Looking Forward as To Who The Next New Councillors

All of us at the Independent Living and Training Centre are eagerly looking forward as to who the next new councillors will be, especially those representing people with disabilities.

The names are scheduled to be announced at any time now. All councillors lose their post on Tuesday, next week, and the new ones will be sworn-in on Wednesday.

We strongly support Anthony SB Thanasayan, the president of the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and the Elderly Association (PETPOSITIVE) to be reinstated for the third time as councillor for the city of Petaling Jaya in Selangor.

We support his candidacy because in two short years he has succeeded to bring about remarkable changes for the disabled in PJ. In fact, he has achieved much, much more than all the disabled groups in PJ have managed to do in years.

Meanwhile, we at ILTC have learnt that there is a very desperate attempt by a disabled woman to try and get his place as councillor. Also a resident of PJ, she apparently has been eyeing Thanasayan's seat since last year.

Sources told us that she tried her best to lobby all of Pakatan's politicians and even the Datuk Bandar and the Chief Minister to try and get Thanasayan out. However, she failed miserably in her attempts.

This year, she is trying to do the same through very low down and unscrupulous means. Professing to be a champion for women with disabilities, she has been promoting the "disabled woman" ticket to try and get Thanasayan out.

In her blog, she has suggested that Thanasayan is moving to Klang instead of staying put in MBPJ. Her latest lie is a clear demonstration of how low this woman will stoop and to what extent just to destroy a good councillor's reputation.

However, the fact is the woman concerned is a failure herself. Despite being in the disability field for nearly two decades, she has done squat to help disabled Malaysians in all that time.

Instead, using the "disabled cause" she shamefully only bettered herself rather than the people she was meant to help. She traveled around the world to disability conferences (so that she can visit countries) and never did anything to help the disabled in Malaysia.

In addition to enjoying free overseas travels, she has also won several awards with cash prize money for herself instead of disqualifying herself from such privileges and allowing the ordinary members to take part in the benefits.

In fact, disabled groups have protested against her for denying memberships in an organisation in which she was in for many years. She has done nothing to change the plight of the disabled in all that time.

She is loathed by many disability groups and many of them want to have nothing to do with her. She is an utter disappointment and disgrace to the disabled struggle and community.

It is for these reasons why we at the ILTC are strongly opposed of her ever becoming a councillor for the Pakatan Government.

The disabled community have waited too long for changes and we will not sit idly by as hypocrites like these are allowed to be appointed and disrupt any chances for the disabled community to come up in life.

We are quite prepared to hold a public demonstration against her and the people who put her there if she is selected as a councillor. There are enough hypocrites already holding high positions without an extra one being added on the list, especially a disabled one.

On another note, we are anxiously looking at Selayang to see if a disabled councillor will be appointed there since a disabled councillor was replaced by an able-bodied representative a year ago.

Many of the projects proposed by the then disabled councillor have not been followed up and thus it is crucial that a handicapped councillor be put into Selayang to carry out the disabled-friendly plans in the municipality.

From,

Mr. Francis Siva

President of ILTC, Malaysia