COMMENT We are a nation turning 60 years old in just one year’s time, yet our handling of illegal dumping has not improved.

Forget about becoming a developed nation by 2020, we are still a Third World nation with First World facilities.

Selangor may have saved a lot of money when it took back waste management from Alam Flora Sdn Bhd, but it is still inheriting most of the contractors who fail to deliver their quality service - unlike in a certain neighbouring country.

For example, illegal dumps are still appearing in all over the country with no one to clean them up. In some places, it is the foreigners who are throwing rubbish indiscriminately because to them, this is not their home and they cannot care less.

Local traders are also partly to be blamed. Immediately after the Chinese New Year, a lot of the pallets used to display the mandarin oranges are dumped at the sites where they were doing their businesses.

They have made their money at the hospitality of the people residing in the housing estate, but after that they just dump the pallets and whatever rubbish that they could not take with them.

Some may bring their garbage with them, but only to dump them elsewhere in places which are convenient for themselves.

In some of the dumping grounds, water is collected. This becomes good breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

This is not a race issue; it also happens to the other races. Some 20 years ago, I managed to capture on film a Malay trader who dumped his chicken feather leftovers at a dumping ground beside the old Jalan Bukit Lanjan.

On checking, I noticed that there was even a bucket full of maggots! Of course, this made a good story for The Malay Mail , but that was 20 years ago and the situation has never improved.

A real embarrassing issue

I am sure this is also happening with Indian traders. So - whether foreigners or locals - this is a real Malaysian issue that we should be truly embarrassed with.

I have seen signages in Muslim facilities that say cleanliness is holiness. I believe all other religions also teach about cleanliness and good hygiene. For example, a large portion of the Pentateuch taught about good hygiene, because the fleeing Israelites who left the ancient Egypt civilisation were wandering in the wilderness for 40 years before being allowed to enter the land of Canaan.

Therefore, what has gone wrong with ‘religious’ Malaysians when it comes to the management of both household wastes and illegal dumps?

It is not only a serious problem in Selangor. It is also happening in areas managed by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) - in fact, throughout the whole country.

Dump sites appear because the local residents cannot find a place that they can throw their big items and garden waste. Even when Alam Flora was managing the collection of big items in Selangor, not many people knew about it.

The big items are therefore dumped at every conceivable corners. Sometimes, it took Alam Flora several months before they collected the rubbish. In certain cases, I had to personally contact the supervisor in charge of the area or else the illegal dumps would pile up.

I have always asked why - despite all the announcements that were being made - the Housing and Local Government Ministry has yet to show the political will to push for a cleaner Malaysia. We have heard it being discussed time and time again that there must be segregation of household wastes since Ting Chew Pei was the minister.

Today, Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan is still talking about it . The name of the ministry has changed, but the attitude remains the same. There is more political will to clean up the mess created by 1MDB than to improve the country’s waste management.

I strongly recommend that Abdul Rahman visit the low-cost apartments at Taman Permai Lakeview in Tambun, Ipoh, to learn how they can manage their garbage centrally - and doing such a good job at it, too. I myself have yet to find service as good as that in the Klang Valley.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.