My home, my paradise
31/07/2008 NST By Mohd Shaberun Caroshau

JOINING hands, fostering ties and making our building a cleaner place is what we, the residents of Block A low-cost flat, Taman Skudai Kanan in Bandar Baru Uda, did on July 13.

PRIDE: The residents of Taman Skudai Kanan are proud of their neighbourhood. They make sure that this signboard is kept in good condition.

COOPERATION: Residents make it a point to organise a gotong-royong to keep their block clean every month.
We are proud to be residents of our four-storey walk-up flats. We organise a gotong-royong to clean it at least once a month.

About 40 residents took out their pails, brooms, cangkul and gave our block a good scrub that Sunday. Gotong-royong is a way of life in Malaysia, but if we could get support from the relevant authorities, it would show that there is hope for residents of low-cost flats to live in a clean environment. There are 80 units in our block which was built in 1980.

Over the years, the condition of our block has deteriorated due to wear and tear but the developer, Uda Land Development, has not done anything about it.


It badly needs a new coat of paint. The staircase railings have rusted and the stairs need to be repaired as the edges have chipped.

So we residents have joined hands to keep our block clean, as it is our home.

But we have our limitations. We do not have the equipment, manpower or expertise to paint the whole block. But we try to do what we can.There are many things that we would like to do to improve our block, but sadly some residents are not bothered about this.

When we placed cardboard boxes for residents to dispose of recyclable items separately, some people dumped all their household rubbish in those boxes, including food waste, cat litter and liquid waste.Residents staying on the ground floor complained about the foul stench. So we had to scrap the idea. But that did not dampen our spirits.

We registered our own residents’ association. It is called the Residents Recreation and Welfare Association. There are four bureaus — Sports, Welfare, Security and Education — headed by an elected committee member. All committee heads meets twice a week and plan programmes that benefit everybody.

Besides maintaining cleanliness, the programmes also promote a sense of belonging and foster better ties among the residents.

So far, with the monthly RM5 membership fee that we collect from residents, we have built a badminton court, installed extra lights and repaired our damaged drains.

Our main problem is lack of support from the authorities and the disinterested attitude of some of our residents. It has been more than three years since the road sign to our block got damaged, but although we alerted the relevant departments, nothing has been done about it.

Outsiders are also dumping broken furniture and tree trimmings at our rubbish collection centre.

We will continue to carry out programmes because we understand the meaning of RumahKu Syurga Ku (my home, my paradise), with or without the help of the relevant authorities.

• Mohd Shaberun is a mechanic. He was among the pioneer residents who moved to the low-cost flats after their squatter homes in Skudai Kanan were demolished in 1980.