As of today we have 495 residents who have paid up out of 690 occupied houses. When we did our earlier rounds campaigning, 593 or 86% said they support this idea. So right now residents who have paid up is at 72%. I hope that you can help us by talking to your neighbors who have not signed up (with no green gate tag) and encourage them to join. I also hope the 100+ residents that said they will support our security scheme will come forward voluntarily and sign up. This is for the good of the whole community. As much as I hope that we can get full support from all but unfortunately there will be a number of residents living among us that will not support this scheme even though it is benefiting them.
One of the services that Homeguards provides to us paying residents is Tiger Eye, where the guards will keep an eye out on your house when you are away e.g. for your holidays. The guards when they patrol the neighborhood will stop by your house take a look to make sure all is in order (no gate/doors/windows ajar or signs of intrusion) and drop in a note in your mail box to show what day and time they were at your house. So if you are going to be away for a few days and want this service, then call Homeguards call center (03 3373 3994) and inform them what are the days that you will be away.
In my last e-circular there was an error in a phone number as pointed out by a number of residents (thank you!). The correct emergency numbers for you to key into your mobiles and have ready next to your house or office phones are:
First number to call - 03 3373 3994 (Homeguards HOTLINE NBR)
Second number to call - 0162848798 (DD LINE FOR DJROA ZONE 3)
Third number to call - 0163373994 (DD LINE AT CALL CENTRE)
I've been asked to inform all residents (and their maids) who walks their pet dogs to please bring along a plastic bag and pick up your dog's poo so as not to stink up our neighborhood. I trust everyone don't like to step on shit. So please be considerate and do the right thing.
The guards have been instructed to stop all motorbikes, lorries and vans at the 2 guard posts. As for the cars they are doing it randomly at the moment. We have distributed the car stickers and more are coming back to purchase additional. Once more residents have the stickers up, it will be easier for the guards to just pay attention to the cars without stickers. Also, there are quite a large number of residents who have not/will not sign up to our scheme. They will not get stickers nor gate tag.
As of today, we have started implementing the Visitor's Pass where visitors have to display the A4 size laminated pass on their car dash board, motorcyclist given pass that they will wear around their neck, and guards will also take down their particulars including house they are visiting. This is for tighter control and warns the visitors that they are being monitored while in our zone. We'll try that out and see how that works. Problem is our entrance roads are very narrow and will cause congestion if all the cars are stopped, unlike neighborhoods that have been designed for gated security with wider roads and places to stop. Walk in individuals seems lesser of a threat at the moment but we will monitor the situation to see if that too needs to be addressed.
We will continue to highlight and improve with Homeguards to inform of the various complaints from the residents about inattentive guards, sleeping guards, etc and will continue to monitor their performance. So all your feedback is important to highlight to Homeguards of the various issues. But overall, there has been marked improvement in the security of our neighborhood. I do feel a lot safer and sleep better. Never the less we should never let our guard down and must always be alert for strangers in our neighborhood. Bad elements will find ways to penetrate any security schemes. Its our duty to look after ourselves, our loved ones and our properties. Having guards 24/7 is only a deterrent and not a 100% fool proof system.
We have applied to TNB for electrical supply to the guard house on road 35. Once that is approved, we plan to install boomgates there. As for road 31 where the detractors lives, we have to be cautious as last I heard they have consulted lawyers to try and stop our security scheme near to their houses. So far I've not received any notices yet. Once we are more certain that things have cooled down, then we will look into boomgates there.
Attach is an article in today's Star Metro's newspaper on DBKL demolishing boomgates in 4 housing areas. I hope MBPJ will not do that in PJ.
Meanwhile, we are thinking of closing entrance on road 31 from 12midnight till 6am daily. That means only entrance/exit during that 6 hours will be from road 35. That will tighten the security further at night. A guard will still be stationed at road 31 to monitor the situation. If you think its a bad idea, let me know. As for daytime, the guards and all of us have to be alert for potential intruders. Don't take our security for granted.
We will continue to improvise as best we can and improve as we go along so please have patience and help us by giving feedback. All feedbacks are welcomed. Thank you to all who have been giving us constant feedback. Do keep them coming.
Before I sign off, the security committee (kudos to them who have worked so hard for everyone!) and from Candy & I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Here's hoping 2009 will be a Prosperous, Healthy and Safe one for All.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Security Update (4 Dec 2008)
Todate, we've got 430 residents who have signed and paid up the RM150. Thank you very much for your support. However for this security scheme to be financially viable and for us make it successful long term, we will need the support of at least 500 paying residents every quarter. So we are still short of our target. For those of you who have not pay up yet, please do your part by dropping your check (Attn: "Sri Lara Joint Security Services Sdn Bhd") and duly filled form to my house (143, Jalan SS22/27). Or you can also drop it to any of the guard post. They have been informed to pass all checks to me. Over this weekend the committee will also be calling up the people to encourage those who have not signed up to do so. So please extend your cooperation to them.
I trust that you've all been keeping an eye on the security guards each time you drive in and out of our zone. If you see anything untoward like them sleeping or not stopping motorbikes, lorries, vans, please report them to me and I will forward it to Homeguards. It's best to set them straight on our expectations now than to let them form bad habits.
The car stickers have just been delivered to my house today. We will sort it out and will be sending out the 2 FOC ones to you first. When you receive it, you will find a form for you to fill up for all the other stickers that you'd like to purchase. Please indicate on the form which are the RM2 stickers for you/family cars (that's parked daily in your house) or RM5 stickers for all others regular visitors to your home (e.g. relatives, friends, guests, customers, etc). Then drop the form back into my house's mail box together with the check for the total cost of stickers you are purchasing (Atth: "DJROA") or if you prefer you can also put the cash in the envelope together with the form and drop in my mailbox. Alternatively you can drop it off at either of the guard post and tell them to deliver it to my house. If you are paying cash, please do not pass that to the guards as we will not be responsible for missing cash.
The DJROA Security gate tag will be ready tomorrow. So over the weekend, the guards will be going around to put it up on the houses which have paid up the RM150. So from here you will know which of your neighbors have not joined. I appeal to you to please encourage them to sign up as this security scheme benefits everyone in this zone.
On incidences, last Sunday our Homeguards guard (Mr Kartan) stopped a teenage maid from running away at 7.00am. Congratulations to him! She was stopped and questioned at guard post #2. Had the drums not been there, she could have walked right through to the main road. The house she works for is on Jalan SS22/44. The guards informed the owner who came and pick her back to the house.
Two days ago at 5.30am, the regular vegetable man to our zone Ah Heng (guy who also goes around SS22 in his van) was attacked and robbed by a gang of 10 Mat Rempits on 5 motorbikes near the YuYi restaurant (next to Petronas). Seemed the YuYi boss heard the commotion and came down to help but ended up as a victim too. They were both robbed and injured. This happened just outside of our neighborhood, nearest to road SS22/31 where our guard post #1 is located, and also where the detractors who wants to stop our security scheme lives. If we did not have the security guards on duty 24/7, these Mat Rempits could just as easily come into our neighborhood and cause trouble.
So again, I believe this 24/7 security scheme is already showing its benefits to us by keeping bad elements out. Rest assured that we will continue to find ways to improve on the security scheme. Whatever inputs you have, please feel free to direct it to us. Have a great weekend.
I trust that you've all been keeping an eye on the security guards each time you drive in and out of our zone. If you see anything untoward like them sleeping or not stopping motorbikes, lorries, vans, please report them to me and I will forward it to Homeguards. It's best to set them straight on our expectations now than to let them form bad habits.
The car stickers have just been delivered to my house today. We will sort it out and will be sending out the 2 FOC ones to you first. When you receive it, you will find a form for you to fill up for all the other stickers that you'd like to purchase. Please indicate on the form which are the RM2 stickers for you/family cars (that's parked daily in your house) or RM5 stickers for all others regular visitors to your home (e.g. relatives, friends, guests, customers, etc). Then drop the form back into my house's mail box together with the check for the total cost of stickers you are purchasing (Atth: "DJROA") or if you prefer you can also put the cash in the envelope together with the form and drop in my mailbox. Alternatively you can drop it off at either of the guard post and tell them to deliver it to my house. If you are paying cash, please do not pass that to the guards as we will not be responsible for missing cash.
The DJROA Security gate tag will be ready tomorrow. So over the weekend, the guards will be going around to put it up on the houses which have paid up the RM150. So from here you will know which of your neighbors have not joined. I appeal to you to please encourage them to sign up as this security scheme benefits everyone in this zone.
On incidences, last Sunday our Homeguards guard (Mr Kartan) stopped a teenage maid from running away at 7.00am. Congratulations to him! She was stopped and questioned at guard post #2. Had the drums not been there, she could have walked right through to the main road. The house she works for is on Jalan SS22/44. The guards informed the owner who came and pick her back to the house.
Two days ago at 5.30am, the regular vegetable man to our zone Ah Heng (guy who also goes around SS22 in his van) was attacked and robbed by a gang of 10 Mat Rempits on 5 motorbikes near the YuYi restaurant (next to Petronas). Seemed the YuYi boss heard the commotion and came down to help but ended up as a victim too. They were both robbed and injured. This happened just outside of our neighborhood, nearest to road SS22/31 where our guard post #1 is located, and also where the detractors who wants to stop our security scheme lives. If we did not have the security guards on duty 24/7, these Mat Rempits could just as easily come into our neighborhood and cause trouble.
So again, I believe this 24/7 security scheme is already showing its benefits to us by keeping bad elements out. Rest assured that we will continue to find ways to improve on the security scheme. Whatever inputs you have, please feel free to direct it to us. Have a great weekend.
Security Update (28 Nov 2008)
I'm sure by now all of you would have noticed that Homeguards have started the trial run of their security scheme. There's still many kinks to be worked out so please bear with us. The DJROA security patrol by the other security firm (Wahab) will be terminated by 30th Nov. Homeguards will take over 24/7 as of 1st Dec 2008.
We have also received feedback from some of you on improvements. Thank you for your feedback and suggestions. Please continue to send it to me and I will forward your comments to Homeguards. They are preparing a feedback form which I will forward to all of you once it is ready. That will document down all the areas of improvements that you see.
We have instructed Homeguards that their guards must stop all motorbikes and lorries/vans going in to our zone and take down the riders particulars (I/C or driver's licence) and address that they are going to. This will hopefully reduce the snatch thieves from coming into our zone. We have ordered a guard house cabin to be installed at road SS22/35. It should be there within the next week or so. We will write to TNB to apply for electricity cable to be connected to the guardhouse so that we can install the electronic boomgates in the near future.
The drums blocking up road 33 will very soon be painted red and white. It will be filled with water to make it heavy thus difficult to move aside. We will be lighting up the two guard post. The two residents living nearest to the guard post have kindly agreed to let us temporary tap electricity from their house. All the residents support and cooperation in these matters are very much appreciated.
Home guards have now registered a dedicate mobile number for you to call in case of emergency. The Damansara Jaya Homeguards emergency number to call is +6016 284 8798. Please key this into your mobile. This mobile phone will be held by the supervisor on duty and passed on to the next shift's supervisor. So if I were you, this is the 1st number I will call in case of emergency.
If any incidents (big or small) do happen to you or you see happen in our zone, please report it immediately to the Call Center. It will be recorded down and we will use that to find ways to further improve on our security scheme. Please realize that security is everybody's business. And by having guards 24/7 at two post does NOT guarantee that incidences will never happen. It can and probably will still happen but hopefully much reduced. The guards are merely a deterrent. Please do not blame or threaten to sue Homeguards or DJROA should any untoward thing still happen. You will still need to take all the precautions to secure and protect your properties and families. For your information, even with Homeguards now in place, I am proceeding with installing CCTV and further upgrading my house alarm system. I seriously believe that there can never be sufficient security. So please let's all take extra care always.
As for the detractors living in the first two houses of road 31, we have already got a ear full from the first house since the guard post went up on Tuesday, including us being called Communist! We think they will find ways to try and sabotage our plans. So we need to thread carefully. It's very unfortunate that we have such people living among us. They are still not willing to discuss a compromise with us. All they want is for us to stop implementing any forms of security in front of their house. We'll take one step at a time to deal with them. What I'd like to ask from the rest of you supporters is if any of you know them well enough, help us convince them that what we are doing is for the good of the whole neighborhood. We would like to work with them to find an amicable compromise to our security scheme. We understand their concerns. But we'd also like them to understand our need for a better security. We are willing to discuss it with them constructively and maturely. So I appeal to anyone who can help to please come forward.
As of today, we have 370+ residents that have paid up. Thank you to all those who have paid up. Your support is very much appreciated and I hope your support will be long term. We will make sure that Homeguards do a good job so that we will all be pleased with the results and continue to support this scheme. We are still short of our collection target as there was 573 residents said they will support this security scheme. Now that everyone can see that we are serious about starting this security scheme, I hope the rest of those who have not paid up will now voluntarily pay the RM150 membership fee for each quarter. Homeguards are continuing to go around to campaign for people to sign up. This weekend, the committee will once again go to the houses who have not paid up to encourage them to sign up. We truly need your support for this to succeed. So please extend your full cooperation to the people who are making the effort to go around campaigning.
On the car stickers, we have decided that we will give 2 stickers FOC to each household supporting us. Non supporters will NOT be given nor sold stickers. If you want to buy extra for your other cars (i.e. which is parked in your driveway daily), the cost will be RM2 each. If you want to buy for your regular visitors (mom, dad, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts, friends, regular guests, business associates, customers, etc), the cost is RM5 ea. We are charging more as this is a way for our zone to make a little bit of money to help defray the infrastructure cost. We seek your understanding and of course we trust your honesty to declare which type of stickers you are purchasing. You can pay by check to "DJROA" for the stickers.
The car stickers will be controlled and your car registration will be pre-written on it. It will be the first two numbers that is written on the form that you have filled up. If you want to purchase extra, please inform Candy Lim by return mail. Please bear with us as it will take time to get this organized. We hope to get the stickers ready before end of next week.
We welcome all constructive comments and feedback as to how we can further improve on our security. So please send them to me. Please have patience and bear with us as we try to find the best solutions for our security scheme. Remember, we can't function without your support, especially monetary support! Have a great weekend.
