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| Pix courtesy by ILTC |
Five
NGOs involved in the welfare of disabled people have handed over a
memorandum to the Selangor government in support of embattled Petaling
Jaya city councillor Anthony Siva Balan Thanasayan.
The delegation of about 20 arrived at the state government headquarters in Shah Alam about 11am yesterday to submit the memorandum to Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim and the exco member in charge of local government Ronnie Liu.
Persatuan
Warga Istimewa dan Rehabilitasi Anggota K9 (Perwira K9) founding
chairperson Chong Tuck Meng told Malaysiakini the memo, among others,
calls for Anthony (right) to be allowed to continue his work for disabled people.
“He is doing a very good and professional job in areas such as accessibility issues at car parks and toilets for wheelchair-bound persons. He dares to challenge other councillors to make things right,” Chong said.
Other groups present were the Dyslexia Association of Malaysia, Malaysian Animal-assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association (Petpositive), Community Services for the Deaf and Independent Living and Training Centre.
Petition against Anthony
The memo also calls on the state to form a ‘technical committee for the disabled’ and to ensure that disabled persons are represented in local councils, including those other than the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ).
“They are the ones who know what to expect, what to change and what to modify to suit our needs,” said Chong.
English daily New Straits Times reported last Thursday that two NGOs, one for disabled persons and the other for animal welfare, were opposing Anthony’s reappointment as MBPJ councillor.
It quoted Warga OKU PJ vice-president Azlan Elias as saying that Anthony had failed in his duty because few places in Petaling Jaya have facilities for the disabled, while a Malaysian Dogs Deserve Better spokesperson complained that he interfered with their animal welfare efforts.
The second group is also collecting signatures against Anthony, garnering 1,254 signatures as of 7.15pm yesterday.
End or article
Meanwhile, here is the memo that was sent to the Menteri Besar:
The delegation of about 20 arrived at the state government headquarters in Shah Alam about 11am yesterday to submit the memorandum to Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim and the exco member in charge of local government Ronnie Liu.
Persatuan
Warga Istimewa dan Rehabilitasi Anggota K9 (Perwira K9) founding
chairperson Chong Tuck Meng told Malaysiakini the memo, among others,
calls for Anthony (right) to be allowed to continue his work for disabled people.“He is doing a very good and professional job in areas such as accessibility issues at car parks and toilets for wheelchair-bound persons. He dares to challenge other councillors to make things right,” Chong said.
Other groups present were the Dyslexia Association of Malaysia, Malaysian Animal-assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association (Petpositive), Community Services for the Deaf and Independent Living and Training Centre.
Petition against Anthony
The memo also calls on the state to form a ‘technical committee for the disabled’ and to ensure that disabled persons are represented in local councils, including those other than the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ).
“They are the ones who know what to expect, what to change and what to modify to suit our needs,” said Chong.
English daily New Straits Times reported last Thursday that two NGOs, one for disabled persons and the other for animal welfare, were opposing Anthony’s reappointment as MBPJ councillor.
It quoted Warga OKU PJ vice-president Azlan Elias as saying that Anthony had failed in his duty because few places in Petaling Jaya have facilities for the disabled, while a Malaysian Dogs Deserve Better spokesperson complained that he interfered with their animal welfare efforts.
The second group is also collecting signatures against Anthony, garnering 1,254 signatures as of 7.15pm yesterday.
End or article
Meanwhile, here is the memo that was sent to the Menteri Besar:
MEMORANDUM
Y.A.B. TAN
SRI DATO` ABD KHALID BIN IBRAHIM
DATO` MENTERI BESAR SELANGOR
DATO` MENTERI BESAR SELANGOR
PEJABAT DATO` MENTERI BESAR SELANGOR
TINGKAT 21, BANGUNAN SSAAS
TINGKAT 21, BANGUNAN SSAAS
40503 SHAH ALAM
SELANGOR
DARUL EHSAN
Y.B. TUAN RONNIE LIU TIAN KHIEW
PENGERUSI JAWATANKUASA TETAP KERAJAAN TEMPATAN, KAJIAN DAN PENYELIDIKAN
PENGERUSI JAWATANKUASA TETAP KERAJAAN TEMPATAN, KAJIAN DAN PENYELIDIKAN
PEJABAT AHLI MAJLIS MESYUARAT KERAJAAN
NEGERI SELANGOR
TINGKAT 15, BANGUNAN SSAAS
40503 SHAH ALAM
SELANGOR DARUL EHSAN
We, representatives of nationally
registered societies for the disabled in the country are alarmed and dismayed
by the recent attempts by some quarter’s criticism to try and stop Anthony Siva
Balan Thanasayan from becoming councillor of the city of Petaling Jaya.
Thanasayan had already been
selected to serve the 2012/2013 term and we deeply regret that the personal
attacks by a disgruntled few have resulted in his delay in being appointed as
councillor.
As such, we would like to
strongly urge the Menteri Besar not to be influenced by the baseless allegations
made by the some individuals.
Rather we would like Tan Sri
Khalid to immediately reappoint Thanasayan as councillor as planned and judge
him by his impeccable performance.
Thanasayan was responsible to bring not one,
but two outstanding OKU awards for MBPJ during his tenure.
The first one is called Anugerah
Khas Kemudahan OKU 2009/2010 untuk Anugerah Alam Sekitar Bandar Lestari Anjuran
KPKT. The second one is Anugerah Khas Kemudahan OKU 2010/2011 Anjuran SUK.
