Challenges for DBKL in 2014

SATURDAY, the first day of February, is Federal Territory Day. This is to commemorate the transfer of Kuala Lumpur from the Selangor state government to the federal government in 1974. While Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and the residents of the city celebrate the occasion, it is useful to pay attention to several issues it faces.
One is to have adequate revenue to carry out its responsibilities. DBKL has revised the annual value of landed properties so that the rates or cukai pintu collected would be able to cover a large part of the RM2.79 billion budget for this year.
Under normal circumstances, no one likes higher taxes. In the case of the revaluation exercise, the opposition to the higher taxes was made worse because many property owners mistook the annual value of their properties as the amount they have to pay DBKL. Even Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor initially made statements that caused more confusion.
The misunderstanding was so bad that former director of the Town Planning Department in DBKL, Chiam Soon Hock, felt that he had to write to newspapers to explain how the annual value and cukai pintu are derived.
According to DBKL, about 166,000 objections were received from property owners out of the 507,000 notices sent to them. Although the hearings will cost DBKL money and the time of its officers, it is obliged to hear all the objections submitted by ratepayers.
An issue DBKL should pay close attention to is town planning and development control. More specifically, it should keep the people informed about the status of the draft Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020. Although the draft plan was made public in 2008, it has still not been gazetted as a legal document after going through a long process of getting the views of ratepayers.
As Kuala Lumpur has undergone rapid growth in the last decade, it is doubtful the draft plan is still relevant. It is based on surveys carried out almost a decade ago. The plan came under severe criticism when it was displayed for public participation in 2008.
However, it may not be fair to put all the blame on DBKL for the slow process in getting a gazetted development plan. The whole town planning system, especially the use of structure plans and local plans and the process of making them should be thoroughly reviewed. The body in charge of town planning is the federal government, particularly the Department of Town and Country Planning.
Another important issue weighing heavily on the shoulders of the mayor is the target set by former minister of federal territory and urban wellbeing, Datuk Raja Nong Chik Datuk Raja Zainal Abidin. He wanted Kuala Lumpur to be ranked 20th in the liveable city rankings by 2020.
Kuala Lumpur has been ranked between 75th and 78th in the last few years, depending on which study is used. According to the December 2013 EIU liveable city survey, Kuala Lumpur was ranked 78th out of the 140 cities studied. And we only have seven years left to achieve the target.
Although DBKL has taken steps to make the city more liveable, Raja Nong Chik's challenge will not be met. It was and still is an impossible target in the first place. It is very difficult for a city to climb up the ranking ladder as every mayor wants to make his or her city to be among the first 20 liveable cities in the world.
More importantly, according to EIU report, any city that is ranked 63rd or below can be classified as among the most liveable cities in the world. There is really not much difference in the quality of life between the city that is ranked number one and the city at 63.
As such, the short-term target of KL should be in the first 60 places by 2020. Even this is a herculean task.
It should be noted that the quality of living is not dependent on the hard work of city officials alone. Other departments, such as the police and the environment department, also play important roles.
Kuala Lumpur residents and visitors also play a big role. If they continue to adopt the Third World mentality and discard their rubbish everywhere, park their vehicles anywhere they like or extend their buildings indiscriminately, the city will not be in the top rankings, no matter how hard the mayor or his officers work.
Datuk Dr Goh Ban Lee is interested in urban governance, housing and urban planning. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com