We have also received feedback from some of you on improvements. Thank you for your feedback and suggestions. Please continue to send it to me and I will forward your comments to Homeguards. They are preparing a feedback form which I will forward to all of you once it is ready. That will document down all the areas of improvements that you see.
We have instructed Homeguards that their guards must stop all motorbikes and lorries/vans going in to our zone and take down the riders particulars (I/C or driver's licence) and address that they are going to. This will hopefully reduce the snatch thieves from coming into our zone. We have ordered a guard house cabin to be installed at road SS22/35. It should be there within the next week or so. We will write to TNB to apply for electricity cable to be connected to the guardhouse so that we can install the electronic boomgates in the near future.
The drums blocking up road 33 will very soon be painted red and white. It will be filled with water to make it heavy thus difficult to move aside. We will be lighting up the two guard post. The two residents living nearest to the guard post have kindly agreed to let us temporary tap electricity from their house. All the residents support and cooperation in these matters are very much appreciated.
Home guards have now registered a dedicate mobile number for you to call in case of emergency. The Damansara Jaya Homeguards emergency number to call is +6016 284 8798. Please key this into your mobile. This mobile phone will be held by the supervisor on duty and passed on to the next shift's supervisor. So if I were you, this is the 1st number I will call in case of emergency.
If any incidents (big or small) do happen to you or you see happen in our zone, please report it immediately to the Call Center. It will be recorded down and we will use that to find ways to further improve on our security scheme. Please realize that security is everybody's business. And by having guards 24/7 at two post does NOT guarantee that incidences will never happen. It can and probably will still happen but hopefully much reduced. The guards are merely a deterrent. Please do not blame or threaten to sue Homeguards or DJROA should any untoward thing still happen. You will still need to take all the precautions to secure and protect your properties and families. For your information, even with Homeguards now in place, I am proceeding with installing CCTV and further upgrading my house alarm system. I seriously believe that there can never be sufficient security. So please let's all take extra care always.
As for the detractors living in the first two houses of road 31, we have already got a ear full from the first house since the guard post went up on Tuesday, including us being called Communist! We think they will find ways to try and sabotage our plans. So we need to thread carefully. It's very unfortunate that we have such people living among us. They are still not willing to discuss a compromise with us. All they want is for us to stop implementing any forms of security in front of their house. We'll take one step at a time to deal with them. What I'd like to ask from the rest of you supporters is if any of you know them well enough, help us convince them that what we are doing is for the good of the whole neighborhood. We would like to work with them to find an amicable compromise to our security scheme. We understand their concerns. But we'd also like them to understand our need for a better security. We are willing to discuss it with them constructively and maturely. So I appeal to anyone who can help to please come forward.
As of today, we have 370+ residents that have paid up. Thank you to all those who have paid up. Your support is very much appreciated and I hope your support will be long term. We will make sure that Homeguards do a good job so that we will all be pleased with the results and continue to support this scheme. We are still short of our collection target as there was 573 residents said they will support this security scheme. Now that everyone can see that we are serious about starting this security scheme, I hope the rest of those who have not paid up will now voluntarily pay the RM150 membership fee for each quarter. Homeguards are continuing to go around to campaign for people to sign up. This weekend, the committee will once again go to the houses who have not paid up to encourage them to sign up. We truly need your support for this to succeed. So please extend your full cooperation to the people who are making the effort to go around campaigning.
On the car stickers, we have decided that we will give 2 stickers FOC to each household supporting us. Non supporters will NOT be given nor sold stickers. If you want to buy extra for your other cars (i.e. which is parked in your driveway daily), the cost will be RM2 each. If you want to buy for your regular visitors (mom, dad, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts, friends, regular guests, business associates, customers, etc), the cost is RM5 ea. We are charging more as this is a way for our zone to make a little bit of money to help defray the infrastructure cost. We seek your understanding and of course we trust your honesty to declare which type of stickers you are purchasing. You can pay by check to "DJROA" for the stickers.
The car stickers will be controlled and your car registration will be pre-written on it. It will be the first two numbers that is written on the form that you have filled up. If you want to purchase extra, please inform Candy Lim by return mail. Please bear with us as it will take time to get this organized. We hope to get the stickers ready before end of next week.
We welcome all constructive comments and feedback as to how we can further improve on our security. So please send them to me. Please have patience and bear with us as we try to find the best solutions for our security scheme. Remember, we can't function without your support, especially monetary support! Have a great weekend.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Another Snatch Thief Case on road 27
This afternoon around 2:30pm I was in my master bedroom and suddently heard a scream of a lady from outside of the road. My instinct told me it must another snatch thief. Immediately I looked out of the window and not to my surprise I saw a Malay guy carrying a handbag running to his accomplice on a bike and speed away. I tried to note down the plate number unfortunately it was too far. How I wish the boom gate is up already so that all these snatch thieve will be blocked at the entrance.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Another Membership Drive Coming Saturday!!
Hi all, there will be another membership drive this saturday (Nov 8) from 10am-12n at the park. For those of you who have yet to sign up and pay, kindly bring along your cheque book that day.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Security Update (31 October 2008)
Dear All,
Here's more progress. Attached is the form from Homeguards for you to fill up. They need your details for their database and I need you to fill in and signed form as proof to MBPJ that we have 85% of residents supporting us on the security scheme. The forms will also be available tomorrow at the meet-the-resident forum. Please bring along your check books as we are starting the collections from now.
Remember, we are starting this from ground zero so please have patience while we work out all the kinks. Our target is to kick off the security on 1st December.
For those of you who can make tomorrow (Saturday) and want to find out more information, please come to the field along Jalan SS22/31. We'll be there from 10.00am to 12.00pm to answer whatever questions you may have and to hear feedback and suggestions from you.
For those of you who can't make it tomorrow but would like to pay up, you can do the following:
Here's more progress. Attached is the form from Homeguards for you to fill up. They need your details for their database and I need you to fill in and signed form as proof to MBPJ that we have 85% of residents supporting us on the security scheme. The forms will also be available tomorrow at the meet-the-resident forum. Please bring along your check books as we are starting the collections from now.
Remember, we are starting this from ground zero so please have patience while we work out all the kinks. Our target is to kick off the security on 1st December.
For those of you who can make tomorrow (Saturday) and want to find out more information, please come to the field along Jalan SS22/31. We'll be there from 10.00am to 12.00pm to answer whatever questions you may have and to hear feedback and suggestions from you.
For those of you who can't make it tomorrow but would like to pay up, you can do the following:
- Fill up the form and sign it.
- Prepare the check of RM150.00 to Sri Lara Joint Security Services Sdn Bhd.
- Drop it off to my house: 143, Jalan SS22/27. My wife is home most of the time, otherwise leave it in my mail box.
- Alternatively you can also drop it off to Lim Ann Liang's house, which is next to mine: 145, Jalan SS22/27.
Mr Yew have confirmed that Mr Thomas, the head of police for DJ will also be there so good time for you to meet him. In case of emergency he's the best person to call, other than ASP Ranjit so be there to get his number. Our MP Mr Tony Pua have not confirmed if he can come but will be good PR for him if he shows up.
Below are more incidents that happened around us while we wait for the security scheme to kick off. We just have to get this going for everyone's sake!
FYI, I will be away for 2 weeks from next week so you will not hear from me. I will be worried and thinking of my house when I'm gone!
I look forward to meeting you tomorrow. Let's make this a reality to better protect our neighborhood.
Thank you.John Chen
(1) Happened today 31 October 2008 - It has happened again just ten minutes ago (10.30am Friday 31st Oct). An Indonesian maid was walking back home alone from a clinic, passing along jalan SS22/27 towards the playground. As she passed in front of my house 40 SS22/27 she was stopped by 2 young Malay boys in a white small car ( possibly a Kancil), one of them came down on the pretext of asking for direction. He grabbed her necklace and her shouting for help was too late for nearby residents to do anything as by then the car had sped away towards the main road near the primary school (22/33). We therefore need this road to be closed completely and have just 2 entry and exit roads for this area.
(2) Happened on 24 October 2008 - I would like to share this with you and alert all in our neighborhood. At 7.40pm on Friday 24 Oct 08 as I got out of my car in front my house in SS 22/35 two Malay/Indonesian guys in a motorcycle rode past me and suddenly the pillion rider in a faded pink T-shirt jumped out of the motorcycle and dashed towards me carrying a knife. I threw my handbag away and he grabbed it and they sped off towards the field. All was over in less than one minute! I hope we can speed up the boomgate before someone else falls prey.
(3) Week of 13 October 2008 - Narrated by John Chen. I was walking along Jalan 22/27A dropping off the DJROA leaflet circular to the houses last Sunday with my wife when I met a gentleman about to leave his house. He told me just a few days ago, his car a Renault MPV which was parked in front of his house was vandalized. In a matter of minutes, the thieves took off with some parts of his car, probably to sell to workshops. What more can I say??!! If we had the security guards 24/7 the thieves would have thought twice before coming into this neighborhood.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Another Attempted Robbery on SS22/35
I would like to share this with you and alert all in our neighbourhood
At 7.40pm on Friday 24 Oct 08 as I got out of my car in front my house in SS 22/35 two Malay/Indonesian guys in a motorcycle rode past me and suddenly the pillion rider in a faded pink T-shirt jumped out of the motorcycle and dashed towards me carrying a knife.
I threw my handbag away and he grabbed it and they sped off towards the field. All was over in less than one minute!
I hope we can speed up the boomgate before someone else falls prey.
Thks.
Sally
At 7.40pm on Friday 24 Oct 08 as I got out of my car in front my house in SS 22/35 two Malay/Indonesian guys in a motorcycle rode past me and suddenly the pillion rider in a faded pink T-shirt jumped out of the motorcycle and dashed towards me carrying a knife.
I threw my handbag away and he grabbed it and they sped off towards the field. All was over in less than one minute!
I hope we can speed up the boomgate before someone else falls prey.
Thks.
Sally
Security Update (25 October 2008)
Dear All,
I have more good news to share. We've had a number of security meetings with DJROA committee headed by Mr Yew to thrash out all the nitty gritty details of our arrangement and also with the security company of choice, Sri Lara Joint Security Services Sdn Bhd (a.k.a. Homeguards).
Here's the deal:
I have more good news to share. We've had a number of security meetings with DJROA committee headed by Mr Yew to thrash out all the nitty gritty details of our arrangement and also with the security company of choice, Sri Lara Joint Security Services Sdn Bhd (a.k.a. Homeguards).
Here's the deal:
- DJROA will be signing a master contract with them to provide security services to 3 zones of DJ for a start. Our zone will be called zone B.
- You the residents will sign an individual contract with Homeguards. They will be going around to recruit each of the households. So please give them your corporation. There will be a form for you to fill and sign. I will also use that form to show to MBPJ that we've got the 85% supporters so please help to fill it up and sign it.
- They will collect RM50/mth for the fees from each of you. And it will be on quarterly basis. So each of you will have to pay RM150 every 3 months. Please make checks payable to "Sri Lara Joint Security Services Sdn Bhd".
- The bulk of the RM50 will go towards paying for their guards services. A small portion of that will be for our zone's development cost, i.e. to build the guardhouse, boomgates, CCTV, etc. The portion will vary depending on the number of household joining us. If less households joins us, then there will be less money for development. Only once we have collected sufficient funds for development then only will we be able to build the said items. As you can see money will be very tight. But we hope to be able to manage within it. If not I will come back to you to ask for more. As we had assured all we want to keep the cost to as low as possible and this RM50/mth is the bear minimum for now.
- Our targeted date to start the security is 1st December 2008. If we can collect sufficient funds earlier and if the guards are available, we may start off even earlier. But 1st Dec will be the latest date to start.
- We plan to start with 9 guards on 3 shifts x 8 hour per shift, i.e. 1 guard each per entrance and 1 guard to patrol. Once we have collected sufficient funds, we will hire more guards. Our optimum is 15 guards, i.e. 2 guards per entrance and 1 guard on patrol i.e. 5 guards on duty per 8 hour shift. We will slowly build towards that number depending on how many supporters we have paying up.
- All guards are local. Home guards will provide a manager as head of security who will be the main point of contact for all residents. He will be based at DJROA center daily on 8 hour shifts to manage all the guards and also to liaise with the residents on issues pertaining to security. Each shift will have a supervisor who will be in charge of the guards. That supervisor will also be going around to collect the payments from you 1 month before it is due. Please make it a habit to pay him just like how you've been paying the newspaper man every month.
- We will be provided with 3 emergency contact numbers. First line of contact in case of emergency is a dedicated mobile number of the supervisor on duty who will be able to response the fastest as they are on site. The second number is the emergency Call Center number. And the third number is the Manager's mobile number. All these emergency numbers will be displayed at the guard house.
- Once you sign up, a small plate will be displayed on your gate. So this way we will know who are supporters and who are not. I hope to see that plate on ALL the gates of this neighborhood.
- We will also be making car stickers for the supporters of our zone. It will be similar to the other zones differentiated by color. How much it will cost you we are still working that out and will inform shortly.
- To make our neighborhood more secure we will close up the small road SS22/33 leading to SS22/48 with a boomgate. It can be open during emergencies. The guards will have the keys to the padlock. We will also close up the two small back lanes, i.e. between roads SS22/29 and from the LDP leading to SS22/32.
- We are organizing a meeting for all of you to meet the management of Homeguards this 1st November, i.e. next Saturday at the field on Jalan SS22/31 from 10.00am to 12.00noon. All the details will be available at this meeting.
- I will be there with my sub-committee so you can come and give us feedback. We have also invited the head of police for Damansara Jaya Mr Thomas and the MP of our area Mr Tony Pua to be there. If they show up you can ask them whatever questions you want. Mr Yew Cheng Hoe, Chairman of DJROA will also be there to show support. So please bring along your check book as we will start the recruitment drive on that day. We will ask you to fill up and sign the form on the spot.
- We are reviewing the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) with them right now and will circulate it once we have confirmed it. That will contain all the rules and regulations, do's and don't that will govern the guards and also the inconveniences that we can expect.
