Pavilion crisis.

 On 25th March 2021, Noraini Roslan, the mayor of Subang Jaya, announced that Majlis  Bandaraya Subang Jaya (MBSJ) is giving leeway for residents to plant outside their houses provided that three conditions were  made; no  obstruction, no health risk, and  no safety risk. The announcement was published in The Star and beamed across all media  channels. Following the announcement, I  planted a row  of trees at the road curb of Persiaran Puchong Jaya Selatan, as no resident would  be able to  complain about the plantings as it is away from  residential houses. I called  this  tree planting project   the 'Green Canopy Pavilion'. I will use the term  Pavilion for the convenience of addressing the project.  I planted the trees  from the junction of Bayan Hill Homes all the way to  the road cornering near Vistaria  Residence, and entered the trees into the federal government's 100 Juta Pokok campaign. The trees planted were saga trees, which were similar to species used by MBSJ, and had the tendency to regrow from their stumps.

On 22nd June 2022, MBSJ  sent a corporate staff and two workers to  go and cut a 3m section of trees from 12:45pm to 1:00pm. They arrived via  motorbikes. The corporate  staff was wearing MBSJ's  corporate uniform while the two  other men wore lime-colored traffic vests.  The next day, between 11:30am and 12:30pm, on 23rd June 2022, a yellow  enforcement  tape was installed at the site, presumably  by MBSJ staff, plastering the whole stretch of the road. The tape was removed on 30th June  2022. No notice was issued by MBSJ. 

On  4th October 2022, between 10:30am and 12:30pm, MBSJ sent a team of workers, armed with parangs, to cut the  trees, alongside a  lorry to clear them. The workers either slashed the trees with parangs or ripped them  from the soil if healthy. They cut the trees closest  to Bayan Hill Homes. This stretch was  restored and regrown.

On 5th January 2023, MBSJ changed the landscaping contractor  from  KDEB Waste Management  to Terus Gemilang Enterprise.  The former contractor only cuts the  grass once a month, on the first week. The latter cuts the grass on the first and third week of  the  month, and its workers  sweep the leaves  twice weekly. The team is led by the following individuals which  I  will refer to as nicknames: Mr Supervisor (the supervisor for the area), Mr Hench (grass cutter), Mr Wok (grass cutter), Kak Ita (her real name, sweeping  leaves) and another Indonesian man who also sweeps leaves but is  not directly affected by the conflict.  

On 26th February 2023, during Tempua's gotong royong session, Mr Daniel Kok,  the secretary of Ng Seow Chen, told me that MBSJ intended to cut the trees down so that a walkway can be built to connect Vistaria Residences to Tempua. He said the walkway was for the convenience of the students of SMK Bandar Puchong  Jaya B. He hinted that the walkway  will allow for easier maintenance as there is less grass to cut. When I enquired Mr Daniel on the mayor's statement on 25th March 2021 and that I was merely following the statement of the mayor, Mr Daniel said I had  demonstrated  full understanding and confirmed that the mayor's instruction was still valid as of  Feb 2023. He told  me that I should save as many trees as possible before the city council came  to cut it down. He said that MBSJ will remove the trees within the next two months. When I asked Mr Daniel how he knew  I was the  one planting the trees, he said that everyone knew about it and laughed wholeheartedly. Mr Daniel  accepted my reasoning for planting the trees. The gotong royong exercise  was to clear a section of my garden to build another walkway near the school at Jalan Tempua 3, which commenced construction on 19th July 2023, and concluded on 19th August 2023. 

