I might have been dead.

One word to describe the powers that be in the place I live. TARDY.

Problems are not solved even though it is voiced. Long time ago.

For example, our toilet's drainage pipe is clogged, and all water is trapped in our toilet. Thus the flood.

The corridor lights are broken, and reports are made, but there's no action thus far. It's been weeks.

The corridor floor is not mopped. Cat poo from the last lifetime is now cat poo fossil.

There are cockroaches [big and small] living in our bathroom.

Usually when there is an overload on the electricity, the fuse would burn up or some whatever-it's-called would jump and send the whole block into darkness. This time, the circuit room located at the ground floor of our block [which has the electricity of the café and the next block tied up to it] gave three loud bangs, and gave a burnt smell. But nothing happened after that. No blackout, nothing. Detecting the sound and smell, some of the concerned ones alerted the JAKSA and two of them appeared. But one of them, the non-qualified electrician, attempted to be a full-fledged electrician and shut down the whole block's power supply.

This whole thing pissed me off because… haiya, I dono how to explain, just read the letter I have prepared for the person-in-charge, whoever that might be.

{sentences or words in brackets {} and italics are not in the original letter to avoid finger-pointing sentiment and to reduce sarcasm towards the people mentioned}

~~~

To the one reading this letter,

Recently there was a scare in the block K2C from the circuit room. There were three loud bangs from the room, and there was a burning smell following it. Concerns were raised from only a few people, while the rest assumed it was nothing [it probably was nothing, but then again, it could have been a warning sign of electrical fire]. JAKSA were alerted, so were the fellows. {Actually, 2 fellows were alerted, but everything was pushed to this one fellow, namely AB. It gives me the impression that everyone thinks he is Mr Superman himself, seeing how everyone flocks his way whenever there's trouble.}

I was in the library peacefully doing my revision for my next exam paper on the following day, when my friend who accompanied me received a message from her neighbour about the loud bang, and in the midst of worry we decided to head back to see what went on in case it was an emergency [in case we needed to evacuate.] When we arrived, the NYDP and the head of Information Bureau were there at the circuit room, it seemed to me NYDP was trying to decide what the problem was, and I went on a tirade of what might happen [a fire]. And afterwards, NYDP shut down the power source for the whole block without warning {I was trying to tell him to wait for the electrician to come before doing anything, but he played hero anyways and shut down the whole supply. I shudder to think what would have happened if he got electrocuted or something}, and sending some people into panic. My friend from the library frantically packed her stuff, got ready to evacuate, while I did the same, warning my roommate on the second floor to do same too. We came out, and not long after the power was turned back on, and I headed into the corridor to see what went down.

The electrician was there with a few ladies, [I have no idea who, but it seemed they were among the people who alerted the fellow] and then the fellow {AB} himself came in. {I usually have a lot of respect for this guy, but at that time I was furious at how everyone thought of only him and not the electrician at this point. This is a POWER problem for god's sake, what can he do about it? Call the damn electrician already!!! DAMASS.} Afterwards [at this point I have already left the college for my safety] when checking again with the situation, I was informed that the electrician said "Everything has been checked by the technician. If anything happens, we'll call fellow." What? The next time anything happens it might already be the fire. The person we should be calling would be the fire brigade instead of the fellow, seeing how they have a red truck with super giant pipes to put out fire and the fellows do not.

Anyways, what I am trying to say is, from what I heard from a third year senior, K2C has been having electrical problems since she was in first year. This means this is the third year this has been happening.

Questions I would like to post:

1. Were there any REAL repair done to solve the problem? Because from what I saw, the electrician didn't do anything substantial to repair, and the diagnosis was that "Everything has been checked." Did I mention that there were 3 loud bangs, plus a burning smell? And just LOOKING at the circuit board is not classified as "everything checked" in my sense.
   
2. And if there WAS repair done, was there any maintenance? This concerns the lives of the residents in the block, so I am very sure maintenance is MANDATORY and COMPULSORY to ensure safety. If there was no maintenance, I would like to ask WHY? Did UKM not pay whoever's-in-charger enough money, is it because of pure laziness and tardiness, or is this pure negligence?
   
3. Why is the fire-drill not done early in the first semester? I realise that there are other colleges that have postponed their fire-drills too but still I would ask the same question, WHY NOT THIS SEMESTER? The freshmen do not know where the emergency exits are, they would not be organised, and most important of all, THEY DO NOT HAVE THE AWARENESS TO RUN FOR THEIR LIVES WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS! Today has been a perfect example of that. Can we safely assume that any fire would only happen after we have our fire-drill, no matter WHEN we have it? If that is the case then I suggest we cancel the whole fire-drill concept. Because nobody has the sense of urgency to take it seriously anyway.
   

Other than raising my concern over what happened today, I would like to post out a few challenges faced by the residents in our block, K2C.

First of all, the cleanliness leaves much to be desired. The residents on the first storey face the problem of the "store corner". It is dirty, smelly, has cat poo and has the remnants of rubbish in it. On the same storey, the toilet sinks are clogged.

The second storey is not better. In the toilet, the drainage pipe from the third storey leaks and this leakage has been around since I was in first year. And this time it is worse because the drainage pipe of the second storey is clogged. In conclusion, water comes in but cannot go out, thus our toilet is flooded. Which means it is smelly, dirty and intolerable to the point that we have to go other storeys to settle our "human waste disposal" problems. The bathroom is not cleaned properly, thus it is very slippery, and has cockroaches living in it. The floor is not mopped AT ALL, and when the cleaners DRAG OUT the rubbish [and all its juiciness] on the floor, it leaves a "rubbish water" trail. Like I said, the floor is not mopped at all, and this trail is just left to dry. If you notice, the entrance to first and second storey of K2C are lined with rubbish water trail and super dried up cat poo [it's now cat poo fossil, actually].

The corridor light which is spoilt and reported weeks ago is not repaired. Is the report book checked daily or annually?

Why is life so miserable for us?

Can something be done about this misery?

And can this something be done immediately? Maybe NOW would be a good time.

Please?!?!?!?! This is not a request anymore; this is a cry for help. {TMD you people can do some work around here or not? TMD so damn angry have to live in dirt hell everyday!!!!}

From a concerned {and bloody pissed off} K2C resident,

Poh Roe Jin (A111108), K2C 314