Remember, if it inconveniences us, it will also inconvenient the would be robbers, car jackers, snatch thieves, etc and hopefully they will leave our neighborhood alone. So please be there on 1st November to ask all the questions you want. - And for those who had pledge monetary support for this scheme, we will be requiring you to issue a check for your pledge amount to "DJROA". Two of you had approached me to say they want to keep their identity confidential and asked to pay to me directly. While I will not encourage it, but if you trust me with your money I will collect it from you and pass it on to DJROA on your behalf. Just let me know. Thanks very much for your contribution. It will certainly help to build up the development fund.
- As this scheme is supported by DJROA, I encourage all of you to sign up as DJROA members too. It only cost RM20/year or RM80 for lifetime membership. DJROA is a non profit association and survives on the membership fees and contributions of the residents. The main thing you get out of joining DJROA as a member is this security scheme that they have helped set up for all of us. Another benefit is the use of the clubhouse facility. The main purpose of DJROA is to foster friendship among the residents. They organize various events for you where you can get to know your neighbors. In the pipeline which Mr Lim Ann Liang and I are involve in as DJROA EXCO committee is the annual dinner and golf tournament (I'm the organizer!), both to be held in March 2009. The membership forms will be there on 1st November. I have now joined as a lifetime member. To join is voluntary, so I encourage you to join to show your support for your neighborhood association.
Attached is the circular that we will be dropping into your mail boxes. It is for those that I can't reach via email. We will also drop it off into all the non supporters/detractors mail boxes. So I am expecting a few of them to show up on 1st November probably to protest what we are doing. If you are there, I hope that more of you can also help us talk to them that this security scheme is a good thing for all the people living in this neighborhood, the inconveniences is for our safety and the small price to pay is worth it. Some of the detractors we had met had been quite adamant against this and some were quite rude to us about it. We met all kinds but we still persevered. Thank goodness the majority of you are supporters and have given us the moral support to get to where we are today. We truly appreciate all your kind words and support.
I must thank you all of for having the patience to stay with us and believing in us that we can get this done. It has been a very long road (4 months) with unbelievable number of obstacles. We've got a great bunch of people in our sub committee working tirelessly and dedicating their time to helping see this security scheme to success. I must thank all of them for their efforts. The only thing thing we get out of this is to see our neighborhood a safer place to live in for all of us.
I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all our Hindu friends a very Happy Deepavali! May the light shine bright for us and show us a way out of this economic mess that this world is in.
All the very best.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Security Update (10 Oct 2008)
Dear All,
There's been some positive progress since my last email circular to all. It's now coming together and we can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. We had another meeting last night with the DJROA committee and am happy to report the following:
Firstly, Mr Yew Cheng Hoe has returned as Chairman of DJROA after much cajoling by the committee and the residents. Ms Tai (Secretary) and Mr Bernard (Treasurer) too have withdrawn their resignation and are back on the committee.
In addition, both Mr Lim Ann Liang and myself have been co opted into DJROA's EXCO committee. So we will now be your voice on issues related to our neighborhood. We hope to be able to help make this neighborhood a better and safer place for all of us to live in.
Mr Yew have come up with a new proposal, i.e. to use another security firm called Sri Lara Joint Security Services S/B a.k.a. Homeguards. Their credentials includes managing security services for housing projects in TTDI, Bukit Bandaraya, Kelana Jaya, Taman Mayang and Dataran Prima. Mr Yew is proposing to use one firm for the whole of DJ, if possible. The economies of scale will bring the cost down.
The advantage of this Homeguards is that they will undertake to collect the payments for the security services directly from all of you the residents. They will have a "marketing team" to go around to promote and sign up the residents into the scheme. They will provide security guards 24/7 stationed at the key entry/exit points as per our earlier proposal. With this scheme, it in a way solves the problem of DJROA having to manage a huge amount of money collected from the residents for the security services which has been the stumbling block all along.
DJROA have also agreed to open a separate bank account for our zone which is what we've been pushing for all the while. We will manage the funds collected from all of you for our section of the neighborhood's security use. What that means is that you will be required to make 2 payments, one to the security firm for the guards services and the second payment to DJROA for the infrastructure cost (DJROA membership, boomgates, guardhouse, etc) which will be managed by us, the zone's sub committee to DJROA. Exactly how much to be paid we will need to work it out and will get back to you. It is in all our interest to keep cost low.
Next steps is we are meeting up with Homeguards this Saturday at 4.00pm for further discussion on the services that they can offer to us. We will negotiate the best possible deal. We will get them to give us a final proposal which I will share with all of you. We will also work out the estimated infrastructure cost and will let you know how much to pay to DJROA. We hope to have at least the security guards running around by November. Boomgates and guard houses will follow.
So it looks like there will be a happy ending soon. I'm very happy that DJROA is playing an active role in helping to solve the security issues of our neighborhood and for the whole of DJ. Kudus to them.
Looks like some major hurdles have been resolved. Please continue to have patience. We are all hoping to get this moving ASAP. I look forward to positive support from all of you soon.
Thank you.
There's been some positive progress since my last email circular to all. It's now coming together and we can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. We had another meeting last night with the DJROA committee and am happy to report the following:
Firstly, Mr Yew Cheng Hoe has returned as Chairman of DJROA after much cajoling by the committee and the residents. Ms Tai (Secretary) and Mr Bernard (Treasurer) too have withdrawn their resignation and are back on the committee.
In addition, both Mr Lim Ann Liang and myself have been co opted into DJROA's EXCO committee. So we will now be your voice on issues related to our neighborhood. We hope to be able to help make this neighborhood a better and safer place for all of us to live in.
Mr Yew have come up with a new proposal, i.e. to use another security firm called Sri Lara Joint Security Services S/B a.k.a. Homeguards. Their credentials includes managing security services for housing projects in TTDI, Bukit Bandaraya, Kelana Jaya, Taman Mayang and Dataran Prima. Mr Yew is proposing to use one firm for the whole of DJ, if possible. The economies of scale will bring the cost down.
The advantage of this Homeguards is that they will undertake to collect the payments for the security services directly from all of you the residents. They will have a "marketing team" to go around to promote and sign up the residents into the scheme. They will provide security guards 24/7 stationed at the key entry/exit points as per our earlier proposal. With this scheme, it in a way solves the problem of DJROA having to manage a huge amount of money collected from the residents for the security services which has been the stumbling block all along.
DJROA have also agreed to open a separate bank account for our zone which is what we've been pushing for all the while. We will manage the funds collected from all of you for our section of the neighborhood's security use. What that means is that you will be required to make 2 payments, one to the security firm for the guards services and the second payment to DJROA for the infrastructure cost (DJROA membership, boomgates, guardhouse, etc) which will be managed by us, the zone's sub committee to DJROA. Exactly how much to be paid we will need to work it out and will get back to you. It is in all our interest to keep cost low.
Next steps is we are meeting up with Homeguards this Saturday at 4.00pm for further discussion on the services that they can offer to us. We will negotiate the best possible deal. We will get them to give us a final proposal which I will share with all of you. We will also work out the estimated infrastructure cost and will let you know how much to pay to DJROA. We hope to have at least the security guards running around by November. Boomgates and guard houses will follow.
So it looks like there will be a happy ending soon. I'm very happy that DJROA is playing an active role in helping to solve the security issues of our neighborhood and for the whole of DJ. Kudus to them.
Looks like some major hurdles have been resolved. Please continue to have patience. We are all hoping to get this moving ASAP. I look forward to positive support from all of you soon.
Thank you.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Update on 25 Sept 2008
Update on 25 Sept 2008
Dear All,
We have gone back to the acting president of DJROA Mr Toh and have proposed to help him solve some of his committee resignation issues.
Lim Ann Liang has volunteered to take over DJROA's Treasurer position. And Mr Yow Lop Siaw has volunteered to take over the Secretary position. Both positions became vacant following resignations. We believe this will be a win-win solution for our security initiative and also for the good of DJROA. I congratulate both of them for selflessly volunteering to take on those important and time consuming positions for the association and in so doing taking a bullet on the behalf of all of us for our security project. It is now up to the acting president to talk to his committee and get their consensus for the appointments. Let's wait and see what they say.
From day one of this project, we planned to tie up with DJROA for obvious reasons. We needed a credible body, help us open a bank account and facilitate the finances. And DJROA is the resident's association so it makes perfect sense. We can help them as much as we want them to help us. I hope they will see that by Lim and Yow volunteering it is a win-win for both parties. We should know from DJROA their decision by next week. All of us in my committee and I'm sure all of you are also looking forward to the implementation. The sooner the better for all our sake.
Meanwhile, crime continues to happen. Here's some emails that I received over the past few days:
(1) Tuesday 16 Sept 2008 -
"As discussed earlier, my Perdana V6 car parked outside the house gate along Jalan SS22/33 was driven away by a thief on last Tuesday morning.
I was woken by the sounding of my car alarm at around 5.15 am and peeped through the window upstairs to see the car being driven away very quickly followed immediately behind by a white Kancil car. The thief managed to dismantle the car alarm system. I was furious to see my car being stolen before my very own eyes and yet powerless to do anything.
The police came half an hour later and I reported the theft to Damansara Mutiara Pondok Police. But, until today, there is no news about the stolen car. I would not wish this type of theft happening to anyone and the inconvenience caused of a loss of use of the car. Therefore, I would strongly support the immediate installation of a Boomgate for security sake."
(2) Here's a past incident in our neighborhood just related to me -
"My last incident happened sometime in mid 2005. At 11.30pm while my husband, me n bb coming back from town. The mercz was tailing. My husband was not feeling well. But he still noticed that. He also noticed the Mercz stopped outside after we parked our car. But he thought it was our neighbors car, same Mercz silver, always stopping the same place while they waiting for the auto gate to open.
While my husband came out to unlock our front gate, one Malay (maybe Indon) guy holding the long parang pointing to my husband tell my husband to open the house door, and give the car. When he saw me with bb, then he says, just give the wallet enough. But my husband trying to save the old wallet, he got hurt. He horned the car, while the Malay guy and his partner just relax n walked slowly back to the Mercz-Kompressor, WJN 9398, 3 guys.
Then we reported to the DJROA, and police stn. 3 days later we saw the same car near Atria shops. We immediately call the police to check them. But it belongs to an old couple who are bank's lawyers n staying somewhere in Tmn Tun. They were there to have a nice claypot chicken rice."
Please rest assure that we are doing whatever we can to resolve the problems. We will not give up so easily on this project. Not after the amount of time and effort we have invested into it. Stay tuned.
Thank you.
John Chen
P.S. I'd also like to share with all of you some feedback I got as a result of my last week's email. See below. Thank you all for all your great feedback. I apologize I can't put them all into this email which is already pretty lengthy. ____________________________________________________
"Appreciate the update and the very good work put in by you and the Committee. I am quite sure the matter pertaining to the signatories can be worked out. Maybe there should be 3 approvals given before any payment is made by DJROA under this new account:-
1) You as President of this Committee (we need a name for the Comm ?)
2) Your Deputy /Asst or Treasurer representing this Committee
3) DJROA President
I am sad to hear that there are rumblings within DJROA resulting in the resignation of so many Committee members. Its will be a real setback for all residents here. Anyway, all the best and thanks again for the great effort."
_____________________________________________________
"Why can't the DJROA run the project? Just get enough committed members appointed into the DJROA and run it from there. Get a gated community 'sub committee' appointed. All this my project your project stuff is not going to get us anywhere, unless someone wants to start a splinter group. Focus on the task at hand, not wage some kind of tuft war. Afterall, this is a thankless job."
____________________________________________________
"I have been waiting impatiently for the boom-gate to be implemented but from the sound of it, it will protract for a while if we, who are residents of DJ, are subjected to the 'constitution' of DJROA. Does it mean that those who did not pay the rm300 need not be subjected to it? My wife paid the membership without my knowledge (not that we cant afford it) and I still question her what do we get out of it. Her reply was use of amenities provided by DJROA?????????????
I stay along rd 32 and my back is the LDP.........guards on bikes that whisk by does me no good.......besides all they can see from the gate is my garage. I cannot understand the attitude of the current (or outgoing ) committee and their interests, personal or otherwise.
This is OUR project. WE PAY and we START.
I am sure accountability of the bank account would be in good hands since you and your committee volunteered to do this project in the first place. Trust is not an issue. As they say, fraud always needs 2 hands to clap.
Do not delay. Buy a 2 dollar company and change the name later. Open the account using your committee's volunteers as signatories. The DJROA bikers can still whisk around until the project is ready (or whenthe contributors security terms expire) We need not need to ask DJROA to refund the membership fee but for the fact that they are now the show stopper, would they be willing to be accountable for any mishaps that may occur to any of us who stay in our part of DJ? You have my vote to begin now."
_________________________________________________________
"Thank you for your response. Just tell me when and I will personally go round to help and collect for you. My friends in the neighbourhood are equally supportive."
_________________________________________________________
"Thank you for the update. I am surprised with this development with DJROA, we were not told from the start that we have to come under DJROA and have toopen the bank account under their name. I support the idea to form our own association and have our own bank account under our own association name managed by our own committee. In this way ourown committee will be accountable to our own members. We should also call a general meeting among all members who are interested to attend to elect thecommittee and for us to know who our elected committee members are."
_________________________________________________________
"As always I appreciate the news from you. Having read your message briefly please let me give my comments based on my experience serving in committees:
1. The DJROA is a voluntary organisation which is registered by the Registrar of Societies and it has a constitution which all members, being residents of DJ must follow.
2. Mr. Yew is right that he cannot simply open a bank account. It is not as easy as that.
3. Much as I appreciate your dedication and hard work you must understand that you need a legal status to open a bank account, collect and dispense money, You could run foul of the law if you have no legal status to collect money. You could operate under the umbrella of the DJROA as a say, Security Sub-Committee. This is easier and more convenient because the organisational structure and legal status are there. Alternatively, you could form a new Association, maybe to be called DJROA Security Services. This could be a registered business controlled by and your team or another organization registered under the Societies Act.Without any legal status no bank would allow an account to be opened for the purpose you have set out to achieve.
4. If I were you never consider a business which could give you lots of problems if you could not collect enough money for expenses and you are also personally liable for any debts or liabilities. You do not want to become a bankrupt just because you are rendering a service to residents out of the goodness of your heart.
5. The most practical thing to do is get the Association to set up a security sub-committee and co-opt you and interested residents into the committee. In this way everybody in the DJROA Commitee could work together and they are answerable for any shortcomings.
