IT is now a little over three months since I was appointed Councillor for the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) in Selangor.
All in all there are 24 of us with me being the only person with a disability in the team.
Despite my physical difference from everyone else, I am happy to say that I am not regarded nor treated as a “lesser person” in any way.
However that is not to suggest that the good people in the local government are oblivious to my obvious needs.
In fact, during my visits I’m always assured of help. Should I need assistance to push my wheelchair, open a door in front of me or getting my meals, someone will always be there for me.
I don’t know how it was before, but disability seems to be a very normal affair at the MBPJ headquarters. No one pulls awkward stares at me as people in wheelchairs frequently encounter in other places.
Not even by the members of the public who drop by daily.
Sometimes it even seems as if there is a little competition going on between us. If I don’t smile at them first, they beat me to it with a warm greeting or a polite nod.
As a councillor, I also try to take the opportunity to ask them if they are alright – whether their visit to the MBPJ had resolved their problems.
And I often wonder afterwards what they might have thought about such a positive reversal of roles for a change? By that I mean about being approached by a disabled person to render some assistance to them.
Perhaps if all of us saw the world like this – our interdependence on each other – there would be less discrimination in the world today.
As human beings we would all learn to respect each other even more without caring from what backgrounds we come from.
By getting in touch with our own vulnerability (we could find ourselves in a dependent situation one day) we are more likely to be accepting of others in their unique situations.
I was recently referred to a case where an elderly disabled gentleman required a wheelchair ramp in his posh condominium in PJ.
He told me that despite requesting his residents’ association for it for over a year, they never provided it.
They gave several reasons for not doing so. One was that there was already a ramp in the basement.
They also said that there was no space at the entrance of the building and they didn’t want to move a flower pot to make way for the ramp.
The most shocking excuse, which I thought was most unacceptable, was they thought that a ramp would “spoil the beauty of their condo”.
I made a visit with the MBPJ team that included the planning department, architect and even the engineering experts to investigate the venue for ourselves.
There was ample space to design a proper ramp although the flower pot had to make an exit. The ramp at the basement was too dangerous for the elderly chap to use.
If he fell, there would be no one to help him as there is usually no one there. Besides, it is also most undignified to create separate entrances for disabled persons whilst the non handicapped use another.
This is discrimination in the full sense of the word.
We were quite surprised to discover that that gentleman’s wife was also frail even though she is able to walk.
How could one expect her to be able to manage her husband at the basement ramp?
Furthermore, there was a rather high single step to their front door. The developer of the condo, however, was marvellous. He agreed to build an extra ramp to help the couple out.
I’m pleased to say that the entire episode recently came to a happy conclusion.
The residents’ association finally came to their senses and gave us the green light to go ahead with the ramp.
It was finally built last week. There appear to be some problems still, though. Apparently a second grab bar was somehow not included to the facility.
This week the MBPJ team and I are scheduled to visit the place again to make sure that everything is built accordingly.
I would like to point out that although the ramp was initiated for the elderly resident in the flat, the feature was not provided only with him in mind.
The provision of the ramp is for the benefit of all the condo residents should any of them – God forbid – become disabled one day.
The whole episode was a timely lesson for everyone concerned.
And that is to take note that not only are human lives more important than flower pots but also the sober truth in that lovely age-old saying that says, “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.”
The End
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