PETALING JAYA: Muhammad Izuan Ahmad Kasim has only been the state assemblyman for Kota Damansara for three months. But he has high aspirations for his constituents.
Before Izuan was elected during the Selangor state election in August, he was a Shah Alam city councillor for 11 years. This shows he has the credentials and experience to deliver as a state representative.
He said managing the affairs in Kota Damansara can be challenging as the constituency is located between Subang and Petaling Jaya.
“As a result, I have to engage with two city councils – Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam.”
As a public servant who is still new to the area, Izuan said he frequently engages with the community to learn about their concerns and problems.
“It is important to engage with the community as I can get feedback from them. I can learn about their problems through direct engagement.
“I have raised their feedback during such engagements with the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ), and am currently arranging an engagement session with the Shah Alam City Council (MBSA).”
He said areas under MBPJ usually face issues with infrastructure and traffic congestion.
However, Izuan said the communities living in areas under MBSA face more serious problems that have been neglected for years.
“There is a lack of public schools in Shah Alam. This is very inconvenient for children as they need to travel far to attend school.
“As this is a rural area, there is also a lack of public transport for the residents here.
“Also, children have to get up as early as 5am, because they have to catch the bus an hour later. If they miss it, they will be late for school.
“The operating buses will also take a huge detour before reaching the school due to it being the only serviceable line in that area.
“This is a major issue that I will be discussing with MBSA during my coming engagement with the council.”
Izuan said another problem faced by the community in areas under MBSA is poor internet coverage.
“I have noticed that internet connectivity is poor, especially for Kampung Melayu Subang, which is located near the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport.
“The residents there can hardly access basic internet, not to mention 4G. This affects schools and companies in the area.
“I have sent a report to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to look into this matter and improve the infrastructure for the community there,” he said.
Through constituent engagement, Izuan learned of the plight of families bringing up children with special needs.
“The schools in this area lack proper facilities to teach and guide special needs children, who require early education.
“Unlikely others, these children are slow learners. However, they get to access education only when they reach seven.”
Izuan said upgrading school facilities to meet the requirements of special needs children will be one of his major focus points during his tenure.
“Under the Selangor budget for 2024, funds will be allocated to build a new block dedicated to children with special needs, starting from Sekolah Kebangsaan Seksyen Empat.
“Once the project is completed, children with special needs as young as four years old will gain access to the required education.”
One of Izuan’s achievements when he was a city councillor was to implement flood mitigation projects through the Shah Alam Sustainable Urban Drainage Master Plan (Sasud).
“After the devastating floods in 2021, we worked hard and held much discussion to ensure the problem will not recur,” he said.
Izuan pointed out that Sasud is a RM115.3 million project that involves three phases. It includes infrastructural development to improve the flow and release of rainwater, an early warning system and monitoring systems that utilise artificial intelligence.
“Drains around those flood-prone areas have been upgraded from 20 to 30 average recurrence interval (ARI) to 100 ARI to cope with the increased rainfall.”
Water pumps are also installed in low-lying areas such as Taman Sri Muda. Even though the flood problem is still apparent, it is a lot better than before, he said.
Izuan added that he is targeting to install the same system in flood-prone Kota Damansara, which falls under MBSA.
Another highlight of Izuan’s contributions is his initiative to encourage recycling among the Shah Alam community, especially in Bukit Jelutong.
“We collaborated with Nestle Malaysia for this initiative through a memorandum of understanding.
“Nestle will send a truck to housing areas to collect recyclable items.
“As a reward to residents who contributed the most recyclable items, we give them 99 Speedmart shopping vouchers.”
Izuan said he aims to spread this initiative to the rest of Selangor, and eventually make it a nationwide project.
Going forward, Izuan said his plan is to climb the political ladder and serve the people at the national level.
“To be an assemblyman at the age of 32 is an achievement. For this, I am grateful for my party and the people who voted for me.
“For now, I want to do my best to serve as the Kota Damansara assemblyman. Eventually, I wish to take on a central position so that I can continue serving the people on a higher level.”
