a recent insensitive act of DBKL. That despite the said Petition, DBKL has taken upon itself to further add another 30 or more stalls in front and by the side of the existing shop lots.
I have made some enquiries and to my horror it was confirmed today by the Pengarah of Jabatan Pengurusan dan Pembangunan Penjaja that the DBKL Management has indeed given the approval for the setting up of the additional stalls. What utter rubbish is this, Datuk Bandar KL and DBKL?
This approval is extremely insensitive to the wishes of the residents in the area. In fact, it can be said that such a decision taken by DBKL was made in total disregard of the welfare of the residents, who are rate payers to DBKL. What’s most unacceptable is that until this date, we have yet to receive any reply from the office of the Datuk Bandar even though reminders have been sent every now and then. Apart from being not in-line with the PM’s policy of “People First,” obviously such insensitive action or inaction by DBKL has definitely made a joke of the PM’s policy, too.
Considering this new development that has cropped up, I will be having an emergency meeting with the residents to discuss the next course of action.