6. As a person who has dealings with businessmen I can assure you it is not easy to collect money. People may want to use a service but payment for it is another matter. How sure are you that residents will pay promptly for services? Have you prepared a budget? If you operate under the umbrella of the Association you can at least be assured of the support of an organisation to collect money from residents.Who is going to bill residents, collect money and pay for bills. If you hire a clerk what happened if that person abscond with money?
7. It will be a shame if your project could not take off because of all these problems. If the President and the other Committee members have resigned, depending on the Association's constitution, members could be co-opted into the Committee and office bearers appointed until the next AGM when they have to stand for election. After a new Committee is organised I suggest that an EGM be called to discuss your proposals for the running of the security. In this way residents cannot claim they were kept in the dark. I certainly want to know your costing.
8. You and your team members have done an excellent job and it is certainly not to make a living because there are better ways to make money. If you need my help to study the DJROA constitution please drop a copy at my mailbox at 40, Jln. SS22/35. I could also help you prepare a budget.
9. Do not forget that you need to go back again to residents for signature and they want to know your budget and your proposed billing. If you are not transparent you may not get the required 85% support.
10. You certainly need the blessings of the Association for the project to take off. We will give you the support but you must follow the legal procedure because we do want to see that your project is successful. It is also good for our peace of mind.
Pardon me for taking the liberty to share my experience with you. I am sad that we all could not work together because of misunderstanding."
_________________________________________________________
"Thank you for the latest information. I will give my full support to form our own association. It may take some time to form but once it is formed I believe we can run things better without referring to the DJROA for any action. As Mr Yew Cheng Hoe and some of his committee members have resigned, DJROA itself may have to settle their own problems before they can have the time for us. Moreover we have the problem of the treasurer not taking up further responsibilities."
_________________________________________________________
"It is never easy to be involved in any organization on voluntary basis and its a thankless job. Its no different for DJROA and our "Boomgate project" for that matter, and that's why I salute you guys who have sacrifice yourselves to do common good. Any organization is as good as its committee members as common members are usually followers and don't give a damn.As for starting a new association, I doubt it will get the blessing of MBPJ as we are all under DJROA.
One option is to create "zones" within DJROA e.g. Zone 1 - area next to Petronas 2 with existing boomgate, Zone 2 - our Area, Zone 3 - SS22A etc. DJROA would have to grant some autonomy to the zones for projects such as ours. By the way, how did our neighbors next to Petronas 2 implemented their boomgate project?"
_________________________________________________________
"Appreciate the explanation. Anyway, DJROA is still the best vehicle to carry on with the project. Otherwise what is DJROA for? Residents' association but not working in the interest of the residents. If the present committee not in favour, let have EGM if necessary. I agree with your earlier approach that this project to be carried out by a sub-committee under DJROA, in Malay we call it 'Jawatankuasa Kecil'.
You know the religious school at the round about in Damansara Utama. It is strictly a people project financed by Muslims contribution from this area. Annual operating cost is more than RM500,000. And has been there for the past 15 yrs. So for a project that will cost RM300,000 is not that scary to handle. Whoever in the committee for the gated project will need to work harder to bring DJROA together, only then you will get the full of support of every residents."
_________________________________________________________
"Thank you for the numerous emails whereby you kept us informed about the progress of the ' boomgate project'. One of the reasons for my initial reluctance to give support for the project was the question of cost. I am a government pensioner and I am not willing sign up, if a big portion of my pension is going towardsprovision of security to myself. In fact I sounded the question of cost to the gentleman who came to promote the idea initially. Therefore kindly let me know in writing the actual commitment I am required to make before I will agree to put my signature on any document you will come up with."
__________________________________________________
"Starting a new association will take a long time and will only further delay the setting up of the boomgate. If the DJROA treasurer is on the way out, why don't we see whether the new treasurer would be open to helping us. In the meantime, we would need to get the support of the acting president and the other remaining committee members if they are going to remain on the DJROA committee for a while. Perhaps DJROA should see your committee as a sub-committee of the association.
So long as the accounts are audited by an independent auditor and are made available to those who have signed up, there should not be any major issues with the disbursement of funds. Incidentally, how did SS22/37 set up their boomgate without going through DJROA?
Benefits of joining DJROA (beyond the offerings of security guards) should be made clear to residents. If there is clear value in joining, there should be no issue on residents joining as DJROA members."
_________________________________________________
"Thanks for update. Hmmm...given DJROA concerns regarding the extension of his liability, which I feel is somewhat unwarranted (they signed up for this, it clearly within their scope & the committee members should know better). if DJROA is not willing to open a bank account,....I suggest we open our own bank account .. call it DJROA II or whatever :), KIV this will pressure DJROA (for better of worse) as they will lose a large chunk of their monthly fee. IMHO we should not be indemnifying DJROA, after all we are/will be part of their responsibilities and thus indemnification would be counter to the original objective of accountability."
__________________________________________________
"Maybe we should just form another association and not join DJROA. This would put pressure on them to be more flexible. In short if the residents abandon them, what would DJROA do?"
__________________________________________________
"Despite all the headache, you have done an excellent job. May be this is just a suggestion. We can agree we are part of the Djora resident association. But this security account is operated independently from the djora account and should have a separate account. May be call it Damansara Jaya SS22 zone (area see map) security account .We might need a letter sign by both committee heads from Djora and the DJ SS22 security zone that this account is not part of the Djora account and is fully responsible by DJ SS22 zone committee....please do what is suitable and you have my full support."
__________________________________________________
Dear All,
We have gone back to the acting president of DJROA Mr Toh and have proposed to help him solve some of his committee resignation issues.
Lim Ann Liang has volunteered to take over DJROA's Treasurer position. And Mr Yow Lop Siaw has volunteered to take over the Secretary position. Both positions became vacant following resignations. We believe this will be a win-win solution for our security initiative and also for the good of DJROA. I congratulate both of them for selflessly volunteering to take on those important and time consuming positions for the association and in so doing taking a bullet on the behalf of all of us for our security project. It is now up to the acting president to talk to his committee and get their consensus for the appointments. Let's wait and see what they say.
From day one of this project, we planned to tie up with DJROA for obvious reasons. We needed a credible body, help us open a bank account and facilitate the finances. And DJROA is the resident's association so it makes perfect sense. We can help them as much as we want them to help us. I hope they will see that by Lim and Yow volunteering it is a win-win for both parties. We should know from DJROA their decision by next week. All of us in my committee and I'm sure all of you are also looking forward to the implementation. The sooner the better for all our sake.
Meanwhile, crime continues to happen. Here's some emails that I received over the past few days:
(1) Tuesday 16 Sept 2008 -
"As discussed earlier, my Perdana V6 car parked outside the house gate along Jalan SS22/33 was driven away by a thief on last Tuesday morning.
I was woken by the sounding of my car alarm at around 5.15 am and peeped through the window upstairs to see the car being driven away very quickly followed immediately behind by a white Kancil car. The thief managed to dismantle the car alarm system. I was furious to see my car being stolen before my very own eyes and yet powerless to do anything.
The police came half an hour later and I reported the theft to Damansara Mutiara Pondok Police. But, until today, there is no news about the stolen car. I would not wish this type of theft happening to anyone and the inconvenience caused of a loss of use of the car. Therefore, I would strongly support the immediate installation of a Boomgate for security sake."
(2) Here's a past incident in our neighborhood just related to me -
"My last incident happened sometime in mid 2005. At 11.30pm while my husband, me n bb coming back from town. The mercz was tailing. My husband was not feeling well. But he still noticed that. He also noticed the Mercz stopped outside after we parked our car. But he thought it was our neighbors car, same Mercz silver, always stopping the same place while they waiting for the auto gate to open.
While my husband came out to unlock our front gate, one Malay (maybe Indon) guy holding the long parang pointing to my husband tell my husband to open the house door, and give the car. When he saw me with bb, then he says, just give the wallet enough. But my husband trying to save the old wallet, he got hurt. He horned the car, while the Malay guy and his partner just relax n walked slowly back to the Mercz-Kompressor, WJN 9398, 3 guys.
Then we reported to the DJROA, and police stn. 3 days later we saw the same car near Atria shops. We immediately call the police to check them. But it belongs to an old couple who are bank's lawyers n staying somewhere in Tmn Tun. They were there to have a nice claypot chicken rice."
Please rest assure that we are doing whatever we can to resolve the problems. We will not give up so easily on this project. Not after the amount of time and effort we have invested into it. Stay tuned.
Thank you.
John Chen
P.S. I'd also like to share with all of you some feedback I got as a result of my last week's email. See below. Thank you all for all your great feedback. I apologize I can't put them all into this email which is already pretty lengthy. ____________________________________________________
"Appreciate the update and the very good work put in by you and the Committee. I am quite sure the matter pertaining to the signatories can be worked out. Maybe there should be 3 approvals given before any payment is made by DJROA under this new account:-
1) You as President of this Committee (we need a name for the Comm ?)
2) Your Deputy /Asst or Treasurer representing this Committee
3) DJROA President
I am sad to hear that there are rumblings within DJROA resulting in the resignation of so many Committee members. Its will be a real setback for all residents here. Anyway, all the best and thanks again for the great effort."
_____________________________________________________
"Why can't the DJROA run the project? Just get enough committed members appointed into the DJROA and run it from there. Get a gated community 'sub committee' appointed. All this my project your project stuff is not going to get us anywhere, unless someone wants to start a splinter group. Focus on the task at hand, not wage some kind of tuft war. Afterall, this is a thankless job."
____________________________________________________
"I have been waiting impatiently for the boom-gate to be implemented but from the sound of it, it will protract for a while if we, who are residents of DJ, are subjected to the 'constitution' of DJROA. Does it mean that those who did not pay the rm300 need not be subjected to it? My wife paid the membership without my knowledge (not that we cant afford it) and I still question her what do we get out of it. Her reply was use of amenities provided by DJROA?????????????
I stay along rd 32 and my back is the LDP.........guards on bikes that whisk by does me no good.......besides all they can see from the gate is my garage. I cannot understand the attitude of the current (or outgoing ) committee and their interests, personal or otherwise.
This is OUR project. WE PAY and we START.
I am sure accountability of the bank account would be in good hands since you and your committee volunteered to do this project in the first place. Trust is not an issue. As they say, fraud always needs 2 hands to clap.
Do not delay. Buy a 2 dollar company and change the name later. Open the account using your committee's volunteers as signatories. The DJROA bikers can still whisk around until the project is ready (or whenthe contributors security terms expire) We need not need to ask DJROA to refund the membership fee but for the fact that they are now the show stopper, would they be willing to be accountable for any mishaps that may occur to any of us who stay in our part of DJ? You have my vote to begin now."
_________________________________________________________
"Thank you for your response. Just tell me when and I will personally go round to help and collect for you. My friends in the neighbourhood are equally supportive."
_________________________________________________________
"Thank you for the update. I am surprised with this development with DJROA, we were not told from the start that we have to come under DJROA and have toopen the bank account under their name. I support the idea to form our own association and have our own bank account under our own association name managed by our own committee. In this way ourown committee will be accountable to our own members. We should also call a general meeting among all members who are interested to attend to elect thecommittee and for us to know who our elected committee members are."
_________________________________________________________
"As always I appreciate the news from you. Having read your message briefly please let me give my comments based on my experience serving in committees:
1. The DJROA is a voluntary organisation which is registered by the Registrar of Societies and it has a constitution which all members, being residents of DJ must follow.
2. Mr. Yew is right that he cannot simply open a bank account. It is not as easy as that.
3. Much as I appreciate your dedication and hard work you must understand that you need a legal status to open a bank account, collect and dispense money, You could run foul of the law if you have no legal status to collect money. You could operate under the umbrella of the DJROA as a say, Security Sub-Committee. This is easier and more convenient because the organisational structure and legal status are there. Alternatively, you could form a new Association, maybe to be called DJROA Security Services. This could be a registered business controlled by and your team or another organization registered under the Societies Act.Without any legal status no bank would allow an account to be opened for the purpose you have set out to achieve.
4. If I were you never consider a business which could give you lots of problems if you could not collect enough money for expenses and you are also personally liable for any debts or liabilities. You do not want to become a bankrupt just because you are rendering a service to residents out of the goodness of your heart.
5. The most practical thing to do is get the Association to set up a security sub-committee and co-opt you and interested residents into the committee. In this way everybody in the DJROA Commitee could work together and they are answerable for any shortcomings.
6. As a person who has dealings with businessmen I can assure you it is not easy to collect money. People may want to use a service but payment for it is another matter. How sure are you that residents will pay promptly for services? Have you prepared a budget? If you operate under the umbrella of the Association you can at least be assured of the support of an organisation to collect money from residents.Who is going to bill residents, collect money and pay for bills. If you hire a clerk what happened if that person abscond with money?
7. It will be a shame if your project could not take off because of all these problems. If the President and the other Committee members have resigned, depending on the Association's constitution, members could be co-opted into the Committee and office bearers appointed until the next AGM when they have to stand for election. After a new Committee is organised I suggest that an EGM be called to discuss your proposals for the running of the security. In this way residents cannot claim they were kept in the dark. I certainly want to know your costing.
8. You and your team members have done an excellent job and it is certainly not to make a living because there are better ways to make money. If you need my help to study the DJROA constitution please drop a copy at my mailbox at 40, Jln. SS22/35. I could also help you prepare a budget.
9. Do not forget that you need to go back again to residents for signature and they want to know your budget and your proposed billing. If you are not transparent you may not get the required 85% support.
10. You certainly need the blessings of the Association for the project to take off. We will give you the support but you must follow the legal procedure because we do want to see that your project is successful. It is also good for our peace of mind.
Pardon me for taking the liberty to share my experience with you. I am sad that we all could not work together because of misunderstanding."
_________________________________________________________
"Thank you for the latest information. I will give my full support to form our own association. It may take some time to form but once it is formed I believe we can run things better without referring to the DJROA for any action. As Mr Yew Cheng Hoe and some of his committee members have resigned, DJROA itself may have to settle their own problems before they can have the time for us. Moreover we have the problem of the treasurer not taking up further responsibilities."
