JOHOR BARU: Being next door to Singapore, Tanjung Puteri state assemblyman Adam Sumiru has some of the most hard-to-please constituents.

Educated, urbane and calculative, the voters of Tanjung Puteri, which is one half of the heart of Johor Baru, constantly demand that Johor Baru be just as clean, efficient and safe as the island next door.

But what many of them do not realise, said Adam, is that it all comes with a high price that they may not be willing to pay.

"There is this saying that Singapore is a fine country. It is 'fine' as in nice and orderly because of the 'fines' in place. There is a penalty for everything, from littering to chewing gum, to not keeping your front lawn clean.

"MBJB (Johor Baru City Council) already has a lot of regulations that can make Johor Baru clean and efficient, but the only sure way to get it done is to go out and just fine everyone who commits an offence.
"That will really put things in order but this will be extremely unpopular with people," he said.

And despite what his constituents would publicly profess, such as the importance of respecting the rule of law and paying for one's transgressions, they will in reality do their utmost to wriggle out of paying their fines.

Adam, a former municipal councillor, saw this recently when he was called by a hawker who had claimed the MBJB was trying to run him out of business by seizing his stall and equipment.

"I went to the food court where this hawker was based and there was already an MBJB truck. This person was vocal about how the MBJB wanted to take away his business.

"I went up the MBJB officers and found out that the hawker had a history of violating the sanitation code and had already been issued with several summonses which he ignored. When I looked at his stall, it was indeed filthy.

"So when I confronted the hawker again, he admitted it and pleaded with me to get him off the hook," he said.

If this was Singapore, a hawker like him would not even be given a chance, Adam said.

In short, residents want the same qualities -- the cleanliness and the efficiency -- but not the laws and enforcement that make these things possible, Adam said.

Coming from a family of politicians, Adam, 52, knows the the juggling act of serving the conflicting needs of different communities and interests on the one hand and of upholding the party's and local government's agenda.

His father and elder brother were active officials in the Kampung Kurnia Umno branch, and before making it into elected office, he was a two-term MBJB municipal councillor.

Adam gets his fair share of longkang sumbat (clogged drains) complaints from residents but these usually only happen after they have exhausted the proper channels.

What Adam regularly gets are residents who come to him to vent their anger on everything from unscrupulous housing developers to the anti-crime policy to the fuel subsidy system.

The most pressing issue of his constituency now is the high crime rate.

One of the most common complaints he gets is how victims of crime are unable to lodge reports at the many beat bases the state police contingent has set up around Johor Baru to deal with spiralling crime in the city.

"We cannot understand why the police must tell them to go to the Johor Baru Central (JBS) station to lodge a report. JBS is in the heart of the downtown area and is extremely congested.

"I commend the police for setting up more beat bases but I hope that their services can be more comprehensive," Adam said.