~~~

I really hope after handing the letter to whomever it may concern, there would be some improvement around here. The powers that be are really slow this year. Has the trend of Malaysia seeped deep into these people? The trend of talk loud loud, but do 少少。

After the part where the fellow appeared in the block, I was feeling so damn blardy tulan, I didn't wanna talk to him or say hi or whatever. I was looking for an excuse to leave asap, and tried to call my friend but couldn't get her. I hung up, determined to try again, then she called me. I was like, "Hallelujah", and she asked me to join her to go the social science faculty to study. After which we headed back to the college, tapau-ed and ate. We decided to not return to our rooms and sleep in a secret place [that I cannot mention in case someone else is reading this blog post]. Thus, I am here, after one round of full revision, at 5.44am blogging on my Microsoft office word 2007. I shall publish it directly from the programme [whoopee!] later when I have internet connection. Hahaha…

But actually truth be told, I damn bloody tulan. These people have no sense of urgency when it has already come down to matters of life and death. I really damn tulan. You try to make them move their ass to evacuate in case there's a fire, but them being kampong people, you can't be too graphic and explicit about it, in case they all tmd panic like the kampong people that they are but find out it's actually no big deal and then say you tried to scare them. And then kena scolding for giving false alarm. You say I susah or not susah?

Update: There's been another loud bang around 6am, and I just got to know about it not too long ago [I wasn't in my room to know] and the relevant personnel have been alerted. I told her too tell the electrician that even if he has to shut down the power supply to the whole block or whatever, just dismantle everything and check everything thoroughly. It is our lives that's at stake here.

UPDATE #2:
This Just In - The electrical mishap that happened was due to the flooded toilet in the second floor.
Which brings me to my next point. why wasn't the toilet fixed? it has been problematic for a long time, and it has to take an event like this for the problem to be highlighted.
One unsolved problem led to another.