Westlake's decadent night culture
J-on
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
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By CALYN ONG, CHESTER CHIN, CHONG KAH YUAN, SONG SOOK KIN and TING ZHAO SONG
The Westlake township in Kampar is known for it's serene lake and beautiful park, but when dusk falls, all hell breaks loose.
Smashed beer bottles, cigarette butts and torn junk food packets.
Walk through the lakeside promenade and Beijing precinct at Westlake on a Saturday morning and chances are you'll be greeted by these items strewn across the pavement.
Moved by this filthy sight, our reporting team decided to look into the matter and discovered a debauched night life culture at the Westlake housing area in this quaint town
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Clean up one’s act : The trail of rubbish left behind by midnight revellers at the Westlake lakeside promenade. |
During one of the team’s midnight stakeouts at Seksyen 1/1 in Westlake, we came across a group of young people who were engaging in rowdy behaviour. They were shouting and screaming in ecstasy.
The team tried to approach the group but were stopped by a female member who said in Mandarin, “Don’t come near! War is starting”.
Minutes later, they started giving chase and threw a white powdery substance at each other while laughing hysterically.
On the same night, about 100 meters away from this group of students, a black Proton Wira was seen parked across the row of houses along the road. What sets this particular vehicle apart from the other cars there was the fact that it was blasting loud music from the stereo.
The shocking thing was that all this transpired at the wee hours of the morning when most people are fast asleep.
Lackadaisical management
Lackadaisical management
Driven by this course of events, our reporting team approached Danish House Sdn. Bhd. at their office in Manchester. The company managed the majority of student accommodations at Westlake.
Not only that, their company is also responsible for providing neighbourhood security within this housing vicinity.
When asked for comments regarding these night activities in Westlake, the representative at the Customer Service desk declined to answer. When pressed further by one of our reporters, she hesitated before finally saying that the company can’t divulge such information to the public.
Unsatisfied with this rigid response, two of our reporters went undercover and visited the Danish House Westlake Oxford office.
Posing as students with a complaint regarding the ruckus at the Beijing precinct, the Customer Service officer gave our reporters a card which contains a mobile hotline number. She then proceeded by telling them that occupants can just ring up the number and security personnel will check out the issue.
Security with no authority
Security with no authority
With this piece of information, we paid the guard house a visit at night and spoke to Salleh Din, a security guard who is in charge of night patrol at the Westlake neighbourhood.
According to Salleh, the noise and littering issue in Westlake is nothing new. The Danish House Management has received many complaints from the residents in the past.
When asked if the management is doing anything to solve this, Salleh gave the same answer as the one given earlier by the second Customer Service desk we visited.
“Yes, a hotline number is provided and the residents can call us if they find the noise too unbearable or probably if they happened to encounter any dangerous situation,” he said.
Salleh further commented that the security guards will only take action after midnight, unless the matter is an emergency and requires immediate action.
He added that sometimes those midnight revellers, whom he assumed are also varsity students, will talk back in a drunken stupor when reprimanded.
“All of this is quite worrisome because we have Tan Sri Hew See Tong living right across the Beijing Park,” Salleh further elaborated.
Hew, a tin miner-turned-developer is one of the individuals who gave Kampar a new lease of life by getting Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) to set up a campus in the town.
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Double bind : The security guard faces difficulties in warding off the noise and littering issues as they have limited authority. |
The security guard also voiced his concern over the rubbish littered after the many parties the students have at the Beijing precinct.
“We will take down their contact details beforehand if we see them having such gatherings. If any complaints are received regarding their party, we will contact them directly. But that is about all we can do. We can’t stop them from drinking or even stop the parties as we don’t have such authority.”
Nightly nuisance
The reporting team also found out from some Beijing residents that the late night disturbances have been occurring on a regular basis.
One of the residents, Fong Renee, said that the midnight commotion is nothing new and she's even starting to get used to the noise.
As for Wong Han Hui, a UTAR foundation student who is also staying at Beijing, her housemates and her usually pay no mind to the ruckus.
However, she'll get really annoyed during examination period as she can't concentrate with all the noise caused by the party goers who are not even residents at Beijing precinct. .
What Wong said was true as our reporters observed that the aforementioned rowdy group of students drove and cycled away from Beijing after the party ended.
Wong also added that some of the students were acting like imbeciles in her past experience.
