Access control

In our apartment complex, among what we have, we have a 'sort of security' which looks good at a first glance but when one goes deep down into it its just a show piece. The security is very amateurist, a sort of 'melepas batuk di tangga' (translated as 'just pretending to be concerned') as the Malay saying goes. The security is at the apartment buildings gate but not many people really care about them, especially the young people in their cars and motorcycles coming in and out of the complex at night, sometime into the wee hours of the morning.

What the Kuantan Le' Town apartment buildings need is a proper security/access set up, just like the one I see near my house in Kuala Lumpur.

They have a proper 'up and down bar gate' with proper sign boarding.


Gate opens whenever anyone comes in or goes out of the complex, using an automatic card control system: the yellow post just outside the gate - near bottom right. (But I doubt if my Kuantan Apartments complex can afford the card control system).

And proper uniform guards guarding the gate. Preferably from a private security Co.

Looking at the photograph, the guard seems old, probably a pensioner, but at least with uniform like that they get respect from those trying to gain entry into the apartment buildings, and added with that card control gate making not many people wanting to unnecessarily go in or out of the complex.

I doubt if ever the Le' Town Apartment Management will ever implement such security/access system (if ever they understand what security/access system means) though people living in the apartments have been paying and will be paying their maintenance fees of RM150.00 (USD 1.00 = RM 3.30) a month religiously.




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Frequent visitor

He is the most frequent visitor to the apartment’s gazebo. He stays there everyday almost the whole day, 7 days a week and 30 days a month. And we do not know what he does, over there or for a living.

They say that ‘he is not himself’. I have not talked to him so I would not really know. Though I know that most of the time he talks to himself. They say that he used to be a painter of the buildings, but I have no mean of confirming this info.

He is quite harmless, to date. He does not disturb anyone, and no one disturbs him.

Nobody knows where he lives, and he does not live in any of the apartments. Live and let live.



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Swimming costume.

It has been a long time since the Management enforces its rules on swimming costumes for the apartment’s swimming pool. Since then the rules have been very laxed, if not unenforceable.

These are some of the examples of the swimmers costumes, which are really far out of what Management have wanted to enforce originally.


Originally they wanted all those swimming in the pool to have proper swimming costumes, whatever that means.




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Monitor Lizard of Kuantan.

Two photographs of the same monitor lizard of Taman Gelora, Kuantan (Malaysia) taken on the same morning, yesterday. Taman Gelora is a popular recreation ground of the local folks, and over the whole day especially at weekends folks are there doing recreation, exercise, jogging or just lazily walking.

There are a couple of small lakes in that ground, and I have observed (when walking there in the morning) monitor lizards of various sizes swimming in those lakes looking for food, fish especially. The lakes are rich with tropical fish.

This morning I was lucky to take these photoes of the same monitor lizard swimming and looking for food. Usually either it does not come out or I have no camera with me. I think that this lizard is the biggest of them all, it must be about 5 feet in length (exaggerating a bit). To the best of my knowledge, it does not attack human unless cornered, it only searches for fish and small animals or small birds for food.

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Audited account

Daripada,

(Purposely left blank, not for public consumption)

09 Nov. 2008.

Kepada,
General Manager,
Le Town Management,
T/A Greenleaf Hotel,
60-62, Jalan Bukit Ubi,
25000 Kuantan, Pahang DM.

Salinan: Penghuni Le Town Apartment.

Mesyuarat Penubuhan Badan Pengurusan Bersama di Bawah Akta Bangunan Dan Harta Bersama (Penyelengaraan Dan Pengurusan) 2008 (Akta 633) Bagi Le Town Management.

Saya di fahamkan bahawa Badan Pengurusan Bersama sedang dalam proses penubuhan dengan resminya.

Saya ingin mencadangkan dan memohon agar kiranya satu penyata akaun (yang telah di audit oleh Syarikat Audit Bertauliah) yang sekurang-kurang nya untuk selama 5 (lima) tahun (kebelakang ) di bentangkan di dalam mesyuarat Badan Pengurusna Bersama (yang sedang dalam penubuhan) yang akan datang supaya semua yang telah membayar yuran penyelengaraan selama itu tahu di mana semua wang-wang tersebut telah di belanjakan.

Harap mendapat kerjasama dari pehak Pengurusan Le’ Town Apartment.

Yang benar,





(left blank, not for public consumption)

http://mykuantanapartment.blogspot.com

I have to send the above letter to the Management. I have yet to see the audited account of the maintenance fees which most of us have been paying religiously all these years.
The maintenance fees have been fixed at RM 150.00 a month. (USD 1.0 = RM 3.30). And to the best of my knowledge there are 88 apartments in all the blocks. Giving a pessimistic calculation at 85% payments only (absent and delinquent landlords/tenants may fail to pay), the total monthly collection would be RM 11,220.00, meaning RM 134,640.00 annually, and RM 673,200 for 5 years. How have these money been spent, and who are/were the beneficiaries? That can only be discovered in an audited account.