_________________________________________________________
"It is never easy to be involved in any organization on voluntary basis and its a thankless job. Its no different for DJROA and our "Boomgate project" for that matter, and that's why I salute you guys who have sacrifice yourselves to do common good. Any organization is as good as its committee members as common members are usually followers and don't give a damn.As for starting a new association, I doubt it will get the blessing of MBPJ as we are all under DJROA.
One option is to create "zones" within DJROA e.g. Zone 1 - area next to Petronas 2 with existing boomgate, Zone 2 - our Area, Zone 3 - SS22A etc. DJROA would have to grant some autonomy to the zones for projects such as ours. By the way, how did our neighbors next to Petronas 2 implemented their boomgate project?"
_________________________________________________________
"Appreciate the explanation. Anyway, DJROA is still the best vehicle to carry on with the project. Otherwise what is DJROA for? Residents' association but not working in the interest of the residents. If the present committee not in favour, let have EGM if necessary. I agree with your earlier approach that this project to be carried out by a sub-committee under DJROA, in Malay we call it 'Jawatankuasa Kecil'.
You know the religious school at the round about in Damansara Utama. It is strictly a people project financed by Muslims contribution from this area. Annual operating cost is more than RM500,000. And has been there for the past 15 yrs. So for a project that will cost RM300,000 is not that scary to handle. Whoever in the committee for the gated project will need to work harder to bring DJROA together, only then you will get the full of support of every residents."
_________________________________________________________
"Thank you for the numerous emails whereby you kept us informed about the progress of the ' boomgate project'. One of the reasons for my initial reluctance to give support for the project was the question of cost. I am a government pensioner and I am not willing sign up, if a big portion of my pension is going towardsprovision of security to myself. In fact I sounded the question of cost to the gentleman who came to promote the idea initially. Therefore kindly let me know in writing the actual commitment I am required to make before I will agree to put my signature on any document you will come up with."
__________________________________________________
"Starting a new association will take a long time and will only further delay the setting up of the boomgate. If the DJROA treasurer is on the way out, why don't we see whether the new treasurer would be open to helping us. In the meantime, we would need to get the support of the acting president and the other remaining committee members if they are going to remain on the DJROA committee for a while. Perhaps DJROA should see your committee as a sub-committee of the association.
So long as the accounts are audited by an independent auditor and are made available to those who have signed up, there should not be any major issues with the disbursement of funds. Incidentally, how did SS22/37 set up their boomgate without going through DJROA?
Benefits of joining DJROA (beyond the offerings of security guards) should be made clear to residents. If there is clear value in joining, there should be no issue on residents joining as DJROA members."
_________________________________________________
"Thanks for update. Hmmm...given DJROA concerns regarding the extension of his liability, which I feel is somewhat unwarranted (they signed up for this, it clearly within their scope & the committee members should know better). if DJROA is not willing to open a bank account,....I suggest we open our own bank account .. call it DJROA II or whatever :), KIV this will pressure DJROA (for better of worse) as they will lose a large chunk of their monthly fee. IMHO we should not be indemnifying DJROA, after all we are/will be part of their responsibilities and thus indemnification would be counter to the original objective of accountability."
__________________________________________________
"Maybe we should just form another association and not join DJROA. This would put pressure on them to be more flexible. In short if the residents abandon them, what would DJROA do?"
__________________________________________________
"Despite all the headache, you have done an excellent job. May be this is just a suggestion. We can agree we are part of the Djora resident association. But this security account is operated independently from the djora account and should have a separate account. May be call it Damansara Jaya SS22 zone (area see map) security account .We might need a letter sign by both committee heads from Djora and the DJ SS22 security zone that this account is not part of the Djora account and is fully responsible by DJ SS22 zone committee....please do what is suitable and you have my full support."
__________________________________________________
Update on 19 Sept 2008
Update on 19 Sept 2008
Dear all,
My apologies for the silence over the past 2+ week. On one hand we had made some progress so that's good. But on the other hand we also encountered more spanners thrown at us this time from DJROA. They are now reluctant to help us, will tell you more in later part of this email. So it has been challenging and frustrating weeks..
First the good news. The committee have discussed and decided on the companies that we will be working with.
(1) Metro Security Services Sdn Bhd - They provide Napalese guards. BU 7 & 10 are currently using their services and feedback from the Chairman of BU 7&10 is that they have been reliable, and there's lots of synergies. They have the relevant experience and have been accommodating to our negotiations and requests. Details will be revealed later as there might be changes to our implementation plans because of DJROA. They will need 3 weeks lead time from the time we give them the go ahead. We want to get them in as soon as possible. Can't do that until we have collected the monies from all of you to get this project started.
(2) West Mark Alarm & Automation Sdn Bhd - They will provide the boomgate and CCTV hardware and software. Their prices was the lowest, response and service was the best. The MD himself presented and negotiated with us. Dealing with the decision maker made things move faster and smoother. We have full confidence that they can deliver on their promises. And in future if we want to add in security card system, they can provide that too. However, implementation of boomgate and CCTV will done in stages. Priority is to get the security guards at the post first.
(3) MBPJ - They have given us conditional approval for our guard houses. The condition is that we need to get from all of you your signature to show them that we do have the 85% supporters. So what that means is that we will need to go back to each of you to get your signatures. We will do that together at the same time with the collection of the money from each of you. The guard house will be the 4ftx4ftx7ft container type for a start. And in future, once this scheme is successful and you guys feel that we need to upgrade to a permanent and nicer guardhouse and willing to pay for it, then we will do it.
(4) How much will be the Monthly fees? - Well, now with the spanner thrown at us by DJROA, we may need to revise the amount again. We had already worked out an amount that we think would be palatable to all of us and it's actually a little lower than what we had projected. Now we will have to rethink that amount. Please bear with us while we try to resolve the bank account issue first.
Now for the bad news. The president of DJROA Mr Yew Cheng Ho, his secretary and the treasurer have all resigned as of Wednesday (2 days ago). I heard 2 other committee members too have resigned. That's 5 of them! So they are now left with 6 committee members. His reason for resigning is personal and I won't go into the details. If you are interested you go find out yourself.
Our last meeting with DJROA was last night where the Acting President Mr Toh presided over it. The treasurer (who had resigned but will stay on until a replacement is nominated) was there too. Six of us from our committee and two from the SS22/22A security committee was there. The meeting was suppose to have been for us to get back to DJROA if we agree or not to the conditions that Mr Yew had set on us, before they are willing to help us to open a separate bank account for all of us to bank in the monies to and manage the payment.
We were there to revert to them that we are willing to accept their conditions and we wanted to know how fast they can open the bank account for us and give us the name of the account. The key condition is that we must all sign up and be members of DJROA. That was what we were struggling with to accept. However, it turned out in the meeting that the treasurer was very reluctant to help us even after we inform that we accept all their conditions.
His point was that DJROA will not have a say as to how the money will be spent as it is our project and it will be managed by our committee, not theirs. The check signatories must be from DJROA according to the constitution. His concern is that if we were to commit fraud and abuse of the funds, he does not want to held responsible what so ever. Our argument is that the funds usage and approvals will be by a committee and not by any one person. We will have checks and balances to make sure of that, like with any respectable company. Corporate governance is just as important to us too. Infact we are even willing to give DJROA an indemnity letter to absolve DJROA from any liabilities or legal law suits should it arise. He was still not satisfied with it. We told him that when the people volunteered to take on any committee position, it will naturally come with certain responsibilities and he should accept that and find a way to minimize the risk.
Mr Yow from our committee even volunteered his services to be the secretary of DJROA. And we also suggested that we will offer 1 person from our committee and 1 person from SS22/22A to be on the treasury committee, to take over from him when he leaves. Mr Toh said he has to put that suggestion to his committee to decide and will revert by mid of next week. As the meeting was heading no where we left. All the 6 of us from our committee and 2 from SS22/22A's committee left feeling very disappointed with the outcome.
I have now called for a committee meeting this Sunday at 4pm to brainstorm as to what can be other possible ways that we can get this project moving. The most important stumbling block now is to get a bank account opened so that we can go to you to collect the money and get this project off the ground. We may now end up not working with DJROA but go the way of starting our own association. If any of you have any suggestions, please email them to me and I will bring it up with the committee.
Its been 3 long months since we started this project and we've come so far. We will need to keep the momentum up. We do not want all our efforts to go to waste. Please bear with us while we try to find an amicable way to solve this problem. We are all equally disappointed with the impasse and assure you that we will do our best to find the best solution to this. I will keep you informed on the outcome.
Thank you.
John Chen
Dear all,
My apologies for the silence over the past 2+ week. On one hand we had made some progress so that's good. But on the other hand we also encountered more spanners thrown at us this time from DJROA. They are now reluctant to help us, will tell you more in later part of this email. So it has been challenging and frustrating weeks..
First the good news. The committee have discussed and decided on the companies that we will be working with.
(1) Metro Security Services Sdn Bhd - They provide Napalese guards. BU 7 & 10 are currently using their services and feedback from the Chairman of BU 7&10 is that they have been reliable, and there's lots of synergies. They have the relevant experience and have been accommodating to our negotiations and requests. Details will be revealed later as there might be changes to our implementation plans because of DJROA. They will need 3 weeks lead time from the time we give them the go ahead. We want to get them in as soon as possible. Can't do that until we have collected the monies from all of you to get this project started.
(2) West Mark Alarm & Automation Sdn Bhd - They will provide the boomgate and CCTV hardware and software. Their prices was the lowest, response and service was the best. The MD himself presented and negotiated with us. Dealing with the decision maker made things move faster and smoother. We have full confidence that they can deliver on their promises. And in future if we want to add in security card system, they can provide that too. However, implementation of boomgate and CCTV will done in stages. Priority is to get the security guards at the post first.
(3) MBPJ - They have given us conditional approval for our guard houses. The condition is that we need to get from all of you your signature to show them that we do have the 85% supporters. So what that means is that we will need to go back to each of you to get your signatures. We will do that together at the same time with the collection of the money from each of you. The guard house will be the 4ftx4ftx7ft container type for a start. And in future, once this scheme is successful and you guys feel that we need to upgrade to a permanent and nicer guardhouse and willing to pay for it, then we will do it.
(4) How much will be the Monthly fees? - Well, now with the spanner thrown at us by DJROA, we may need to revise the amount again. We had already worked out an amount that we think would be palatable to all of us and it's actually a little lower than what we had projected. Now we will have to rethink that amount. Please bear with us while we try to resolve the bank account issue first.
Now for the bad news. The president of DJROA Mr Yew Cheng Ho, his secretary and the treasurer have all resigned as of Wednesday (2 days ago). I heard 2 other committee members too have resigned. That's 5 of them! So they are now left with 6 committee members. His reason for resigning is personal and I won't go into the details. If you are interested you go find out yourself.
Our last meeting with DJROA was last night where the Acting President Mr Toh presided over it. The treasurer (who had resigned but will stay on until a replacement is nominated) was there too. Six of us from our committee and two from the SS22/22A security committee was there. The meeting was suppose to have been for us to get back to DJROA if we agree or not to the conditions that Mr Yew had set on us, before they are willing to help us to open a separate bank account for all of us to bank in the monies to and manage the payment.
We were there to revert to them that we are willing to accept their conditions and we wanted to know how fast they can open the bank account for us and give us the name of the account. The key condition is that we must all sign up and be members of DJROA. That was what we were struggling with to accept. However, it turned out in the meeting that the treasurer was very reluctant to help us even after we inform that we accept all their conditions.
His point was that DJROA will not have a say as to how the money will be spent as it is our project and it will be managed by our committee, not theirs. The check signatories must be from DJROA according to the constitution. His concern is that if we were to commit fraud and abuse of the funds, he does not want to held responsible what so ever. Our argument is that the funds usage and approvals will be by a committee and not by any one person. We will have checks and balances to make sure of that, like with any respectable company. Corporate governance is just as important to us too. Infact we are even willing to give DJROA an indemnity letter to absolve DJROA from any liabilities or legal law suits should it arise. He was still not satisfied with it. We told him that when the people volunteered to take on any committee position, it will naturally come with certain responsibilities and he should accept that and find a way to minimize the risk.
Mr Yow from our committee even volunteered his services to be the secretary of DJROA. And we also suggested that we will offer 1 person from our committee and 1 person from SS22/22A to be on the treasury committee, to take over from him when he leaves. Mr Toh said he has to put that suggestion to his committee to decide and will revert by mid of next week. As the meeting was heading no where we left. All the 6 of us from our committee and 2 from SS22/22A's committee left feeling very disappointed with the outcome.
I have now called for a committee meeting this Sunday at 4pm to brainstorm as to what can be other possible ways that we can get this project moving. The most important stumbling block now is to get a bank account opened so that we can go to you to collect the money and get this project off the ground. We may now end up not working with DJROA but go the way of starting our own association. If any of you have any suggestions, please email them to me and I will bring it up with the committee.
Its been 3 long months since we started this project and we've come so far. We will need to keep the momentum up. We do not want all our efforts to go to waste. Please bear with us while we try to find an amicable way to solve this problem. We are all equally disappointed with the impasse and assure you that we will do our best to find the best solution to this. I will keep you informed on the outcome.
Thank you.
John Chen
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Another car break-in on 27 Aug 2008 at Jln 22/27A
Comments from an unfortunate resident:
I guess last night was the perfect night for these thieves since it was raining and dark and knowing that no residents would go out for an evening walk.
I'm a resident at SS22/27A and I was also a victim. Last night (27/8/08) at 10.30pm, i went to my car and saw that the left passenger window was smashed. The seat was all wet and my radio was stolen. My dashboard was broken and there was also some blood stain.
I've made police report and according to the police they would do rounds at the area.
Comment from a resident
Dear All,
It goes to show that Criminal are roaming at will. The police are too few to help.We want to help ourselves by gating the community. With arm guards in gold shop and banks, robbery is still happening. It just do not happen in our housing area, it happens every way.
In urban society - not many people care for each other. We want to live a good life, we like to enjoy it alone. We do not need to our neighbour as friends.
In the villages, they all do things together. There was gated community. They recognise every member of the community. They chat with each other and make room in the life for their neighbour. When they see a stranger, they approach them and ask them what the stranger are looking for or could they be of of assistance to the stranger.