On  24th March 2023, MBSJ sent six men from MBSJ's in-house landscape department to cut the trees from 10:30am to 12:30pm. The men, led by a guy I will address as  Mr Ahmad, arrived in a black Proton Saga. Two of the men sexually harassed me by giving me a lewd gesture. The rest  of  the men were generally friendly but also asking on the trees. Following  the incident, I lodged a complaint to MBSJ on the harassment. The MBSJ admin manning the complaints hotline told me that  the MBSJ will treat the matter as a "special case", but however,  no further follow up was made. Mr Ahmad and his men returned on 27th March to clear the stuff using a lorry. They got angry at me for reinstating the cut branches as supports to protect the cut trees, and also tossing away some of the branches, which they collected. That  evening, I messaged Mr Daniel. He told me that there  was no set timeframe to build the walkway and  that the request for allocation and confirmation was submitted to the state government for consideration. Mr Daniel also said that more trees will be  removed if they were not planted by MBSJ and he had said that the reason that MBSJ had to do it was that the trees had caused burden and obstruction to future works. He did not explain to me what was the burden and obstruction when I messaged him. Mr Daniel said that MBSJ had to spend a lot of money to cut the trees which could have had been used elsewhere, and it had caused the original tree cutting budget to increase more than what was originally planned, and told me not to plant trees anymore. He said that this increase resulted in the delay of the walkway. However, I had a sixth sense that no walkway construction will happen due to the engineering considerations at one end of the route, where a cliff and mountainous area will need to be flattened via earthworks to build the walkway. Mr Daniel did not manage to answer further questions I posted to him via WhatsApp. He was a generous and transparent man who  never resisted the urgency to answer any  questions  I posted to him and was very  friendly and approachable.  He said that he was considered an MBSJ staff member. 

 Following  the tree cutting exercise, MBSJ told Terus Gemilang Enterprise's contractors to maintain  the condition of the landscape. Kak Ita conveyed this directive to me on 5th April 2023. However, three weeks later on 21st April, I placed the barricades back to protect the trees, which were growing back from their stumps. The trees regrew, and Kak Ita and I got caught in a tug-o-war match in which Kak Ita cleared the barricades, which were made of hard fern grass and branches, and tossed them aside, leading me to reinstate them back after she left. This made Kak Ita very angry with me, who cursed me on 9th and 29th May 2023. On 29th May, Kak Ita attempted to whack me with a stick, resulting in my mum  intervening in the matter. Apparently, Kak Ita got scolded by Mr Supervisor who accused her of not doing her job. This tug-o-war continued from May to July 2023, with Kak Ita removing the barricades and I myself reinstating them after she removed them during her leaf sweeping hours. Kak Ita stopped engaging at the site from August 2023. Kak Ita protested against Mr Supervisor, complaining about the meaningless and exhausting task. The trees regrew back and matured, restoring the site. In the meantime,  I stocked up as many unwanted items as possible, from sticks to recycled items, to prepare for the next tree cutting exercise  should MBSJ get involved again. I prepared a scenario on how MBSJ might respond should they spot the regrown trees. I also predicted how I will respond if the trees were cut down, as the only way to preserve the trees is to prepare for the cuttings, given how similar interventions by MBSJ on hilly slopes with trees near Kasawari, Skyville and Harcroft had occurred; MBSJ regularly cleared these areas in April every year beginning from 2021, which are visible on Jalan Kasawari. 

On 14th October 2024, MBSJ provided Terus Gemilang Enterprise, the contractor tasked to do grass cutting work at Persiaran Puchong Jaya Selatan, chainsaws to cut the trees I have planted by the roadside. The MBSJ was represented by Mr Director, who scolded Mr Supervisor for letting the trees grow  back up. Mr Director also oversaw the tree cutting process. When Mr Supervisor told me to come over to speak to Mr  Director, I walked away, upon Mr Benny advising me against talking to the workers following the March 2023 incident. This presumably resulted in Mr Director scolding Mr Supervisor for giving excuses. It took Mr Supervisor and  his  team  a total of three days to clear the site. Following the  clearing, on 17th October 2024, I barricaded some young saplings  with  fern grass from the bushes beside  the  cut trees. However, on 18th October, when Mr Supervisor arrived to do the job, he tossed the ferns aside and cut those saplings. When he saw me, he and his men got agitated. He was  riding a motorbike to send his workers to buy groceries and bring them home.  When he rode  down from the  hill  as I was walking  to Harcroft, he said, "You tanam pokok lagi" in an angry tone before I splashed water on him. The water missed him. He stopped his bike. I stood still  before going on his  way. I reported the incident to the Bayan security guards, who promised to speak to Mr Supervisor. I told the security guards, Mr Jalal and  Mr Sadam, about how Mr Supervisor behaved and what led me to trigger splashing water on him. They promised that they will speak to Mr Supervisor.