In addition to that, we want
Thanasayan back for the following key reasons:
- To complete all the projects and programmes that Thanasayan pioneered for the benefit for people with disabilities and the elderly in Petaling Jaya. These include never before covered car parks for the handicapped, outreach programmes to renovate toilets and living conditions for the disabled and elderly in poorer parts of PJ such as Taman Medan and PPR flats in Kota Damansara.
- Thanasayan also pioneered the State to set up disability committees in all 12 of its councils. Thanasayan was assigned with his special committee by YB Ronnie Liu to follow up with each councils with visits and support to ensure that the special committees are up and running. The setting up of such committees in each PBT is vital to ensure that the needs of the disabled especially in accessibility is met.
- Thanasayan has also been working with a broad group of people with disabilities – not only with people in wheelchairs but the blind, Deaf, little people, people with stroke, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and even people with mental illness.
- We urge the Selangor State Government to appoint more disabled councillors in the PBT’s. The disabled communities hereby would like to highlight there are no new disabled councillors appointed for the new term’s.
The abovementioned statement is endorsed by:
- Independent Living and Training Centre Malaysia
- Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association (Petpositive)
- Persatuan Warga Istimewa & Rehabilitasi Anggota K9, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Perwira K9 Malaysia
- Community Services for the Deaf
- Dyslexia Association of Malaysia
- Friends of Kota Damansara.
PET+BLOGSPOT is the ONLINE BLOG of the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association or Petpositive. Our stories are CURRENT, ACCURATE and RELIABLE. We offer both local and foreign news on animals, disability and the elderly. PET+BLOGSPOT was first established in October 2007. Our hits since then are now 150,000 and ever increasing! PET+BLOGSPOT is updated daily. Kindly note that views expressed in PET+BLOGSPOT are not necessarily those of PETPOSITIVE. You may also visit our Webpage by browsing: www.petpositive.com.my You can also find us in Facebook under PETPOSITIVE EMPOWERMENT. Please sign up as a FOLLOWER of this Blog if you haven't done so already in order to show us your kind support for our work. Thank you!
6 comments:
From Malaysiakini
These guys probably wish to take his place when it falls vacant. They should compare the services provided by the rest of the councillors before faulting Anthony. One must remember that Anthony is not there just to cater for the disabled. There are other areas which also demand his attention and the failure of the council in not providing access in all areas is not the fault of anthony but how society and the government look at the disabled community. It will be a sad day indeed if his term is not renewed.
From Malaysiakini
If only a few places have facilities for the disabled, does it mean that Mr Anthony has failed? What has the rest of the council been doing to make sure such facilities are available? It is not fair to single him out when the authorities in power are obviously unable or unwilling to ensure proper facilities for the disabled. What do they expect? For Mr Anthony to go out and build all those insfrastructures himself? As for MDDB, can they be more specific about the nature of this so called"interference"? Could it be that they obkect to his outspoken views which appear to have subbed some of them up the wrong way? If they are really concerned about animal welfare, they should find some way to engage him and work togather on these issues.
Keep Thanasayan! He's the only one 2 in 1 around! For the Disabled and Animals!
Aru
From Malaysiakini:
No other councillor in the history of local government in Malaysia has done more for disabled people. MBPJ has won several awards for being best disabled friendly council in its policies. Every new building must be disabled compliant. Special car parks and ramps are found when none existed before. Exemption from dog license fees and free bus services are just some of what he has done when this was never done before. The handful of sour grapes disgruntled people who waged a campaign of hate against him have never done anything for the disabled and are purely jealous of him. Keep up the good work Anthony!
I have kept quiet for a long time because there's so much to be done outside of animal rescues. People who bicker & slander with malice are people who can't bear to see others succeed & do better. For a select few, it looks like they thrive on putting others down, to the point of spreading malicious lies just to elevate themselves. When I caught up with the slanderous blog of the organisation that put you down, I had to put things right. The public deserves to know that no good organisation would strive so hard to bring people down when there is no basis to. It's blatantly obvious that the person in question has a personal vendetta that dates back to 2009 when she was kicked out of Klang Town Council for unruly behaviour in their premises. When you were called in by that council, she obviously felt slighted & then launched a crusade upon you. People like that needs therapy because they are only kind to animals that can't talk back but vicious to people who can.
I have recorded the press conference live & you are welcome to go view the few short clips to hear what the leaders of NGOs had to say. The video quality wasn't good because it was optimised for live-streaming but you can hear every word that they said in defence of you.
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/21055853
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/21056009
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/21056219
I believe a higher quality version is being uploaded into YouTube now by Jeffrey & people can expect to see the real people who were touched & affected by your good work in helping them. Whatever the outcome, the truth is plain to see. Thank you for doing what you have been doing, we now know that it's a thankless job being a councillor.
Yours truly,
Pamela
Agree with EVERYTHING Pamela Lim said!
For those who don't know, the person Pamela is talking about is Wani Muthiah who's working at The Star newspaper. She is also supposedly the founder of the group MDDB and often writes using various identities like Shamini Popiko Sasha Woof, Shamini Popiko Sasha, MDDB....etc.
I also heard about the her unruly behaviour at the MPK but this was not the first time it happened! Anyway, I guess she should be used to being kicked about! BTW, she also curses people who do not help shelter her rescues, not to mention veterinarians she owes large sums of money to!
All she's proven so far, is that she cannot work with anyone, especially the councils!
Alfred
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