When they see bad act, they do not write down the car number and report it to police. They take direct responsibility to stop it, even at the risk of their life. Do we so call"affluent people" wanted to risk our life?. We think that we are all too important and that our money can buy everything.
The answer is NO. No bad strangers will dare to break into cars in kampong - because any kampong folk who become aware of such attempt will not call the police. he will call his good neighbour and confront the culprit and even give out mob justice to them.
Criminal flourish in community that is physical weak - not working as a cohesive physical unit. Criminal prowl on the "rich" because they do not really mind - they fear for their life more. A little knife will scare them to death - they can always buy a new BMW, with insurance etc.
The intention of this mail is to bring to our community the need to do things together and actually live together. Live together means looking out for one another and take risk as a unit.Not counting money and live in different class. We live as one community.
We should form a committee not to address security issue as an isolated case. We should form a community to develop program so we live as a community. Taking responsibility for one another.
Best regards.
John Brian Anthony
It goes to show that Criminal are roaming at will. The police are too few to help.We want to help ourselves by gating the community. With arm guards in gold shop and banks, robbery is still happening. It just do not happen in our housing area, it happens every way.
In urban society - not many people care for each other. We want to live a good life, we like to enjoy it alone. We do not need to our neighbour as friends.
In the villages, they all do things together. There was gated community. They recognise every member of the community. They chat with each other and make room in the life for their neighbour. When they see a stranger, they approach them and ask them what the stranger are looking for or could they be of of assistance to the stranger.
When they see bad act, they do not write down the car number and report it to police. They take direct responsibility to stop it, even at the risk of their life. Do we so call"affluent people" wanted to risk our life?. We think that we are all too important and that our money can buy everything.
The answer is NO. No bad strangers will dare to break into cars in kampong - because any kampong folk who become aware of such attempt will not call the police. he will call his good neighbour and confront the culprit and even give out mob justice to them.
Criminal flourish in community that is physical weak - not working as a cohesive physical unit. Criminal prowl on the "rich" because they do not really mind - they fear for their life more. A little knife will scare them to death - they can always buy a new BMW, with insurance etc.
The intention of this mail is to bring to our community the need to do things together and actually live together. Live together means looking out for one another and take risk as a unit.Not counting money and live in different class. We live as one community.
We should form a committee not to address security issue as an isolated case. We should form a community to develop program so we live as a community. Taking responsibility for one another.
Best regards.
John Brian Anthony
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Another New Crime Cases in Our Neighborhood
Below are feedbacks from residents:
(1) 27 August 2008 - This morning at 4.00am i was awaken by my dogs barking non stop When i looked out the windows i saw 1 chinese guy trying to get into my car after he had smashed the passenger window When i screamed at him his friend who was waiting in an old dark blue proton wira nearby pulled up and they drove off. Thanks to my dogs for making so much noise otherwise i would have lost my car !! This happened in SS22/35 Damansara Jaya. I immediately called ASP Ranjit on the handphone and the police responded very fast ...Believe me within 10 mins the police car came Kudos to them.
(2) 27 August 2008 - I am a resident of Damansara Jaya (SS22/32A). This morning my car window was broken into and I would like to share with you some pictures. Hopefully you can upload them to our boomgate blog. (Please see attachment)
(3) 16 August 2008 - For your information, I was told by the Penang Nasi Kandar manager that on 16th Aug 2008 at around 8pm, another BMW was hijacked outside Magic Wok Restaurant, The car owner was having dinner at the restaurant and when he left, about to get into the car, the hijacker put the knife to his neck. Looking back at all the incidences, we concluded that we all have to be very alert wherever we are be it lonely or busy places. Sad to say, it always happen when we least expect it.
(4) Copied from an email circular -
I was driving along SS2/22, Petaling Jaya going towards Damansara Jaya. This street is totally residential one street off the main road.
About 10 houses in front of me was this young lady walking by a car parked along the grass patch outside one of the terrace houses. As she was reaching the rear end of this clean decent looking Silver Proton Waja, I noticed the engine started and the left rear passenger doors window was being wound down.
Suddenly a man emerged out of the rear passenger doors window his entire torso and making a grab of this lady's handbag!!!! As this man emerged from the car's window, the Silver Proton Waja was pulling out of its parking position slowly not in a hurry with the man from within just dragging the lady and her handbag along until she gave it up!! Then they drove off slowly, no hurry!!!
All the above happened in front of my eyes in less than 30 seconds!!!!!
Her screams and cries did not help! No one came to her rescue in fact a middle age woman ran into her house upon seeing this happening right in front of her house only to come back out to lock her gates after the car has driven away! Do you blame her? The thieves were so bold!!!!
By the time my car reached her, the Silver Proton Waja had turned the corner. She was very shaken but thankfully only slightly hurt her pants were torn as were her slippers, bloody knees, shins, palms and elbows. On the way to the police station, she told me that she had noticed that there were 3 men she identified them as 'brown-skinned' men in the car.
I could not believe my eyes when I saw what was happening thus did not have the instinct to take note of the cars registration number. I've always thought that would be the first thing I would look out in an incident like this but NO I was too shocked simply watching this scene being played out right in front of me!!!
So please beware when you are walking by parked cars with men inside.
(1) 27 August 2008 - This morning at 4.00am i was awaken by my dogs barking non stop When i looked out the windows i saw 1 chinese guy trying to get into my car after he had smashed the passenger window When i screamed at him his friend who was waiting in an old dark blue proton wira nearby pulled up and they drove off. Thanks to my dogs for making so much noise otherwise i would have lost my car !! This happened in SS22/35 Damansara Jaya. I immediately called ASP Ranjit on the handphone and the police responded very fast ...Believe me within 10 mins the police car came Kudos to them.
(2) 27 August 2008 - I am a resident of Damansara Jaya (SS22/32A). This morning my car window was broken into and I would like to share with you some pictures. Hopefully you can upload them to our boomgate blog. (Please see attachment)
(3) 16 August 2008 - For your information, I was told by the Penang Nasi Kandar manager that on 16th Aug 2008 at around 8pm, another BMW was hijacked outside Magic Wok Restaurant, The car owner was having dinner at the restaurant and when he left, about to get into the car, the hijacker put the knife to his neck. Looking back at all the incidences, we concluded that we all have to be very alert wherever we are be it lonely or busy places. Sad to say, it always happen when we least expect it.
(4) Copied from an email circular -
I was driving along SS2/22, Petaling Jaya going towards Damansara Jaya. This street is totally residential one street off the main road.
About 10 houses in front of me was this young lady walking by a car parked along the grass patch outside one of the terrace houses. As she was reaching the rear end of this clean decent looking Silver Proton Waja, I noticed the engine started and the left rear passenger doors window was being wound down.
Suddenly a man emerged out of the rear passenger doors window his entire torso and making a grab of this lady's handbag!!!! As this man emerged from the car's window, the Silver Proton Waja was pulling out of its parking position slowly not in a hurry with the man from within just dragging the lady and her handbag along until she gave it up!! Then they drove off slowly, no hurry!!!
All the above happened in front of my eyes in less than 30 seconds!!!!!
Her screams and cries did not help! No one came to her rescue in fact a middle age woman ran into her house upon seeing this happening right in front of her house only to come back out to lock her gates after the car has driven away! Do you blame her? The thieves were so bold!!!!
By the time my car reached her, the Silver Proton Waja had turned the corner. She was very shaken but thankfully only slightly hurt her pants were torn as were her slippers, bloody knees, shins, palms and elbows. On the way to the police station, she told me that she had noticed that there were 3 men she identified them as 'brown-skinned' men in the car.
I could not believe my eyes when I saw what was happening thus did not have the instinct to take note of the cars registration number. I've always thought that would be the first thing I would look out in an incident like this but NO I was too shocked simply watching this scene being played out right in front of me!!!
So please beware when you are walking by parked cars with men inside.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Update (7th Aug 08) and Another Car Jacking in DJ
I'm happy to report that as of today we've reached the 85% level (583 residents in support out of 689 occupied houses) with only another 50 residents yet to revert.
Congratulations to all who have made this possible and a warm welcome to all the newly signed up residents! Thank you all for your support.
Last night a team of us from our committee met up with our MP for PJ Utara YB Mr Tony Pua, the DJ councillor Mr Michael Soon, and with Mr Billy Wong the Special Assistant to Mr Tony Pua. Mr Yew Cheng Hoe (Chairman of DJROA) and his security committee was also present at the dialog. They were very helpful and provided guidance on how we should prepare our proposal and advised procedure for submitting our application for a gated and guarded neighborhood to MBPJ.
Next Monday, Mr Billy Wong will submit it for us with a cover note from YB Mr Tony Pua. And our proposal will be on DJROA's letterhead. We agreed that we will proceed concurrently our submission and execution plans, i.e. to proceed with our guardhouse and boomgates plans the moment we are ready to roll. There is an understanding from MBPJ that they will not demolish any guardhouses and boomgates that's already erected.
We were informed that MBPJ is in the process of revamping the laws to allow for gated and guarded neighborhoods. How long that will take is anybody's guess.
As for monetary pledges, so far we have received pledges totalling RM15,000. Thank you to everyone who have very kindly offered to donate. This will certainly help towards offsetting some of the startup cost. If any of you would like to pledge any amount, please drop me a return email. Any amount you'd like to pledge will be very much appreciated by all. Like I mentioned earlier, if we have more funds in the kitty, it will allow us hire better quality guards and buy more security equipments. It will also help those residents who supports our project but honestly unable to afford to pay fully for whatever reasons.
Last night I was informed that there's yet again another car jacking incident in DJ. This time it happened at 9+pm at SS22/39 opposite the field, which is actually quite brightly lit. The owner of the Honda Accord came back, parked his car outside his house and was pounded on by 3 robbers with parang. They were waiting at the field for residents to return home. He did not fight back and was not harmed. They took his car.
I can't stop thinking that such incidences could have been avoided or minimized if the neighborhood was gated and guarded. We should not have to expose our lives to such dangers. We have to protect our loved ones and property against such violent intruders. We have no other choice.
Please always be alert and take extra precaution when you are driving in and out of you home. The robbers will succeed if you let your guard down.
Congratulations to all who have made this possible and a warm welcome to all the newly signed up residents! Thank you all for your support.
Last night a team of us from our committee met up with our MP for PJ Utara YB Mr Tony Pua, the DJ councillor Mr Michael Soon, and with Mr Billy Wong the Special Assistant to Mr Tony Pua. Mr Yew Cheng Hoe (Chairman of DJROA) and his security committee was also present at the dialog. They were very helpful and provided guidance on how we should prepare our proposal and advised procedure for submitting our application for a gated and guarded neighborhood to MBPJ.
Next Monday, Mr Billy Wong will submit it for us with a cover note from YB Mr Tony Pua. And our proposal will be on DJROA's letterhead. We agreed that we will proceed concurrently our submission and execution plans, i.e. to proceed with our guardhouse and boomgates plans the moment we are ready to roll. There is an understanding from MBPJ that they will not demolish any guardhouses and boomgates that's already erected.
We were informed that MBPJ is in the process of revamping the laws to allow for gated and guarded neighborhoods. How long that will take is anybody's guess.
As for monetary pledges, so far we have received pledges totalling RM15,000. Thank you to everyone who have very kindly offered to donate. This will certainly help towards offsetting some of the startup cost. If any of you would like to pledge any amount, please drop me a return email. Any amount you'd like to pledge will be very much appreciated by all. Like I mentioned earlier, if we have more funds in the kitty, it will allow us hire better quality guards and buy more security equipments. It will also help those residents who supports our project but honestly unable to afford to pay fully for whatever reasons.
Last night I was informed that there's yet again another car jacking incident in DJ. This time it happened at 9+pm at SS22/39 opposite the field, which is actually quite brightly lit. The owner of the Honda Accord came back, parked his car outside his house and was pounded on by 3 robbers with parang. They were waiting at the field for residents to return home. He did not fight back and was not harmed. They took his car.
I can't stop thinking that such incidences could have been avoided or minimized if the neighborhood was gated and guarded. We should not have to expose our lives to such dangers. We have to protect our loved ones and property against such violent intruders. We have no other choice.
Please always be alert and take extra precaution when you are driving in and out of you home. The robbers will succeed if you let your guard down.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Latest Update (30 July 2008)
We are happy to report that as of today we have 80% of the residents supporting us.
Here's a quick summary:
Number of supporters - 553/693 (80%)
Number of non supporters - 25/693 (3%)
Number of residents yet to revert - 87/693 (12%)
What ever the final number, we have sufficient supporters for us to move forward with this security project!
Here's a quick summary:
Number of supporters - 553/693 (80%)
Number of non supporters - 25/693 (3%)
Number of residents yet to revert - 87/693 (12%)
What ever the final number, we have sufficient supporters for us to move forward with this security project!
Another Attempted Robbery last night (30 July 2008)
Last night there was another attempted robbery, this time at house 10, Jalan SS22/32. The husband and wife came back at around 1am. When he got down from his car, 2 robbers with parang and gun shouted at him (in Chinese dialect) that it's a robbery and attacked him. The robbers had tailed him home in a RED PROTON WIRA. The man out of instinct fought back against the robbers. Fortunately for him he was not injured, just shaken.
His wife screamed for help. That woke up the neighbors who turned on the lights and some came out to look/assist. The robber fired the gun into the air and took off without getting anything. The police was called and they arrived within 10 minutes, which is very good. It shows that the police are improving on their response time.
When I related that incident to another resident, he told me he got back home at 12.45pm last night (this morning) and saw a red car following behind him. He didn't notice what make of car it was as he was on the mobile. He was suspicious and did not open the house gate nor get down from his car when he reached outside his home. The red car slowed down behind him and then slowly drove away. He saw two decently dressed men in the car who glanced at him as they passed by.
Mr Yew has confirmed that the red car has been spotted around DJ a number of times and the police are also keeping an eye out for it. Those robbers have striked before.
The said resident at house 10, Jalan SS22/32 is one that did not want to sign up as a supporter of our security project. We will be going there to see his wife and hopefully this time they will support our project for a safer neighborhood.
So here's a warning to all of you. Please watch out for a Red Proton Wira (or any suspicous car) and also motorbikes that is cruising around our neighborhood at night, especially for those who come back late at night. It could be the robbers tailing you, surveying the neighborhood and looking for their next target. If you see such a car, please call the police (ASP Ranjit - 019 550 5033) and report it to him right away. They are on the police wanted list.