On 26th October, I spoke to Dog Aunty, a lady who brings her dogs to the Pavilion site, to report Mr Supervisor's incident. She has a total of six fierce dogs. Dog Aunty told me that Kak Ita had informed her that MBSJ was on the verge of changing the contractor. Kak Ita had informed her at least two weeks before the cutting that MBSJ will come and do the cutting, and that this information was communicated to the crew.   Dog Aunty told me that the MBSJ can mail a compound to my house. She told me that what I was doing is wrong. She was ignorant when I told her on what I spoke to Mr Daniel and that I had spoken with the MBSJ staff. She said that her house' plants, despite being planted outside the house, were okay, because her house is nearby. The next day, when Mr Supervisor came to do some other administrative work, Mr Jalal and Mr Sadam spoke to him. Mr Supervisor told Mr Jalal, that he and his workers were given a pay cut as punishment from the MBSJ, and were scolded by MBSJ. Conversely, MBSJ did not cut other residents' plants growing on the same green verge as mine. This was concerning as it raised questions of biasness.

On the weekend of 2nd and 3rd  November, I cut the fern grass and started protecting the trees from being destroyed by the grass cutting machines during the grass cutting exercise. The trees I planted were resprouting and the height of the stumps made it dangerous if no barricade was installed. The intention of protecting the trees was to create hassle for Mr Supervisor's team to remove the barricades and discourage him from doing so. On 6th November, Mr Supervisor and his team arrived to do grass cutting. They managed to cut the grass around the trees, and opened a small  gap using their hands so that their grass cutting machine can snip the branches.

From 15th to 17th November, I placed more fern grass on the trees to increase the workload for Mr Supervisor's team. When they arrived on 19th November to cut grass, the amount of workload was so heavy to the extent that they had to use a lorry to remove all the stuff, and only return on 20th November  to cut  the trees' shoots once they had finished all grass cutting on 19th November. Normally, Mr Supervisor would take 2 days to cut all grass at the entire stretch of Persiaran Puchong Jaya Selatan, and he would be preferring convenience of cutting the trees' shoots and grass simultaneously. However, since  I refused to cooperate with him, this resulted in difficulties for his team and  men, resulting in them taking 3 or more days to cut grass, given the length of the road from the Bukit Jalil Highway to  IOI Mall. 

In a last ditch effort, Mr Supervisor, fed up of having met with protests from his lorry team and Mr Hench and  Mr Wok, the grass cutters, of mass inconvenience, Mr Supervisor told Kak Ita to remove the stuff in advance on 30th November. This was an easy game; I reinstated the barricades and fern grass. His team ignored the trees on 7th December, during their grass cutting exercise. Seeing success, I placed more barricades. They returned on 14th December, a week later, to finish the job by removing all the  barricades and cutting the trees, during their  rest day, before cutting the grass on 19th December. 

On 1st January 2025, on New Year's Day, I barricaded the entire row of trees again. This led to Mr Supervisor and his team missing the trees on 6th January during their grass cutting exercise, and returning on 13th January, exactly seven days later, to finish the job of cutting the trees. They returned on 20th January to cut the grass.

This method, called the grass-tree-grass method, is coined by me because  the workers cut the grass on the first and third week of the month, and the tree cutting was done on a non grass cutting week, in the middle. The intention of that off-day intervention was  to ensure the trees were  tamed before the next grass cutting exercise.

On 31st January and 2nd February, I protected the trees and rebarricaded the site again. In a last ditch effort to resume convenient grass cutting, which I will bill as Option 1, and avoid the off-day cutting, which is Option 2, Mr Supervisor brought a lorry to the site and cleared off all the work I done. However, I reinstated all barricades, thus foiling his plans.  Mr Supervisor eventually delayed  the tree  cutting process to 28th February, and cut the grass on 5th March. 

On 8th March, Kak Ita resigned from her job to return to Indonesia as she was emigrating permanently back to Indonesia. Her leaf sweeping job was replaced by Mr Rookie and Mr Newbie, who swept the leaves at the site. Mr Supervisor subsequently tasked them to remove the barricades. 

