My email to Datuk Sr Bernard Liew Chau Min - director of Land and Survey

                                                                 

Dear Datuk Sr Bernard Liew Chau Min,

I refer to my several emails to you over the past year concerning the falsified as-built survey used in order to obtain the occupancy certificate for Vistana Heights project.

Dr. Faisal Luqman, a Malay born in Sabah and who brought fame to Sabah by being the top student in Sabah and being the only student to get the Agong’s scholarship for doing his Ph.D in the US is the owner of unit no 15 at Vistana Heights.

I complained on Dr. Faisal’s behalf to you a number of times and have yet to get a response from you.

 

This is very unbecoming of a civil servant who is expected to help the public when the latter encounters problems and complain to you about surveys done.

Your attitude in dealing with my complaint is the same as that of your staff whom I have dealt with. An example will be your LS Datuk Anthony C. Linggian @ Chong Yuk Ken who acted as if he owned the board. On one occasion at a meeting he asked me to extend him a letter stating that we had delayed in submitting the survey. I told him specifically that we had submitted all the documents as required long before the due date. He arrogantly replied that we would not get a payment unless we gave him the letter. My boss at that time gave him the letter because of the threat by Anthony Chong. You may check the files in your department.

On another occasion at a meeting in Keningau among about 14 licensed surveyors I said that we could improve the speed of doing work at the department if staff came to work on time. I gave him examples of instances when staff came to work late and then ended up in the canteen. Soon after we received a letter declaring that only licensed surveyors would be allowed at future meetings.

I had no way of taking up the matter further as it was a decision to be made by my boss.

This time, however, I have this matter in my hand and I want to make sure this problem faced by Dr. Faisal is resolved amicably. You can’t be sweeping this matter under the carpet. I have given you and LJS as well as the Ministry of Local Government and Housing enough time to resolve this matter.

Your website, among other matters, says:

‘As a department under the Chief Minister, JTU takes the lead on land management and administration in the State of Sabah. Among its areas of jurisdiction are matters related to Lands, Surveys, Land development, Valuations, and Law enforcement of Sabah Land Ordinance Cap 68. In our effort to make JTU a competitive department in the public service of the State of Sabah, I hope that this official website will be a helpful channel and as a resource for visitors to get the latest information related to this department and will bring JTU closer to the people by providing two-ways communication.’

Tell me Bernard, what you mean by ‘two-way’ communication if you don’t even bother to answer emails. If JTU is a department under the Chief Minister is your negligence not a smear on his face.

You should buck up and do what you are paid to do or resign from your post.

I request a response to this email and action taken immediately to resolve the problem at hand.

Thank you and kind regards,

Luqman Michel

Note:

Here is a comment on Facebook on my post yesterday.

Kandiah Namas

LM, I agree with what you have said in the two instances. Tony had been behaving like a dictator in the L&S, as Asst. Director. He could arbitrarily delay processing the payments of L.Ss, delay survey plan approval processing, deny further survey contracts etc by way of penalizing those L.Ss who do not comply with his decisions/demands. One time he demanded a letter you spoke of, saying that the LS submitted the papers late. That was because he failed to process that L.S's claims, but was waiting for other L.Ss to submit their papers; in other words, trying to save the asses of those L.S friend-buddies. He was such a vicious individual and of arrogance; there was no chance to appeal to the then Director because he too didn't want to disturb Tony's shenanigans, for reasons known to the director himself. One example was that an L.S. who defied Tony's demands, his payment was delayed for over two three years, plan was never approved. Even after the matter went up to the CM's office, the LS never got his payment, in frustration, he left the LS job and settled in Australia. The entire system was corrupted to the hilt at that period, your Boss would have had no way of doing what you would have preferred.