Do let me know too so that I can keep all updated and informed on the situation. I do not wish for any untoward thing to happen to any of our residents.
So please be alert always and do take extra precaution when you are returning home, what ever time it is. Our neighborhood is not safe.
I am pushing hard to get this project up and running as soon as possible. There are still hurdles that we need to address. With the help of everyone and the blessings of the all mighty up there, we will have our gated and guarded neighborhood up and running before too long.
Remember, safety is all our concern. Let's keep and eye out for each other.
His wife screamed for help. That woke up the neighbors who turned on the lights and some came out to look/assist. The robber fired the gun into the air and took off without getting anything. The police was called and they arrived within 10 minutes, which is very good. It shows that the police are improving on their response time.
When I related that incident to another resident, he told me he got back home at 12.45pm last night (this morning) and saw a red car following behind him. He didn't notice what make of car it was as he was on the mobile. He was suspicious and did not open the house gate nor get down from his car when he reached outside his home. The red car slowed down behind him and then slowly drove away. He saw two decently dressed men in the car who glanced at him as they passed by.
Mr Yew has confirmed that the red car has been spotted around DJ a number of times and the police are also keeping an eye out for it. Those robbers have striked before.
The said resident at house 10, Jalan SS22/32 is one that did not want to sign up as a supporter of our security project. We will be going there to see his wife and hopefully this time they will support our project for a safer neighborhood.
So here's a warning to all of you. Please watch out for a Red Proton Wira (or any suspicous car) and also motorbikes that is cruising around our neighborhood at night, especially for those who come back late at night. It could be the robbers tailing you, surveying the neighborhood and looking for their next target. If you see such a car, please call the police (ASP Ranjit - 019 550 5033) and report it to him right away. They are on the police wanted list.
Do let me know too so that I can keep all updated and informed on the situation. I do not wish for any untoward thing to happen to any of our residents.
So please be alert always and do take extra precaution when you are returning home, what ever time it is. Our neighborhood is not safe.
I am pushing hard to get this project up and running as soon as possible. There are still hurdles that we need to address. With the help of everyone and the blessings of the all mighty up there, we will have our gated and guarded neighborhood up and running before too long.
Remember, safety is all our concern. Let's keep and eye out for each other.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Beware of snatch thieves !!
Recently there were a few feedbacks from residents around this area that they were being tailed by motoryclist at night on their way home. There were two riders on the motorcycle and they normally off their light. Just be extra careful on your way home. Do check around before exiting your car or open your compound gate.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Encouragement from Dato Seri Eric Lim
All Volunteers,
Indeed the residents in Damansara Jaya should be thankful to all of you who have initiated this concept of a Gated and Guarded Community. I notice you guys have sacrificed your weekends to do house-calling to get more support so as to implement this proposed safe-zone for Damansara Jaya residents in the quickest possible time. I strongly believe that as a community, our first priority is to be able to live without fear or threats from external forces, hence, this proposed project should be viewed positively and administered by professionals. Once this is implemented smoothly, not only our families and properties will be protected, even our properties will be sought after with better values.
Safety and Security is not just 70%, 80% or even 90% of support from residents of Damansara Jaya. We live here and to put a STOP to the frequent robberies and even there could be RAPE OR MURDER, who knows. I do hope all, every house-owners should come forward to lend the support and make our home safe. I am very positive once implemented and run by professionals, we can be proud that our community is protected and robberies will be a thing of the past.
Please do give your support, we need all to participate. Why let some one take charge when we can all play our roles together.
All the very best.
GOD BLESS.
Regards
DATO’ SERI ERIC LIM
Indeed the residents in Damansara Jaya should be thankful to all of you who have initiated this concept of a Gated and Guarded Community. I notice you guys have sacrificed your weekends to do house-calling to get more support so as to implement this proposed safe-zone for Damansara Jaya residents in the quickest possible time. I strongly believe that as a community, our first priority is to be able to live without fear or threats from external forces, hence, this proposed project should be viewed positively and administered by professionals. Once this is implemented smoothly, not only our families and properties will be protected, even our properties will be sought after with better values.
Safety and Security is not just 70%, 80% or even 90% of support from residents of Damansara Jaya. We live here and to put a STOP to the frequent robberies and even there could be RAPE OR MURDER, who knows. I do hope all, every house-owners should come forward to lend the support and make our home safe. I am very positive once implemented and run by professionals, we can be proud that our community is protected and robberies will be a thing of the past.
Please do give your support, we need all to participate. Why let some one take charge when we can all play our roles together.
All the very best.
GOD BLESS.
Regards
DATO’ SERI ERIC LIM
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Another Attempted Robbery Happened Yesterday !!
Just yesterday night around 10pm+, 2 motorbikes were tailing a victim who was on his way to visit his friend who stayed on road SS22/27. When the victim stopped his car in front of the gate of his friend, he noticed that there were 2 motorbikes ridden by 4 malay men slowing down behind him. The bikes head lights were switched off. That arouse his suspicion and he immediately engaged his gear to 'R' (getting ready to knock these guys. One of the bike rode to the end of our road and make a u turn and as soon as this bike approaches his car, he saw the 2 men from the other bike ran towards him with parang. Immediately, he reversed and sped off. In the midst of driving away, he knocked one of the guys lightly.
We were told that these same gang attacked on another person somewhere in our area after failing to strike on him. It had been a busy night for police as there were already few reports with a break in at SS22/36 (road along the playground).
We were told that these same gang attacked on another person somewhere in our area after failing to strike on him. It had been a busy night for police as there were already few reports with a break in at SS22/36 (road along the playground).
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Statistics of Crime in this area
House Broke In - 18 cases
Snatched Thieves - 22 cases
Car Hijacked - 19 cases
*base on feedback from residents
Snatched Thieves - 22 cases
Car Hijacked - 19 cases
*base on feedback from residents
Monday, July 14, 2008
Update as of 14 July 2008
Here's the latest statistics for your information:
- Number of houses supporting our proposal - 457 houses out of a total of 730 houses (63%)
- Number of houses not supporting, vacant houses, rented houses not supporting, etc - 52 houses (7%)
- Number of houses still not signed up or responded - 221 houses (30%)
Frequently Asked Questions
Gating and Guarding our Neighborhood
Frequently Asked Questions (Updated 18 July 2008)
Q. Where will the security check points be set up?
A. Two security check points with boomgates will be set up, one at junction of SS22/35 & SS22/48 and SS22/31 & SS22/41. The small lane at junction SS22/33 & SS22/48, we will try to close up permanently. We will also put up grills along the back lane of Jalan SS22/29 and the walk path of Jalan SS22/32.
Q. How do you propose to manage the traffic going in and out without causing too much inconvenience and traffic jams?
A. There will definitely be inconveniences and every resident has to be prepared to accept that. Whilst there are inconveniences to the residents, there will also be inconveniences to the criminals targeting you and me.
The plans are still being discussed and to be drawn up. The basic concept is that we will issue “Resident” car stickers to the residents at nominal charge. Residents who do not join will not be given any stickers. With the stickers, the cars will be allowed free access into and out of the security check points.
All other vehicles upon entry will be given a “Guest”A4 size card to be placed on the vehicle’s dashboard, and to be returned upon exit. Motorcyclist will be given a tag to wear around their neck at all times. Their vehicle’s registration number and number of people in the vehicle will be noted down. Between 10pm and 6am, all non resident vehicles will be stopped and particulars of the driver, vehicle, and house they are visiting will be noted down before they are allowed to enter.
Pedestrians will be allowed to enter and exit freely except between the times of 10pm to 6am.
Q. How many guards will there be and what are their roles?
A. Our current proposal is to hire 12 guards, i.e. 6 guards each on a 12 hours shift. There will be 3 guards at each checkpoint. Every 30 mins, two of the guards will take turn to patrol the neighborhood on their motorcycles. So at any one time, there will always be 2 guards at each check point.
This will be further discussed in our committee meeting and will most likely change. We will endeavor to find the best possible solution at the best possible cost. Stay tuned for more updates on this in the near future.
Q. What about the newspaper men, gas delivery, mailmen, contractors, direct mailers, etc? Will they all be allowed to enter freely?
A. For the people who come in to our neighborhood daily during the day time to deliver goods or services (e.g. newspapermen, mailmen, gas delivery, pizza delivery, trash disposal collectors, MPPJ, meter readers from TNB and Syabas, mobile market, etc), so long as they are in uniform, here on daily basis or regularly enough to be recognized by the guards, they will be allowed access in and out. But the date and time of entry will be noted.
As for contractors and their workers, they will have to register each of them and will be given a daily pass. No workers will be allowed to stay overnight at the construction site. They will all have to leave by sun down, returning the daily pass.
We plan to deny access to the people hired to drop direct mailers into our mailboxes.
Frequently Asked Questions (Updated 18 July 2008)
Q. Where will the security check points be set up?
A. Two security check points with boomgates will be set up, one at junction of SS22/35 & SS22/48 and SS22/31 & SS22/41. The small lane at junction SS22/33 & SS22/48, we will try to close up permanently. We will also put up grills along the back lane of Jalan SS22/29 and the walk path of Jalan SS22/32.
Q. How do you propose to manage the traffic going in and out without causing too much inconvenience and traffic jams?
A. There will definitely be inconveniences and every resident has to be prepared to accept that. Whilst there are inconveniences to the residents, there will also be inconveniences to the criminals targeting you and me.
The plans are still being discussed and to be drawn up. The basic concept is that we will issue “Resident” car stickers to the residents at nominal charge. Residents who do not join will not be given any stickers. With the stickers, the cars will be allowed free access into and out of the security check points.
All other vehicles upon entry will be given a “Guest”A4 size card to be placed on the vehicle’s dashboard, and to be returned upon exit. Motorcyclist will be given a tag to wear around their neck at all times. Their vehicle’s registration number and number of people in the vehicle will be noted down. Between 10pm and 6am, all non resident vehicles will be stopped and particulars of the driver, vehicle, and house they are visiting will be noted down before they are allowed to enter.
Pedestrians will be allowed to enter and exit freely except between the times of 10pm to 6am.
Q. How many guards will there be and what are their roles?
A. Our current proposal is to hire 12 guards, i.e. 6 guards each on a 12 hours shift. There will be 3 guards at each checkpoint. Every 30 mins, two of the guards will take turn to patrol the neighborhood on their motorcycles. So at any one time, there will always be 2 guards at each check point.
This will be further discussed in our committee meeting and will most likely change. We will endeavor to find the best possible solution at the best possible cost. Stay tuned for more updates on this in the near future.
Q. What about the newspaper men, gas delivery, mailmen, contractors, direct mailers, etc? Will they all be allowed to enter freely?
A. For the people who come in to our neighborhood daily during the day time to deliver goods or services (e.g. newspapermen, mailmen, gas delivery, pizza delivery, trash disposal collectors, MPPJ, meter readers from TNB and Syabas, mobile market, etc), so long as they are in uniform, here on daily basis or regularly enough to be recognized by the guards, they will be allowed access in and out. But the date and time of entry will be noted.
As for contractors and their workers, they will have to register each of them and will be given a daily pass. No workers will be allowed to stay overnight at the construction site. They will all have to leave by sun down, returning the daily pass.
We plan to deny access to the people hired to drop direct mailers into our mailboxes.
Q. Are we looking into a total security or just only to deter the car robbery?
A. We are looking into security for our neighborhood to reduce the most common neighborhood crimes such as car jacking, burglaries, robberies, snatch thieves and other petty crimes.
Q. How good and honest are the security guards?
A. We cannot guarantee that the security guards themselves will not the ones to commit the crime. Even banks and jewelry shops have experienced inside jobs. But they still need security guard services. What we will do is to scrutinize the guards and conduct police background check on each of them before we take them on.
We will constantly monitor them and engage with them. Like all human beings and employees, they will need supervision, monitoring, counseling and of course motivation to perform. If we show concern for them, hopefully they will reciprocate and do a better job for us.
Q. How certain are you that we will be protected against criminals?
A. No one or company will ever dare guarantee that a crime will never occur in any gated or guarded community. We need to be realistic with our expectations of what a security system can do for us. Crime will always happen, even in banks, museums, and other very high security buildings and areas.
However, what we aim to achieve with a gated and guarded community is that we will make it more inconvenient for criminals and this will certainly deter and reduce criminal incidences. Of course common sense has to prevail. We still have to be vigilant and pay attention to the security of our immediate property, family and self.
There is no such thing as a fool proof security system. So let’s all be realistic. We will improve the system as we go along. Certainly there will be loopholes when we start. We will improve on it as we learn. None of us committee are security experts. We are doing this voluntarily. But we all share the same concern about safety for our family and our self. And we’re sure you are too.
What we need is the understanding and willingness of the residents to support this idea, support us as we implement it, and support us as we find the right way to maintain it. It is for the benefit of everyone.
This will be run as a non profit organization. We do request that everyone participates on a voluntary, cordial, respectful and constructive manner.
Q. How do we communicate with the guards monitoring at the boom gates in times of emergencies?
A. When you spot a crime or suspicious behaviour, immediately call the DJROA’s hotline and report it. The telephone number will be provided to all members who have signed up.
The guards are equipped with walkie talkies will immediately be informed to watch out. Guards will also be immediately dispatched to the location to check on the report and provide assistance. Details of event will be noted down and reported back to the person in charge of security from the committee.
Also, you should always have the police’s phone number ready and programmed into your phone’s speed dial (Damansara Police station – 03 7956 2222 or ASP Ranjit – 019 550 5033).
Q. You said we need to get 85% consent of the residents to kick start the project but why 85% and not less?
A. The Selangor housing & property board and the local authorities allow guard houses to be built according to specified guidelines if there are 85% or more consent from the residents. Read more about it at http://www.rehda.com/bulletin/08/bulletin-0802.pdf. In there you will also find some information on do’s and don’t as stipulated by the authorities.
At the moment as of 14 July 2008, we already have 63% supporting us. So each of you can help us achieve our target sooner by talking to your neighbours who have not signed up to join us in this crusade.
Q. If we cannot secure 85% consents from the neighborhood, can we put up guard houses at the road / roads that have 85% consents?