On 16th March, I reinstalled the barricades, causing Mr Supervisor's team to miss the cutting again on 19th March. Mr Supervisor's lorry team cleared part of the barricades on March 20. Then, on 24th and 27th March, Mr Rookie cleared the barricades, but they were reinstated by me before the day is over. 

Fearing that Mr Rookie and Mr Newbie would clear the stuff, I decided to put less barricades in April. To further stifle out opportunities for Mr Supervisor to sabotage the tree protection attempt like on 3rd February, I decided to calculate when he will cut the grass. Based on a six-month pattern, he cut the grass on 4, 5, 6, 7,  18 19 and  20 of each month. However, a miscalculation occurred on 16th April, when he moved his timeline early, partially destroying some of my trees. He presumably cut early as SMK Bandar Puchong Jaya  B held the Merentas Desa on 18th April, and grass cutting during the Merentas Desa will cause chaos for both parties. Nevertheless, I managed to reprotect and recover the trees, dodging grass cutting exercises on 6th May and 19th May.

On 29th May 2025, Mr Supervisor brought saws from MBSJ, who ordered him again to clear the site upon inspecting some branches from other MBSJ-planted trees which were dangerous. This time,  he brought his entire team to do  the job. He cleared off the barricades, trees and branches and placed them onto his lorry. Mr Sadam told me that he attempted to persuade Mr Supervisor to move on from the incident. Mr Supervisor explained that he was told by MBSJ to act on the branches and trees after an MBSJ inspection on the site. He said Mr Supervisor will stop acting proactively and will only listen to MBSJ directives in the future. Subsequently, Mr Supervisor did some tree cutting on the site on other mature trees on 14th June.

On 23rd July, Mr Supervisor came once again with Mr Hench and Mr Wok to cut the trees down again and clear the barricades I made using foliage into four large piles. He even brought expensive, heavy duty sacks for the operations. I attempted  to foil his plans by tossing away three of  the piles into the bushes, but however, he and his men cleared them  off. Mr Supervisor's team spent the longest time ever to deal with the site; one whole day. The team also used hands to physically rip off  the grassy turf for  fear  that  I will protect the grass and potentially wild saplings. This time, he did not have his grass cutting machine. Mr Sadam told me that  he had spoken to Ms Suzan, the president of Bayan  Hill Homes Residents Association, to speak to MBSJ. He had proposed to me the offer but I refused the offer many times as I wanted  to respect the process and I felt that  MBSJ  would not budge on their decision. Mr Supervisor, according to Mr Sadam, also did private landscaping work with his team for Ms Suzan's private garden.

Scenario planning prior to 4th October

If MBSJ were to intervene, MBSJ will cut the tree stumps until half the height. Instead, in reality, MBSJ cut the  trees until the stumps level with the ground.

Scenario planning for 4th October and 24th March

In this scenario, MBSJ will arrive with at least 20 to 30 workers, 12 enforcement officers, five MBSJ SUVs and ten lorries. The workers would carry parangs to cut off the trees. MBSJ would then leave the site alone after the operation. 

After 4th October, I predicted that the 24th March cutting would not happen and that the site can be easily restored. 

However, on these days, it has been proven that MBSJ only needed a single-digit crew of six or less, plus one saw and one lorry, to clear off the site. Subsequently, MBSJ replaced the contractor, and instructed the new contractor comprising Mr Supervisor and his team to maintain the site to prevent regrowth.

Scenario planning for 14th October 2024

In this scenario, the trees will regrow and the site restored. MBSJ, upon finding out the trees' regrowth, will press Mr Supervisor for an explanation on why the trees had regrown. The MBSJ, in this scenario, will give Mr Supervisor the  opportunity to explain himself. Mr Supervisor  will tell the MBSJ that my actions had hindered him and his men from carrying out the work, and that the tug-o-war action with Kak Ita had rendered the goals meaningless. In my perspective, MBSJ will accept the  excuses and explanation by Mr Supervisor and treat the condition of the site as an occasional regrowth and that they will align the site with their landscaping budget accordingly and cut as many times as they wish before leaving the site alone, or find the best solution for the area, such as  integrating the trees into the landscape. 