“They were so rude when I personally asked them to lower down the level of noise. Instead of apologising, they just ignore my words. They even turned up the stereo volume!”
As if causing disturbance wasn't enough, the raucous youths will even leave a trail of rubbish behind.
The party aftermath that can be seen clearly in the morning has proven that most of the students do not clean up after their own mess.
Filthy complaints
To obtain more information regarding the depraved night culture which has emerged in Westlake, particularly the lakeside promenade, we went to the Kampar Municipal Council.
With the help of Mohammad Shafiq Mohammad Salim, an officer in the Sanitation Department, the team managed to attain a more in-depth analysis of the littering issue.
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Drink it up : Evidences of intoxicant in the morning after of intoxicant consumption the night before. |
According to Shafiq, the municipal council has received tonnes of complaints from the public regarding the filthy scene at the lakeside pavement.
“It is not just a matter of hygiene, these broken beer bottles left on the pavement can be very dangerous for the people who pass by the lakeside,” said Shafiq.
The lakeside pavement that links UTAR to Westlake is a highly utilised route in the morning. Some use it for jogging while most of the students who live in Westlake walk or cycle to UTAR through that pavement.
Shafiq told us that the council has yet to come up with a solution other than cleaning up the pavement every morning. He explained that the lakeside pavement is a public place. Therefore, neither the council nor the police have the authority to disallow people from having beer at the lakeside.
“We tried sorting the problem out by reaching the Danish House, but there was no fruitful outcome.”
Shafiq further lamented that when there is a bunch of youth in their twenties consuming alcohol at the lakeside, anything could possibly go wrong.
Bad reputation
All this risqué behaviour is presenting a tainted image of Kampar varsity students’ community.
The booming roars of the stereo so often accompanied by indecent squealing and loud whoopee draw a close resemblance with the infamous mat rempit found throughout the city.
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Flotsam and jetsam : Instead of lively fishes, visitors of the lake are greeted with such unsightly scene. |
That's not all, the people who indulge in this "recreation" also consume alcohols.
A shopkeeper who only wished to be known as Mr Tan told us that his sundry shop which is operating within Westlake has often time sold out many cans of beers at night.
When asked why he decided to carry alcoholic beverages knowing that most of the residents are students, Tan replied that it is an individual’s prerogative whether or not to purchase it.
“The thing about students is that when there is no parental supervision, they have to take responsibility for their own action. If they want to drink beer, then that is their own choice,” Tan offered and added that he is just a “shopkeeper”.
However, Tan is very skeptical of the security team’s effectiveness.
“Sometimes, this problem brings into question a matter of security here in Westlake. Why aren’t any actions taken to reduce the ruckus?” Tan who hails from Penang commented.
If a shopkeeper could have this notion despite being a resident of Westlake himself, then what would others possibly think of the security here? A security that allows the cause of disturbance to run wild and rampant in a neighbourhood where it is mostly populated by students?
To make matters worse, the wrongdoers are mostly varsity students. When outsiders have a chance encounter of this kind of scenario, it is inevitable that people would link the misconduct of the UTAR students to the university itself.
This in turn will denigrate the institution’s reputation as a respectable university.
A matter of gravity
From a bunch of boisterous, even downright reckless people who pump up the stereo, to people who kick up a huge racket screaming in the middle of the night, these are the epitomical acts of ignorance towards the consideration of others.
While the culprits may not have harmed other residents in any physical way, rumours have circulated that a certain motorbike gang have been going around swinging their helmets at passers-by along the walkway that leads to the housing area.
Ma Foong Mei, an undergraduate student of UTAR, was one of those who were alarmed by the news.
“People are saying that these mysterious bikers are injuring students who happen to be walking along the walkway. However, I do not know how far true the rumor is.”
At the moment, night patrols have also proved to be futile. There is only so much a security guard could do before a drunkard retaliates, sometimes dangerously.
Students in the midst of studying for their examinations would also have to bear the unwarranted pandemonium.
Time has come for the people calling the shots to step up and concoct a better solution to solve this issue before it blows up to a level that could threaten lives and the university’s reputation.
While fun and enjoyment should be part and parcel of the varsity experience, it shouldn't come at the expense of other people's peace of mind.
When that happens, it just becomes pure ludicrous recklessness.
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