I am a little relieved now. The Department of Enviroment (DOE) has appointed a company to repack the drums. The work would take about 2 weeks and it has started since last Saturday despite it was a non working day and raining too. The repacking of the drums would only minimized the release of the gases from the drums.

This immediate action taken by DOE, I believe was due to the pressure of the united force, the residents who held a protest outside the factory and followed by a meeting with the Deputy Director General of DOE Perak. In fact, I gave the phone number of the officer at DOE Ipoh to the residents, who hardly could speak proper Bahasa and requested them to call personally to lodge a verbal complaint. I told the “grandmothers and grandfathers” to just say, “mahu cakap dengan Encik Chen” to the operator and once the line is transferred, just speak in Cantonese. At the same time, I called and faxed in the details to Putrajaya.

The officers who were vested with the power in giving approval at Putrajaya may not know the pressure that his officers were going through in Ipoh. At least, with the united force, the residents had succeeded in assisting the officers at DOE Ipoh to carry out their responsibilities in taking this action. The battle has not ended because the court order has yet to be obtained from the Judge. Once the court order is obtained, the drums would be removed from the location, I was told.

I was telling myself, at least this time, I do not need to trouble our Prime Minister to see some actions taken by the civil servants!