A. We would like to get the project started as soon as possible, maybe when we have reached a critical mass of say 70% where it becomes affordable for participating residents. Once we get the project running, hopefully the residents who had not signed up will see the value in it and can be coaxed into signing up.
Q. Is what you plan to implement legal?
A. Many other housing neighborhoods have set up similar security check points, e.g. Bandar Utama, Subang Jaya, USJ, Ara Damansara, Bandar Sri Damansara, etc. The truth of the matter is they are actually breaking the law. Under the Street, Drainage and Building Act they are not allowed to obstruct public roads. However, for the moment, the authorities are allowing the gates to remain while councils and state government discuss whether or not to legalize the gated community system.
The Selangor housing and property board have also setup guidelines for a gated and guarded neighborhoods which we are mindful off. We will write to them to inform them of our plans. Read more about it at
http://www.rehda.com/bulletin/08/bulletin-0802.pdf.
Quoted from the NST article that appeared on 27 June 2008:
“PJ mayor Datuk Mohamad Roslan Sakiman said the council is looking at the feasibility of setting up a gated community system in non-gated neighborhoods. The council needs to discuss the technicalities with the newly appointed councilors, he said. He and Subang Jaya council president Datuk Adnan Md Ikhsan said the issue of gated communities had been discussed at the state level, and the councils were awaiting further instructions. "For the time being we will allow the gates to remain," Mohd Roslan said.”
(http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/Streets/Friday/Stories/2277614/Article/index_html)
We will certainly not let that be a hindrance to our plans for a gated and guarded neighborhood. Who knows how long the state government will take to come up with a decision. Meanwhile our lives are at stake.
We will proceed with our plans once we have the necessary support from the residents. We have the support of a few influential resident VIPs; among them is Dato’ Seri Eric Lim. He has been actively advising and supporting this initiative and will certainly help us should we run into problems.
Also for your information, we will be engaging the support of our newly elected MPs, Tony Pua and Dr Cheah once we have a more concrete execution plan.
Most important is that we need every one of the residents to come out in support of this plan should there be a need to tell the authorities who tries to block our plans.
Q. Are you using the existing DJROA’s security company or guards to manage the boomgates?
A. We are currently evaluating a few options and will make a decision in due time. With more supporters, we will be able to afford to hire a better quality security company. It all depends on how many supporters we are able to get. Of course it is in our best interest to keep this project going for the long term and constant checks on the performance of the guards will be done by the committee. Constructive feedback from the residents will also be useful.
Q. Is this going to be managed by DJROA?
A. Partially yes. Mr Yew Cheng Hoe, Chairman of DJROA says they can assist us by managing the disbursement of the funds. A separate account will be setup from the rest of the DJROA members. A check and balance system will be setup so that everything will be transparent and above board.
The security guards maybe hired from the same security company that DJROA is using as there could be economies of scale and the guards will watch out and help each other should an emergency arise.
Our working committee is looking into the cost vs benefit and will come up with a proposal that may recommend other security firms too.
The actual management of this whole security project will be by our committee. A society or organization will eventually be registered and committee members to manage it will be elected by the residents.
Q. What's going to happen to the money I had already paid to DJROA for the current security scheme?
A. DJROA will refund the outstanding amount back to us. They will then start a new and separate account just for our section of the neighbourhood. They will help with the disbursement of funds; however it will be the responsibility of the committee to see to the collection. The account books will be open to any resident at any time to scrutinize. We will also send out an annual account statement to all the residents. Remember this is a non-profit project.
Q. How much do I have to pay and when do I pay?
A. We are targeting to bring the cost down to a reasonable level. At the moment we are looking at around RM60-70 per month per household. The cost will depend on how elaborate a security system we will eventually implement. It will be implemented and upgraded in stages, e.g. CCTV could be implemented in the next stage as it would be an expensive proposition. As our plans progress and see a need to make further improvements to the system, we may need to go back to you the residents to make further contributions.
Also the collection may be done on annual basis. All payments will be made to DJROA. Each road will have a nominated representative who will be in charge of collecting the fees from the residents who have signed up but not paid up.
Q. My house is a small terrace house, do I pay less?
A. No, it will be by per house irregardless of the type of house. If you own or live in 2 houses, then you will have to pay for 2 houses. We will not discriminate by size of house, size of land, number of occupants, number of cars, renting or owner occupied, etc. That would make it too difficult for us to manage. We seek your understanding in this matter.
Q. When will your project kick off?
A. We would like to kick off this project as soon as we reach a critical mass of 70%. We believe we will reach that soon and hope to have this up and running before Q4 of this year. There are still many obstacles that we need to overcome, including recruiting more members to reach our 85% target and managing detractors who not only won’t support this project but may even resort to sabotage it.
Q. Why should I subscribe to your security scheme?
A. You will enjoy greater peace of mind knowing that there are 24 hours security guards monitoring all the movements in and out of this neighbourhood for suspicious characters. Should you experience a break-in, security assistance will arrive much sooner than the police. The value of your house will certainly appreciate. You will have peace of mind when you sleep at night when you are away and your love ones are left at home. Based on feedback from other areas with similar security systems and arrangements (boomgates), security within such areas has improved considerably.
Q. What about those who refuse to contribute?
A. There will of course be some residents who will oppose our security idea. Some may not oppose but also may not contribute. Some tells us they are only renting the house and staying here temporally. Some houses are shared by groups of students or workers. We will try to engage with them to convince them that it is certainly worth paying for that safety and extra peace of mind.
For those houses that join, they will be given a DJROA badge that will be fixed to their gate. Houses without the badge are those who are not contributing. So hopefully when they see so many houses contributing, they too will see it in them to join in this good cause which will benefit all residents of our wonderful neighbourhood.
It is our objective to make it as affordable as possible so that the cost of joining will not be used as the excuse for not joining.
Q. Where can I get more information about what you are doing?
A. Go to our blog (http://djboomgate.blogspot.com/) where you’ll find all the past email circulars and information.
Q. Who should I contact if I want to sign up?
A. To sign up we need the following information from you: Name, Address, Mobile and Email. Send it to Safeguarddj@gmail.com or just call Mrs Chen at +6017 641 9101 and she will take down your particulars. If you have any questions or comments, please send it to the said email address.
You can also contact any of the committee members who will be happy to take your particulars.
Q. Who are your committee members?
A. The following people have volunteered their time and energy to help toward this worthy cause. We are all doing it out of necessity as we care for the safety of our family and for the protection of our properties. A number of the committee members are victims. The rest of us are not waiting to become victims. This is a non-profit project so there’s no monetary benefit to any one of us.
Lim Ann Liang - Jalan SS22/27
John Chen - Jalan SS22/27
Sharon Poh - Jalan SS22/27
Carolyn Peh - Jalan SS22/27
Jenny Leong - Jalan SS22/27
Chan Kien Fatt - Jalan SS22/27
Josephine Yeong - Jalan SS22/27
Freddie So - Jalan SS22/27
Francis Rasiah - Jalan SS22/27
Teresa Choon - Jalan SS22/29
Tan Seng Kiat - Jalan SS22/29
Stephanie Shim - Jalan SS22/29
Taranjeet Singh - Jalan SS22/29
Yow Lop Siaw - Jalan SS22/29
As you can see the bulk of the people who started this campaign lives along 2 roads. We need to expand this and get in committees from the other roads too. More residents will be roped in as committee members as our project progresses. We also hope for more volunteers to come forward and assist us in any way possible.
If you are being approached by anyone to signup, please be nice to them. If you see them walking around the neighborhood soliciting for more members, you can ask them for latest updates. Don’t forget to give them words of encouragement and thank them for what they are trying to do for you.
This is truly a thankless job so be happy that these people are willing to sacrifice their time and energy for this cause that will benefit the whole neighborhood.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Statistics of Crime in this area
Base on some feedbacks from residents in this area, below stastics of crimes in the past months:
Snatched Thieves - 15
House Broke In - 18
Car Hijacked - 19
Snatched Thieves - 15
House Broke In - 18
Car Hijacked - 19
Monday, July 7, 2008
Update of the Boom Gate Campaign
As of today, we have managed to gather a support of 43% out of the 730 houses in this neighborhood. However according to Selangor Housing and Property Board, for existing housing like ours, we need to have at least 85% of the residents to agree for us to be able to apply to the state government for approval. Read more about it at: http://www.rehda.com/bulletin/08/bulletin-0802.pdf
So we are still far from our target of 85% for this plan of ours to work. Talk to your neighborhood now. If they have not showed their support, it's not too late to do so. Just drop us a mail at lim.jmpr@gmail.com
So we are still far from our target of 85% for this plan of ours to work. Talk to your neighborhood now. If they have not showed their support, it's not too late to do so. Just drop us a mail at lim.jmpr@gmail.com
Saturday, July 5, 2008
What is more IMPORTANT than our family welfare and security !!
Quote from a resident who stay on road SS22/27A:
".....I fully support the proposal of having a gated community in our neighborhood. Our family's welfare and security which is now under threat, is DEFINITELY worth more than RM70.00 per month. With this in mind,It is my fervent hope that other residents can come out strongly to support this scheme"
".....I fully support the proposal of having a gated community in our neighborhood. Our family's welfare and security which is now under threat, is DEFINITELY worth more than RM70.00 per month. With this in mind,It is my fervent hope that other residents can come out strongly to support this scheme"
Friday, July 4, 2008
More House Broke In Cases !!
Story from a resident who stay on road SS22/31:
"Security in DJ has turned very bad. My house was broken into in May. Despite having a car in the house, dog and alarm, that did not deter the burglars from tearing/ripping down my window and grill. Lucky no one was at home.I was told by the police, during that day, 3 other houses were broken into. In the past week, there were about 15 -20 cases.
Date of incident: 13 May 2008
Time of incident: 12.00pm (Once my alarm is activated, a call will be patched to my mobile phone)
Items taken: Watches, notebooks, ipod, ipod speakers, back up drives.
Interesting observation: They did not take my passport, loose cash amounting to 20-40 Ringgit and liquor"
"Security in DJ has turned very bad. My house was broken into in May. Despite having a car in the house, dog and alarm, that did not deter the burglars from tearing/ripping down my window and grill. Lucky no one was at home.I was told by the police, during that day, 3 other houses were broken into. In the past week, there were about 15 -20 cases.
Date of incident: 13 May 2008
Time of incident: 12.00pm (Once my alarm is activated, a call will be patched to my mobile phone)
Items taken: Watches, notebooks, ipod, ipod speakers, back up drives.
Interesting observation: They did not take my passport, loose cash amounting to 20-40 Ringgit and liquor"
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Another Car is gone !!
When is this going to end?? What happen to our society now? This morning another CRV went missing from the car porch of a house on Jalan SS22/39. Owner woke up and found her CRV gone and her gates wide open and the control box near the gates was dismantled. I was advised to put a pad lock on the auto gate before sleep every night since the crime is very rampant thesedays!!
Two more roberries again in our neighborhood !!
A resident of Jalan SS22/32 was robbed of her hand bag yesterday right outside her house by to 2 men on a motorbike during the day time. She had just returned from the bank. In the scuffle she sustained some injuries and still lost her handbag, money, mobile phone, etc to the robbers. She is one of the supporters of this security idea of ours.
Another case also happened on SS22/32. A resident woke up this morning to find one of their Honda CRV stolen. It is sad to hear that all these nasty incidence happening in our neighborhood. How can we get our peaceful neighborhood back? We need more poeple to come and support our gated security project. Only with more support from the residence can this project be carried out as soon as possible. PLEASE talk to your neighbors to see if they have signed up or not. If not please do so by e-mail us at lim.jmpr@gmail.com.
Another case also happened on SS22/32. A resident woke up this morning to find one of their Honda CRV stolen. It is sad to hear that all these nasty incidence happening in our neighborhood. How can we get our peaceful neighborhood back? We need more poeple to come and support our gated security project. Only with more support from the residence can this project be carried out as soon as possible. PLEASE talk to your neighbors to see if they have signed up or not. If not please do so by e-mail us at lim.jmpr@gmail.com.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Peace of mind comes at a price
An article from NST, Friday, 27 June 2008
PETALING JAYA: Concerned over rising crime rates, residents of many housing estates are taking security into their own hands and installing security gates and hiring guards to patrol the streets.
But it does not come cheap, and the worse part is they are actually breaking the law. Under the Street, Drainage and Building Act they are not allowed to obstruct public roads.And for the moment, the authorities are allowing the gates to remain while councils and state government discuss whether or not to legalise the gated community system. Bandar Sri Damansara residents association paid about RM15,000 for boom gates and to hire security six years ago.
Association president Ravindran Raman Kutty said: "Residents have to pay about RM50 a month. The problem is that not all are paying for the security coverage. If everyone paid we could reduce the charge to RM30."He said the housing estate, with a population of 60,000, is divided into two sectors. Those in the higher density areas pay less. "Some residents have their own private security guards as well," he said.
Guards at Bandar Utama checking motorists entering and leaving the neighbourhood.
He said MBPJ has issued a notice to remove the boom gates, "but the ruling is not being enforced yet because our local assemblyman and MPs are looking at the situation. We hope MBPJ will introduce by-laws on the gated community system soon."Bandar Utama residents' association chairman Datuk Manpal Singh said about RM50,000 was spent to install 15 boom gates. A close-circuit television system was also been set up. Residents pay about RM40 a month."We do not want to be a gated community, but this is the only way we can deal with the increase in crime. The system is not foolproof, but it acts as a filter," he said.
PJ mayor Datuk Mohamad Roslan Sakiman said the council is looking at the feasibility of setting up a gated community system in non-gated neighbourhoods.The council needs to discuss the technicalities with the newly appointed councillors, he said.He and Subang Jaya council president Datuk Adnan Md Ikhsan said the issue of gated communities had been discussed at the state level, and the councils were awaiting further instructions. "For the time being we will allow the gates to remain," Mohd Roslan said.Nine areas in USJ have adopted the gated community system. Residents' association president P.C. Yeoh said the ranges from RM30 to RM100 a month depending on the area. He said the Municipal Council issued guidelines on the system. "At least 80 per cent of the residents have to agree." Adnan said: "We will see in the next two to three months what the state government decides."
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