Councils need to clean up their act

SELANGOR Ruler Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah gets many complaint letters and e-mails from the rakyat and patiently reads them all before sending them to the relevant parties for follow-up action.

Many of the complaints are sent to His Royal Highness out of desperation after their pleas elsewhere were ignored.

These are not surat layang (poison-pen letters), but genuine grouses as the writers leave their names, addresses and phone numbers.

On one occasion, a woman complained that her divorce proceedings had dragged on for seven years with no ruling. That had robbed her of her youth and hindered her chances of remarrying.

There were also complaints that divorce and distribution of wealth cases in the syariah courts were delayed due to petty reasons, the Sultan revealed in a previous interview.

That was then.

Fast forward to 2025 – e-mails from the rakyat still reach the office of the Selangor Ruler, but their major grievance is about the state’s worsening cleanliness.

It is ironic that the country’s most developed state has to grapple with this problem. It’s the kind of complaint that one would expect to hear in Kelantan.

The Sultan of Selangor, understandably, has publicly expressed his frustration with the state’s worsening cleanliness.

One Bahasa Malaysia news portal aptly used the word “muak” to emphasise His Royal Highness’ anger. This message should jolt every municipal corridor in the state, especially the state-owned KDEB Waste Management, which is entrusted with maintaining Selangor’s cleanliness.

Royal remarks are rarely delivered lightly; they come only when frustration has reached a point where silence is negligence.

Anyone living in Selangor knows these concerns are not new. They simply underscore something the public has felt for years: the system responsible for keeping the state clean is not working as it should.

The question is not whether KDEB works – thousands of tonnes of waste are collected daily, and the logistical scale is enormous.

The question is why, despite its resources and mandate, Selangor’s cleanliness remains inconsistent, uneven and in many areas, visibly deteriorating.

The problem is that KDEB relies on multiple subcontractors, each varying in capacity, efficiency and incentives.

When performance is measured by contract fulfilment rather than environmental outcomes, you inevitably get a system where rubbish eventually gets collected, but not necessarily when or how, as it should.

The ordinary rakyat do not care whether the truck is subcontracted or outsourced or how much these contractors are paid. They only care that their neighbourhoods are kept clean.

Operations details are of no relevance – what we know is that we have to put up with lousy rubbish collection, smelly alleys, illegal dumping, overflowing commercial bins and clogged drains. Uncollected bulk waste have become routine sights.

The officials from KDEB and the councils should get out of their offices and see for themselves. It’s a disgrace, to put it simply, as Selangor expects the highest standards.

The public too must play its part by being more civic and not litter indiscriminately. It’s easy to blame the authorities but we have to be responsible, too.

Taxpayers want to see effective waste management and not a reactive one which responds only after complaints are filed.

When taxpayers cannot see how their money is being used – or whether underperforming contractors face consequences – trust evaporates.

The Sultan’s remarks should not be seen as a reprimand alone, but also as an opportunity to reset expectations and demand a new standard of public service.

The Selangor Ruler’s patience has run out. To put it simply, the people of Selangor deserve better.

National Journalism Laureate Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai is the chairman of Bernama. The views expressed here are solely the writer’s own.