Updates

Dear Residents,

Here is an update for you on what has transpired since our last posting.

Firstly, you would have noticed the many changes and realignment of all the security measures that we have taken since implementing the system. This has caused different levels of anxieties to outsiders, passers-by, shop owners, people who parked their cars and the residents. This was also the result of the many meetings between the shop owners, MPSJ and the Police with the Committee members.

Well, yet again, there will one more tomorrow to decide once and for all on what we need to do, taking into account all that has happened. We have been trying our best to meet the 'guidelines' given to us by MPSJ as we did get a letter from them stating that they have no objections to our concept of G&G as a frontline defence for ourselves.

However, the problems persisted even as we the committee have been trying our best to meet as much of the guidelines as possible. And the irony here is that, while we try to follow the guidelines, we were faced with a lot of challenges while the other self imposed gated and guarded community in neighbouring areas who did not follow any guidelines or apply to MPSJ formally for that matter for approval, etc seemingly did not faced that much problems as we did.

So, the paradox here is that, should we do the right thing but inconveniece ourselves in the process?

At the same time, the authorities themselves, while knowing full well the good intentions and the positive results arising from this G&G concept, are in a bind as the existing guidelines were inadequate to support a project like this. And that is the fundamental problem.

We believe they are now studying the situation and they will have to make the necessary changes as they do anticipate the need for such guidelines in the future as more and more communities are turning to self-help due to the relevant authorities's inability to provide us with the necessary protection. This, we foresee, is already happening. Who knows? We may even turn out to be a test case for them!

Anyway, we have to ask ourselves, why are we doing all this? Well, the answer is obvious. As residents who live in this USJ 11/3 area, we have every right to protect ourselves. In this respect, we will have to do whatever is necessary to ensure that the hazards and increasing crime problem that we facing right now can be adequately tackled.

And for the past few weeks, the number of crime reported in our area (or not reported depending on which way you look at it!) as far as we know, is almost nil unless of course it may have happened but we were not aware of it.

So despite the many challenges, that fact remains, our G&G concept has proven to deter crime from happening here, so far. And we hope that will be the case in the coming days, weeks and months. However, we are also making a concerted effort to cross check this fact with the Police. This will be published once the results do come in.

And so the security of our neighbourhood in USJ 11/3 will remain our number one priority. You have that assurance from the committee members. We are already agressively addressing some of the problems which are complex in nature that have cropped up. And after that, we will refine the system further.

But based on the comments received, we believe some of the residents still do not understand what we are trying to do. We are aware that there are still loopholes and visitors passes are still not imposed, etc. But again, we would like to reiterate that it will be imposed but those measures will be carried out in stages. But for now, our priority is to fix our biggest headache and that is the access road on USJ 11/3K.

Once that is done, the rest will follow. So please be patient, especially to the residents who live along USJ 11/3K. Please give us more time as we are looking at the situation and studying all the possibilities before making our next step.

On another note, the committee members will be putting together a "Deeparaya" celebration. The core organizers will be Bala, Siva, Bakri and Shahrul. It will probably be pot-luck style and it will be sometime at the end of October. More of that when we have more information for you later.

Thank you.

The Committee
11 Trees @ USJ