DECEMBER 5 — Lately, the one issue which highway opponents have been debating heatedly on with the government is the issue of public consultation. What exactly is public consultation?

In Malaysia, the term is loosely used where the developer does a briefing using some projected slides and any criticism coming from the floor is met with a ‘we will take note of your concerns.’

But in the case of the Damansara-Shah Alam Highway (DASH), none of us here at Damansara Perdana were even briefed about this massive six-lane elevated highway that is located little more than 10 metres away from residential homes.

When the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) signed the concession agreement with Prolintas Sdn Bhd, one of the condition precedents was public consultation, yet the Say No to Dash (SNTD) group has received confirmations that none of the resident associations and building management committees in Damansara Perdana were consulted.

So, what exactly does public consultation mean and are we, the residents, being taken for a ride in this process? Do we really have a say and how much of our voices will be heard? Is there truly a guideline that is followed?

We don’t even have the relevant studies such as the traffic impact assessment (TIA), environmental impact assessment (EIA) and the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) reports to study through, so how can we even give proper feedback?

I was very disturbed when we, the Say No to DASH group heard it from Prolintas Sdn Bhd representatives and the LLM director general that there had been public consultations — in that they have given briefings to the local councils, to the State Exco and Majlis Tindakan Ekonomi Selangor (MTES).

This really riled us up because it suddenly made sense why the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) attempted to amend the Petaling Jaya Local Plan 2 (RTPJ2) back in August this year to put DASH in.

None of the MBPJ councillors informed us about this attempted amendment. Our politicians did not tell us either. We found out about this exercise from a small newspaper classifieds instead! Is this our government’s idea of what constitutes public consultation?

It was very apparent to us that the voice of all the residents who marched (more than 1,000) in April 2012 when we first heard about the project were totally not taken into account, neither were the objection letters put forth in 2012 taken seriously.

Two years later, we find out that the Federal Government has gone ahead to approve the project and State Government is now mulling its final approval for the highway.

Prolintas could not answer or produce evidence that residents in Damansara Perdana were even consulted. Instead, the buck was pushed to MBPJ and said it was the local council’s responsibility to ensure we were informed.

Prolintas also told us that all the studies — TIA, EIA and SIA — were handed over to MBPJ. This request has been made many times and yielded no results via our elected representative Bukit Lanjan ADUN Elizabeth Wong who tells us there have been neither approvals nor documentation to the project. Instead, it is now our Works Minister who have instead agreed to assist us in obtaining the studies.

So really, what is the point of having public consultations when the authorities cannot even give us a straight consistent answer?

Where are the responsibilities of the government and the elected representatives? Residents of Damansara Perdana object to DASH being built next to their balconies and their front door for two years. They did not ask for mitigation solutions because no mitigation solutions will make any sense here, as we are talking about the lives that have to bear the consequences of decisions made by a government and its authorities who seem oblivious to the impact these approvals bring to thousands of residents. The residents are objecting because their lives and homes are being threatened, and their quality of life is being robbed by these projects.

To the Federal Government, the Selangor Government, the various government departments, local councils and the concessionaire (Prolintas) — if public consultation is meant to hold some water, do it properly and release all the documents and show us that you have nothing to hide.

Don’t hide behind the Official Secrets Act or tell us you have no documents and have not approved anything yet. Give us black-and-white documents — not lip service. Stop passing the buck. What we need is a process and a government who is elected to protect its people by truly giving a voice and ability to its people to safeguard their own lives and home. 

* Michelle Wong is a spokesperson for Say No to DASH (Damansara) Group.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.