From Mr Supervisor's point of view, he hopes that MBSJ would at least serve a warning to me to not interfere with their job, or summon me. From my point of  view, MBSJ will use their in house landscaping team to cut the trees down and they will do it as many times as  they wish. In reality, MBSJ unexpectedly penalized the contracting crew with a pay cut and threat of blacklistment and termination of contract. The consequences pressured the team into keeping their jobs and contracts. 

Scenario planning since 14 October 2024.

In this scenario, Mr Supervisor will take the reins and instruct his  team to remove the barricades I installed and cut the trees during his  bimonthly grass cutting session on 6th November, 20th November, 7th December and 19th December. He will do this four times and  begin ignoring the site from 6th January 2025. All interventions will stop by  Christmas and not drag beyond December 31. He will solely use this option and  will not pivot  to Option 2, which is off day cutting. The bad news is that he pivoted to Option 2 and dragged the crisis longer than expected. The good news is that Option 1 was confined to November after two successful attempts, foiling on the third because all his team protested the inconvenience. 

The reason why Option 2 was not considered was because the consequences of Option 2 would serve as a deterrent to Mr Supervisor and his crew. The team will have extra workload, come on rest days, and do so much of work and will be making a fool of themselves if the attempt failed. However, the team continued to stick to Option 2, which allowed them to bypass the defence system of the trees. The barricades were installed to inconvenience and dissuade the workers from tree cutting during their normal hours, as the height of the stumps can be an easy target if no barricades were affixed. This foiled Option 1, their most preferred and most convenient outcome.

Medium term scenario of option 2 exhausting.

Mr Supervisor had three chances to consider aborting the interventions. The first period was  on 7th December, when his team ignored the trees. That was the confirmed end of Option 1. He would have had decided the option was not worth  it and  most  likely reported to company HQ or MBSJ. Instead, he pivoted to Option 2.

The second chance was on 3rd February, when his lorry method failed to prevent rearmament of barricades. This would have had ended Option 2 and given the four month lull since October 2024, he would have had given up. Instead,  he stuck to Option 2 and modified this option two times. First, he delayed the option before involving more men and machinery.

Long Term Scenario Planning

If I fail to re-barricade the trees, or if Mr Supervisor successfully keeps cutting down the trees, the trees will have less nutrients to regrow. They will exhaust all their excess glucose and minerals when they resprout. This is comparable to recovering from a surgery. A successful resprout prolongs the life of the trees. Repeated interruption of resprout has shown to kill trees over a prolonged period of time. This is why I chose to intervene.   

If Mr Supervisor fails to protect the  trees, and  give up, this will result in the trees regrowing and subsequently, the restoration of the site. MBSJ will be presented with four options, namely: 

1. Cutting down the trees like normal.

This is MBSJ's autopilot option, which will involve sending in a crew to clear the site and remove  the trees. Should regrowth be successful, this option is useless.

2. Walkway construction

By building the walkway, any tree planted there would be invalidated for fear the tree will destroy the walkway. Furthermore, a walkway at the site would take up the entire width of the site. This makes tree planting impossible. However, the walkway construction is under the purview of the Jabatan Kejuruteraan. The tree planting falls under Jabatan Landskap. The challenges and economic viability of the walkway are in the negative list. 

3. Poisoning the tree

This  option permanently kills the tree with chemicals. However, the safety of such chemicals is important, and this will also present health and safety concerns, and require government approval.

4. Preservation of  the site.

This  option becomes more likely  each day when the tree is cut down, showing that preservation fits in line with MBSJ's own environmental goals. In this scenario, MBSJ decides to preserve a majority of the trees, incorporating them into their landscape plan. However, the concerns of MBSJ preserving the site include the beauty of the plant, the type of species, safety concerns and other millescaneous issues. The biggest  concern of MBSJ preserving the trees is the precedent. If MBSJ preserves something which they once deemed  illegal, or does not act on it, it can lead to other residents using  and duplicating the same method I used. 

MBSJ is unlikely to issue a  compound to me for tree cutting as it is considered a small case and if it aligns with what the mayor said. A potential compound issued will see MBSJ lose in the court.

MBSJ is also unlikely to change the contractor, as if the second contractor fails, there is no other option for MBSJ except for preserving the trees. 

Scenario planning of July/August 2025 cutting

On 29th May, I predicted that if Mr Supervisor intervenes, there will be 3 points to consider. Points 1 and 2 were  correctly predicted.

