A community that works together stays together

The increasing crime rate in BK3 has driven the residents to take matters into their own hands.

With that in mind, the way to go for the residents is to form a Residents Association (RA), and get support from the community to have their own hired security patrols. A few residents took the initiatives, starting to share the thoughts with the community.

As a result, the idea started to gain momentum. A few meetings later, majority of the residents from BK3/3 to BK3/6  have agreed to form an RA, with the purpose of having more controls over the hiring of security guards to patrol the area, at the same time put up some perimeter fencing, boom gates and guard posts at strategic locations, to make the area safer.

Besides that, the RA also hope to organize more community events to get the residents to know each other better in the future.

 

Residents gathered for a briefing

Soon ideas started to become reality. The first order of business is to get the perimeter fencing up, follow by setting up guard posts and boom gates. The residents chose one weekend to come out in droves, to clear the perimeter area of the housing area, and take measurements for the necessary work. It was hard work for the residents over a weekend, but the "gotong royong" effort seemed to bring the community closer, no one was complaining.

Residents "gotong royong" to clean up the area for fencing

George chopping down plants for perimeter fencing

Thumbs up by residents after a hard day of "gotong royong"

 
Sometimes it is hard to imagine how quickly things can move when everyone put their brains together and work as a team. The support from the residents have been overwhelming. Some "rukun tetangga" patrolling by residents, some fund collection; before you know it, the fencing is up, and boom gates were installed. For a safer community, most residents just accept the little inconvenience it caused.

"Rukun tetangga" gang at night

Fencing work in progress

Workers working on boom gates

There is no doubt there are still a lot of details that need to be ironed out. It is far from perfect. However, with the support of the whole community, the RA committee is determined to come up with solutions best suited for all.

It is time to make our home safe, BK3 is our home.

Time to fight.

It has been three months since we talked to SPNB, and we are getting nothing out of them.

The promise of coming up with a satisfactory answer regarding the realignment of LRT tracks and relocation of station no. 5 is just an empty promise. While we are able to call and talk to their representatives, we are just not getting a firm answer from them.

Residents being informed of the latest LRT news

We thought the thing can be discussed and settled amicably. Turn out that SPNB is probably playing "Tai Chi" with us, with no intention to seriously looking into our problems.

Just like so many typical Malaysian politicians, SPNB thinks that may be by dragging the whole thing long enough, we will just give up and go away.

So last Saturday we decided to gather the residents to tell them about the whole situation. To our surprise there are many residents who are still in the dark about the whole LRT extension thing.

"Really, the track will be at our green lung area?"

"You mean there is a station here?"

So the time has come for us to really reach out, inform all residents, and get full support from them. Only then we able to put enough pressure for SPNB to really take some action.

BK 3 residents at the briefing

More residents should get involved, more voices should be heard, and more signatures should be collected to show our concern.

We must remember the track and station will be here forever, bringing with them all the social ills, parking woes, security issues, and cutting down the trees at our green area. SPNB will just build it, wash their hands and go away while we have to face this for the rest of our lives.

We want to meet the residents again. This time ALL BK residents should be involved. Everyone should inform their neighbours, friends and relatives to show their support before it is too late.

It is time to make some noise.

Let's keep BK 3 the way it is, quiet and peaceful.

No worries, you said...

With the impending construction of LRT station no. 5 in BK 3 very soon, what is going to happen to our neighborhood in the future?

The residents must understand once the structure is built, it will be permanent. There will be no going back telling SPNB we don't want it anymore, it will be there forever.

Let's start by looking at some of the issues that may arise, starting with security.

No one can deny that there is a crime problem in our area. There were never ending break-ins after break-ins. Every time you talk to someone from our area you hear new stories. Many cases even happened during day time, with residents inside their houses.

 

My own house was broken into a couple of years ago. A brand new laptop that just arrived a few days before was taken, together with some other valuables. 

Luckily none of us was at home during that time. So we came away with some losses but no one got hurt.

Others were not so lucky. Recent news reported an old man was set on fire and burnt to death by burglars in Perak. Another piece of news reported a housewife was gang raped by eight intruders in Johor. 

These are just a few of the daily occurrences we find reported in the newspaper. In actual fact there are many more. Although some of these crimes happened not in our area, it can actually happen here.

Just the other day one of my neighbors went out briefly to get "nasi lemak" early in the morning. When she came back she saw a motorbike parked in front of her house.

One moment later an intruder walked out from her house carrying laptops, handphones and some other valuables, hopped on the bike and rode off.

All these happened right before her eyes. She yelled and horned but the intruder was just ignoring her. Believe it or not, all these happened while her husband and kids were still sleeping inside her house.

Another neighbor also told me there was this one time after she parked her car in front of her house, got out, a guy riding a motorbike approached her right away with a "parang". Thank god she was not hurt but her purse and handphone were taken. Her family had since moved away.

There are many similar stories.  

Why do you think there are suddenly so many residents having dogs in their houses? Yes, there are many dog lovers out there, but the main reason is to scare off intruders.

BK 3 residents in general has been the target of burglars for the fact that there are just too many entrances to our area where outside intruders can come and go as they please. 

So what has that got to do with the new LRT station?

  

Basically it is very simple, security will get worse once the new station no. 5 is constructed here in BK 3. 

With a LRT station here, BK 3 will become a public area. Anyone can come in and out as they wish. We no longer can question why that motorbike is circling our area all the time, or why a stranger is driving a car through BK 3 so frequently. They will say they are going to the station and there is nothing we can do about it.

We can no longer control who goes in and out of BK 3 area.

We can also forget about hiring security guard service for our area anymore. It is not going to work with so many outsiders in our area. No security guard will be able to do the job.

While all these may sound scary, it is something that we must really think about if we want a LRT station here in BK 3. It is already a proven fact that with a LRT station so close to the residential area, crime rate increases.

Still no worries?