The choice of venue could not be better Putrajaya is the showpiece of Malaysia's capability and capacity to build what is called "first world infrastructure".

Many delegates will be "shocked and awed" by the majesty of the buildings, landscaped parks and modern infrastructure.

Malaysia, alas, is also a suitable host because of our well-known "third world mentality" in building and infrastructure maintenance.

Although the term is generally attributed to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, even the most casual observer will not fail to see the dirty drains in the town centers, broken facilities in children's playgrounds and mould walls and fused corridor lights in high-rise 'buildings.

It is commendable that the Housing and Local Government Ministry has taken up the challenge of fostering a maintenance culture by working with the National Institute of Public Administration and the Eastern Regional Organization for Planning and Housing (Earoph) and invite experts to discuss and hopefully find some solutions.

Conference is a rather cheap and quick way to identify underlying causes and search for solutions assuming, of course the right people are invited to present papers.

But this is the easy and probably even fun part of the process to promote maintenance of the built environment.
The difficult and more important part of the work is what follows. Detailed strategies and programmers to promote a maintenance culture have to be worked through.

Many past conferences have ended as "all talk, but no action" events, which are clear indications of the third world syndrome.

More importantly there is much work to be done on strengthening political will and perseverance to implement proposals that might be painful to friends and supporters.

This is especially so for the proposed national policy on the maintenance of physical a assets that Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting seems to have much faith in as a panacea for poor infrastructure maintenance.

More specifically, realistic procedures are needed to ensure that those responsible for maintenance do their job properly and if they fail, will be disciplined.

Fostering and enforcing a maintenance culture on the service providers is only one side of the coin. The other is to facilitate and enforce compliance with rules and regulations among the users because non-compliance usually causes degradation of the environment, including public infrastructure.

The fact is that many Malaysians just do not comply with rules and regulations governing buildings and infrastructure use.

For example, despite the laws, campaigns and even chidings by the prime minister, many Malaysians still discard rubbish indiscriminately. As a result, even though streets are swept clean in the morning, by the afternoon, large parts of the towns and cities become dirty again.

It is possible to run round the clock street cleaning, but this puts a serious strain on the budget that most local authorities can ill afford. It is also demoralizing for service providers to see their efforts wasted on uncaring litterbugs.

To make matters worse, some Malaysians vent their frustrations by damaging public infrastructure and private property. Public telephone booths, street signs and park benches become the punching bags of these anti-socials.

Political leaders must have strong knees to enforce compliance on both service providers as well as infrastructure users.

Otherwise, Malaysians will continue to build first world infrastructure but have a third world quality of life.