Penang Watch

Our Aim

Our aim is to support the Federal and State Governments in their stated aims of making the MPPP (and all local authorities) an accountable, transparent and efficient administration with the ultimate objective of making George Town a healthy city as defined by the Healthy City Initiative.

How We Operate

The traditional method of lodging a complaint - by letter, telephone or personally - is effective only if the complaint gets to right person in authority and he/she acts on it. Usually the letter is misplaced or the right person is not at his desk to answer the telephone. Penang Watch offers a unique and effective service to see to the settlement of complaints:

1. We help to forward complaints to the right person(s) -- we have full lists of all persons in charge in the Council and the entire government with their phones, fax and email addresses whenever possible.
2. Remind the person in charge till the complaints are acted upon! You need to update us to let us know if your complaint has not been acted upon in a reasonable time frame eg 1-2 week to responds to a letter. Please keep us inform if the problem is solved so we can keep track of the time to solve each problem. If you can locate and forward your complaint to the right person by yourself (eg referring to our directory on person-in-charge in the Council) you can copy your complaint to us and keep us informed.
3. Build up a profile of complaints sent to every department/officials in the Council- so we can use the "name and shame" approach to get government officials to act. This is done by publicizing their complaints pile-up in this web site; publishing them in regular press conferences; # When a complaint is settled the before and after photos will be added to our 'applause' section to reflect our effectiveness!

Effective Ways To Make Complaints

1. It is recommendable to follow the hierarchy of decision making in and around the MPPP to pressure all levels of authorities relevant to your complaint. The hierarchy goes something like this:
   1. Departments in MPPP # MPPP Chairman (Dato' Zainal Rahim bin Seman )
   2. Alternate - Chairperson of Councilors' Permanent Committees
   3. Exco in charge of Local Government (Chow Kon Yeow)
   4. Chief Minister of Penang (Lim Guan Eng)
   5. Minister of Local Government (Ong Ka Chuan)
2. The lists for all the person-in-charge for each of the steps are here in this web site - do check to locate the exact person in charge for your complaint to affect speediest redress. Going to the wrong person may allow your complaint to be sent up or down - and waste your precious time. Locating the actual person in charge allow us to pressure him/her through his/her superiors.
3. There is also a hierarchy in terms of the forms of complaints actions - do adopt the form appropriate to your situation. Starting from the lightest form of complaint to the heaviest:
   1. Personal Letter
   2. Phone call
   3. Individual meeting with Council officer
   4. Group meeting with Council officer
   5. Meeting with Council Chairperson
   6. Meeting with Councilor
   7. Meeting with State Government
      It is also advisable to publicise the meeting to the press to put the complaint on public records - and put the person-in-charge under pressure to attend to the problems.
4. Follow up on complaint is the key to success in getting attention. Don't ever give up! It is hoped that this will encourage a more efficient, responsive, open and transparent local government in medium terms.

Who Are We?

We are a group of Penang residents who love Penang, remember it as a gracious and wonderfully livable place, and wish to see improvements for the benefit of all. We welcome other residents and NGOs to join us.

Penang Watch was founded by Penang Heritage Trust (PHT) and Save Ourselves (SOS) and is now solely run by SOS. The members of its Steering Committee are:

1. Ahmad Chik (Chairperson)
2. Anwar Fazal
3. Goh Ban Lee
4. Ong Boon Keong (Coordinator)

The web developer of Penang Watch is Kris Khaira. The Chinese version of Penang Watch is provided by Penangmedia.com.

Also listen to the recording of our launch at archive.org.

Our Vision And Roadmap

To spread this movement for public accountability on Penang island to all local governments in Malaysia. Our interim target time frame is 2 years/24 months, starting from Oct 2005.

Contribute

You may support us by :

1. Spreading word of this web site
2. Sending in your photos of complaints
3. Sending
   us copies of the complaints that you send by letters, emails, SMSs, and
   faxes directly to the authorities. This is to enable us to follow up on
   your behalf.
4. make a donation (see below)
5. Be a Ranger for Penang Watch
   
   Let others with complaints know about our service. Let them enjoy the
   success of making complaints. You can join us to become a Ranger to do
   outings in the neighborhoods to identify complaints which people have
   given up hope on solving for whatever reasons there may be.
   Let all complaints be settled with due attention.
   Let no one be denied the justice they deserve.

Donations and Endorsements

Endorsers welcome! Penang Watch welcome more NGOs and civil society groups (Residents Associations, Youth bodies etc) to become the Endorsers of this initiative. We also welcome individuals!

For anyone who are interested to donate, please bank your donations into our current account:

Bank Account Name: Sos Trading
Bank Account No.: 507059522283
Bank Name: Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank)
Bank Routing/SWIFT Code (for overseas transfer): MBBEMYKL
Bank Address:
1, Arked Ria Satu,
KOMTAR, 10000 Penang
MALAYSIA