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Long Time Resident

I was talking to this oldish gentleman the other day, he being a long time resident of the apartments. He was saying about how his water supply was cut off when he only owed the Management only RM3.00 arears in water bill. (USD 1.00 = RM 3.30). He had been religiously paying his RM150.00 maintenance fees monthly. That happened on the first day of the Chinese New Year as well. He confronted the Management, and according to him the Management appologised to him.

While talking about the Management, we came to the questions of who are really in the Management? Who appointed them to be there? How much is each of the members of the Management paid in cash and in kind? Are these payments accounted for in the Apartments' Maintenance account? We could not answer those questions, and we expect the Management to answer them when a proper Management structure is established, and when the account is audited by the Auditors.


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Exorcist

The occupants of the apartments are from various varied background. Some fit very well into this enclosed community while others do not fit well, some are just ‘unsociable’, not in themselves but in reality not knowing how to behave when living in this sort of strange (to them) community. This is especially so to the Malay girls and boys who probably have been raised in remote Malay kampong or a far away felda scheme where the majority ate Malays like themselves. They find that this enclosed community is (they think) easy to fool around with in a way, and they misbehave or misuse the facilities available. They think that by misbehaving or misuse the facilities they are being clever, but they are misfits.

They rent an apartment, with say 6 to 8 of them in one apartment, they may stay out late (or work late) and may come back in the wee hours of the morning, where they (being unsociable) will make a lot of noise making other tenants in the block or in the nearby apartment not able to sleep. That ‘bravo’ behaviour’ makes them feel ‘important’, they get attention. This for the boys but for the girls, well ……… they may even be GRO type, living on immoral earnings some of them do. What they do not realize is that they are being watched by the other tenants or occupants of other apartments.

What had happened, I suppose even the spirits in the building are taking note of their ‘misfit’ behaviour. And on a couple of occasions they get hysteria (disturbed by the spirits) in the middle of the night or even in the early morning hours. In their unconscious behaviour they struggle and break things. And if not restrained by their friends they may even jump off the building (Allah forbid). And of course when they are disturbed by the spirits, an exorcist has to be called. Luckily the security people know an exorcist specialist around this area and so he gets called. Sure, he says, there are spirits living nearby. And he suggests that in order to rid the area of the spirits (may be more than one have disturbed those Malay youths), he will need to slaughter a goat in the apartment area. Well ………………. Would the management allow that? To me, it would be easier to get rid of the misfits rather than the spirits.


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Window glass may rain on you.

Maybe because of the age of the apartment, or the construction of the wooden paned glass windows, or just plain inherent weakness of the construction, many times during heavy wind the glass sheets from the windows got loose and rain down to the ground. So be warned, during heavy storm, or during heavy rain or during when the monsoon is at its worse, walking by the apartment is not safe.

I would say that all the windows of the apartment buildings are to be thoroughly examined to assure of safety of any of the occupants (or guests or workers) who may happen to walk near the buildings.


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A new culture

I have observed that some tough looking Malay youths sleep during the day in a car in the car park under one of the apartment blocks. I wonder if they are tenants here. If they are, why are they sleeping in the car? If not, who are they? What do they do for a living that they can afford to sleep during the day time? Why do they sleep in a car, have they no home? Have they friends in the apartments? These are unanswered questions?
This new culture is worrying.
They could just be god Malay youth or they could also be ……….. well to be evil, they could be bad elements.
It has been reported that a female had been seen sleeping in the car, but I personally has not seen it. Possible? Not far fetched.


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A new development.

Today I was asked by the Management to give full detail of my name, ID number, and contact telephone number, as part of the list of buyers for the Apartments. I don't know why, and I would suspect that they already have these details in their master list as they collect monthly maintenance fees regularly. And also in any transaction or sales of any of the apartments they need to process (and a process fee is charged on all transactions, as far as I know, and I paid when they asked); thus they would have the most uptodate and latest records. Why need to re-do a new list of buyers/owners?



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Piped water misuse.

Just saw a memo from the Management. Residents stealing piped water? Unbelievable!

I suppose it can happen. The house concerned might have not paid their monthly RM150.00 maintenanace fees, and according to the terms of occupancy a failure to pay such fees shall make it liable for the water meter be disconnected by the Management. Sometime back it happened to the previous tenant above my apartment. Anyway, then tenant took it upon himself to bridge, using a rubber hose, the incoming pipe to the pipe supplying water to his house. Viola he got water. But that is stealing.

I suppose that must have happened in some apartments where the water supply has been disconnected for not abiding by the conditions of the maintenance contract.

The Management must be serious. They will impose RM300.00 on anyone (or apartment) found stealing, back interest will be charged (?), and a fee for meter re-installation at RM100.00.

Good for the Management. Only way to teach the defaulters of the maintenance fees.



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