1) Mr Supervisor will come in the two week holiday period in July 2025. In April  2025, I predicted that had the 16th April mishap did not happen, Mr supervisor would come, presumably on 25th April 2025 to destroy the trees. The reason being was that  Mr Supervisor  would have a longer break in grass cutting, thus allowing him to do the necessary tree cutting interventions on the site. From 6th January 2025 until 16th April 2025, the months of January, February, March and April line up in such a way that Mr Supervisor will be alternating between grass cutting and non grass cutting weeks, for 16 weeks. The two-week lull in grass cutting provides an opportunity for Mr Supervisor to recover and rest after  tree intervention. As July 2025 has the same calendar format as April 2025, this opportunity was rife for Mr Supervisor. Mr Supervisor came to cut the trees on 23rd July. 

2) Mr Supervisor, according to my predictions, will bring his lorry to permanently  clear the materials and stuff, and I told  myself to  stick  to garden  waste only and avoid putting any valuable, man made sticks on the site. This happened as planned. Unlike casually tossing the stuff to the left hand side of the road curb which is a bushy place  and can be easily retrieved, using a  lorry involves permanent removal of those materials from the site. This adds a valuable workload of finding new materials for the site, which can be a hassle. The casual tossing was done by Kak Ita, which reduced workload for me.  

In a last ditch attempt to avert Option 2, I took three of the four piles and stashed them in the bushes, but Mr Supervisor and he crew removed them. As his lorry was approaching in one hour, I hastily stashed them due to concern that his lorry can come any time and that I can be spotted and apprehended by the team. Had his lorry not appeared at the site on that day, more time can be given to permanently store the branches. Should that succeed, I would have had saved at least two months' worth of effort and hassle, allowing marathon practices to proceed unfatigued. 

3)  In the thirtd prediction, the cutting would be the final intervention of 2025 by Mr Supervisor. When Mr Supervisor realized he was dealing with many, multiple interventions for a year, it should scare him into thinking it is worthless to continue doing the action. The duration between his interventions keep on increasing day by day. 

Concerns by me

The big concern is that MBSJ and Mr Supervisor will continue the action. If Mr Supervisor continues intervening, the trees will exhaust their  nutrients and die. Another concern is the duration of the intervention. Intervening durations of two months or less is detrimental to the plant. A six month intervention is considered the safest. Furthermore, I am concerned of biasness by MBSJ. The excuses  given by Mr Ahmad and Mr Supervisor was that the trees were cut as they give the impression of an ugly or overgrown area. In reality, the trees were planted in a single file. Other residents who planted in the similar stretch as mine were spared, except for my trees. The excuses were seen as convenient excuses and for MBSJ to  take advantage of people unfairly, contradicting what was said by Noraini Roslan. 

If the mayor allowed planting, and only those 3 conditions were  given, MBSJ should have  had a  dialogue with the  resident who planted the  trees to make adjustments and rectifications. The MBSJ cannot penalize people if the city council had allowed something to be done without their consent, such as biking. The city should just leave the trees alone until one of the three conditions were  breached. 

Concerns by Mr Supervisor

To Mr Supervisor, he felt unfairly penalized by MBSJ just over a row of trees. He carried the responsibility as chief supervisor. He was given a pay cut to push him and force him to make adjustments. Even if his pay cut was waived, he wants to prevent that consequence from happening,  but the biggest consequence he hopes not to see is  the termination of  his contract. This will consequently result in the cancellation of his temporary work permit as a foreign worker and will need  to return in humility on a flight back to Bangladesh. Until his job is secure and safe, he will ignore the trees and leave them alone. Mr Supervisor wished for me to stop so he can keep his job. Had he been fired in October, I would be criticized by members of the public. 

Concerns by MBSJ.

To MBSJ, the tree cutting  activities by the Landscape Department had depleted the cost, resulting in the Finance Department forseeing the recurrence of the issue if the trees regrow. This led MBSJ  to  pass the buck to Mr Supervisor to do the job. A failure by Mr Supervisor to prevent regrowth will be an embarrassment to MBSJ. They fear  the precedent of other residents if the Pavilion project became a success to me.