I went to Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, I notice their buildings, parks and underground stations are clean and quite well maintained.

But compared to Malaysia, I just don't understand why our buildings are so run down after just a few years.

Eg 1: Zoo Negara's panda enclosure, when first open it was clean and nice, after just a few years, the roof is dirty and blackened
Eg 2: I visited Aquaria 10 years ago vs recently, it looked quite run down.
Eg 3: KLIA, when first opened, it was fantastic, modern and clean. But toilets are dirty, until recently they nbothered to do something about it, but you could see it being a bit run down. Trains kept breaking down.

Is it because of the humid weather? or is it just because the authorities hold back budget for maintenance or cleaning bill ?

I give another example, bus stops, roof leak, MRT station looks dirty.

Why we can't have 1st class maintenance?

Even Bangkok is cleaner than here.

weather hot

lack of maintenance and upgrading

Actually right…those countries that you went to…also got run down facilities….

The ones you visited happened to be well maintained

Maintenance not our culture

a lot factor to consider but something never change is that, since from 1980, we carry this mindset and culture :

-if no one pay me why i should do it mindset
-only take care myself mindset
-tidak apa attitude , no empathy , no consideration mindset
-no moral mindset
-no self awareness, no self pro-active action mindset
-no do thing for greater good mindset

sadly i was told not only malaysia have this mindset but other country also

users: especially japanese citizens, tend to take care of public spaces. it’s not quite the same in hong kong or taiwan, but to be fair, they also have fewer foreign workers compared to us. not trying to bad-mouth anyone but many are here to earn a living, so it's understandable if they don’t feel as connected to our infrastructure.

dedicated dept: in japan, some departments are internal, but over here it’s mostly outsourced. their inspections are very detailed .some even include air quality checks. they’re also more frequent, and reports or stats on station cleanliness are often made public. here, most of cleaning staff are also foreign workers… so we’re kind of back to the first issue.

audit: some transport companies even use “mystery inspectors” who go through the system like regular passengers to quietly assess things like cleanliness, staff behavior, and whether basic facilities are in order (like toilet paper stocked, floors not slippery, etc.).

feedback: they also tend to take this issue very seriously. not just after something goes viral on social media.

either not enough funds to do frequent repair & maintenance, or want to skimp on repair & maintenance until it really gets bad

but for your eg 3 KLIA toilets are okay though, unless if you are talking about KLIA1 then I don't know much about it since I only go through KLIA2

One could bring a man out from village but couldn't bring village out from the man.

Because of tidak apa attitude..
In Singapore, land of complainers, everything also kena complain. So maintenance will be upkept.

So sometimes, good to have a high populace of complainers.

Bukan, Org Dept maintenance selalu ambil MC. So byk kerja dah backlog. Bukan tak nak buat.

Ni claim drpd HOD

only bad thing happens, they will only look into it, then forget again until next big incident

it was!
then became not

maintenance means WORK
if u know u know la
not nice to mention

budget only for building stuff... after few years, things become kaput or new boss no likey old stuff, whip out another budget to replace them. so no point maintain2... also easy to budget for new instead of maintain.

owa--

1. Budget Mentality: Numbers Without Understanding

Most public facility budgets are set by non-technical administrators — people who have never operated or maintained a building, yet hold full control over funding.
They often rely on outdated or flawed cost baselines.
Statements like:
“This infra was maintained at RM X per square foot — why can’t this infra do the same?”
…are thrown around without context, without asking:

Was the reference infra even comparable?
Did it suffer from deferred maintenance?
Were critical systems ignored?

This is further complicated by the fact that many budget decisions are made in isolation from engineers and operations personnel. The result = chronic underfunding, unrealistic expectations, and eventual system failures.

2. Maintenance Mentality: Blind Execution Without Optimization

Many facility management teams simply follow the installation — no questions asked. There's no culture of optimization, no incentive to improve system efficiency.
Take this example:

A government building has an oversized chiller system. Operation logs show poor part-load performance — one chiller running inefficiently while the system was designed for 2 duty + 1 standby.

An engineer might recommend system adjustments to reduce energy waste — but in many public buildings:
No such initiative exists.
No optimization is done.
There’s fear of being blamed if something goes wrong.

The risk-reward model is broken:
Success? It's "your job anyway."
Failure? You're accountable.
Do nothing? You're safe.

Worse, many maintenance teams are under-qualified. They keep operation manuals pristine in drawers, but few understand how to read or apply the content. The majority of technicians are skilled in routine tasks — but not in system-level thinking.

3. Societal Mentality: Misuse from the Ground Up

Even with good systems and design, public facilities get trashed when society treats them poorly.
Toilets are the classic example:

People squat on toilet seats with shoes, fearing they're dirty — leaving behind shoe stains for the next user.
They don’t flush, don’t clean, don’t care.

It’s not a facility problem. It’s a mindset problem.
Even the best infrastructure can’t survive if the users themselves are careless or self-centred.

~

What Needs to Change?
a) Rethink Budgeting in Public Projects
Stop treating technical input as an afterthought.
Involve engineers and FM professionals during budget planning — not after problems arise.
Don’t expect “first-class maintenance” with a “third-world budget.”

b) Raise the Bar for Maintenance Teams
Encourage system optimization. Provide training.
Shift the mindset from “just follow procedure” to “how can this be improved?”
Reward smart risk-taking and proactive improvements.

c) Start Character Education at Home
No, schools can't fix everything.
Parents need to teach their children basic respect for public space, hygiene, and shared responsibility.
If adults model poor behaviour, how can the next generation behave any better?

cut cost mentality, material cost goes up can accept.
but manpower cost always want to cut.
The budget allocation will focus on cutting operational costs from manpower/ maintenance.

New infrastructure build can claim done under certain politician. Bigger the project the bigger claim can be made.

Maintenance work, cannot claim.

Mana lokasi yg paling sesuai untuk membina Nuclear Plant?

Buat 3 biji dah cukup Malaysia ke arah kemakmuran.

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This post has been edited by nihility: Jun 3 2025, 05:27 PM