It’s time to clean up our act!

I MUST admit that I haven’t made any New Year resolutions personally for quite a number of years.

During my youth, I would have thought deeply and even challenged myself to make many grand, brave and earnest resolutions as we hit the first day of each New Year.

I must admit the success rate wasn’t really encouraging, but in the bravado and optimism of my younger days, compromises and self-negotiations would be the norm.

Today as we start on the early few steps of yet another new year, I would like to propose that we as a community in Kuching; and dare I say it, the greater aim is for us all in Sarawak; just one challenging New Year resolution – let us all clean up our act.

I mean it in the broadest sense, encompassing all the fields and spheres of influence insofar as it affects us in a personal capacity.

Let me count the ways.

In Kuching, we pride ourselves in describing our city as peaceful, quiet, liveable, green, multi-racial in composition, multi-religious in outlook and politically stable, and that our state is very safe and secure.

It is also very clean and we can find almost anything we want within a very close proximity – be it for education, entertainment, culture and food, as well as overall facilities for games, sports and other personal pursuits.

We have many areas of challenges too: that our public transport system is poor; there is constant traffic gridlock; and we have very limited parking spaces within the various popular high-traffic areas.

There is also a sense of malaise (civil unconsciousness) insofar as the welfare and care of public areas and facilities are concerned.

My pet peeve for as long as I can remember has been the average typical citizen’s lack of concern or lazy attitude towards cleanliness.

In simple terms, let me speak plainly on a few bad attitudes.

Dirty public toilets

Every single time that I bring a visitor to any coffee shop or a public area, and they ask me for directions to the toilets, I shudder and quickly forewarn them to expect an unkempt, wet and usually filthy and smelly facility.

Seven out of 10 times my warning has proven to be accurate.

There are a few who try – and by that, they would usually go in and just spray the floor with water, mop it a couple of times, and maybe have some liquid soup on standby in a sink outside.

Public littering

Next time that you stop at any traffic lights anywhere in town, look out from your driver’s seat window to your nearest patch of grass – and chances are good that there would be some litter there.

It could be a paper cup, an empty small soft-drink packet, cigarette butts, and even a used tissue or two.

Walk or drive along the road, or sidewalk after a big public event anywhere in town (or the countryside) and you would see the walkways and grass patches heavily littered with all sorts of throwaways.

Try looking for a proper garbage bin – they would be overflowing, or even non-existent.

Drive along the brand new Pan Borneo Highway, and you cannot go more than a few metres without sighting some thrown-away litter by the road.

Illegal parking, lack of road courtesy

I remember a few years back when we all complained of the lack of proper parking spaces at the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) and its surrounding areas.

Today, there is a brand new proper parking building there, but every day you would still see illegally-parked vehicles all around the roads going to and from the SGH.

These illegally-parked vehicles not only obstruct the ambulances plying in and out of the Emergency areas, but also disrupt and obstruct the flow of traffic going into the vital public buildings of the hospital.

I see traffic police regularly issuing summonses, but once they leave, the cars are back – until the next round!

It is simply atrociously-bad habitual behaviour and the civic-unconsciousness of these uncouth and arrogant drivers.

Similarly at heavy traffic locations throughout the city, the drivers are simply not hesitant to park anywhere they can find a vacant spot – even if it’s marked ‘No Parking’, or it blocks access to another parked vehicle – without any second thought.

I have also witnessed many a time when a simple road courtesy could easily unclog a pile-up or heavily jammed-up of vehicles by just allowing someone else a quick right of way; instead of hogging the flow of traffic, but a lack of empathy on the part of an incalcitrant driver has triumphed.

Poor maintenance of public walkways, spaces

We must be grateful for the state authorities and the many councils that have constructed and maintained so many public spaces and areas which many of us use, some on a daily basis; others specifically to aid visitors and tourists.

However, I have noticed that there are specific places where some of such maintenance has either been lacking or been found challenging; no doubt due to either budgetary constraints or to the too well overused term: ‘blame it on the users, or the weather!’

During the year-end very wet rainy season, many areas with hilly terrains; for instance, Jalan Taman Budaya (former Golf Links) and the Jalan Crookshank, Jalan Park, Jalan Reservoir walkways for pedestrians; are extremely slippery when wet (due to the algae or mossy surfaces), and those who walk along these footpaths must exercise extra special care when using them.

A simple once-over clean-up with a heavy-duty pressure washer over a couple of days would nicely do the job of making these walkways safe.

Then there are also uneven surfaces where the paving process was not properly done and could well trip any unobservant or tired tourist.

We have progressed much in the last couple of decades, but let’s just go the extra distance and make our beautiful, beloved city the way we want it to be.

Overall, I am happy to see that as a city, Kuching has proven itself to be quite a cosmopolitan and a lively dwelling place.

If you had told me just 10 years ago that in 2026, you would be able to find any culinary delights you can name from anywhere in the world; that you can walk into a bistro, pub or bar and be served any brand of liquor; or go to a coffee place and have any kind of specialty coffee; or to a restaurant that serves any exotic dish that you can name – I would not have believed you!

But today, I won’t even blink an eye, and will even take you there – no worries!