Councillor leads by example in maintaining cleanliness
SIBU: Councillor Kong Yii Tee of Sibu Rural District Council ( SRDC) is taking the lead in gathering members of the local community to create a cleaner Sibu Jaya.
Kong – a member of the Standing Committee for Financial Planning and Public Works – has been doing this for about a week across different areas.
“The idea is simple – when people come to me and complain about places that need cleaning up, I would suggest that we (herself and the complainants) clean up the place together.
“Quite surprisingly, the people of Sibu Jaya are willing to do it,” she said, adding that the cleanup would only take between 30 minutes and one hour.
According to Kong, she would provide the cleaning materials such as black plastic bags and gloves.
She has been living in Sibu Jaya for more than 10 years and throughout that time, she always strives to make the township a better place for its residents.
The programme began when she ran clean- up works herself on areas at Crystal Road, where her residence is located in Sibu Jaya.
She then posted some pictures and her information on Facebook to enable the people to contact her should they know other places
The idea is simple – when people come to me and complain about places that need cleaning up, I would suggest that we (herself and the complainants) clean up the place together. Quite surprisingly, the people of Sibu Jaya are willing to do it.
across the township that needed cleaning up.
“That’s when people started to contact me and instead of asking the council to conduct the works, I suggested that we should take the initiative ourselves since this is where our homes are,” she said, adding that the people have been very cooperative with her on this programme.
According to Kong, the residents would have to wait some time if they chose to wait for the council to take action.
“I think this is a lso our responsibility. As citizens, we must always be civic-minded.”
In this regard, Kong hoped that such initiative would set an example for others to follow, pointing out that it is vital to make the people, especially the young, aware of their duties as responsible citizens.
“If only all of us could uphold
Kong Yii Tee, Sibu Rural District Council councillor
our responsibilities as citizens and be civic-minded, we would not simply throw rubbish anywhere; we would make sure that our neighbourhood would always stay clean,” she said.
Additionally, Kong said as a way to reach out to more people in Sibu Jaya, she hoped to be able to request for schools to send their students for the clean-up programme.
‘ I believe all of us can change this place for the better; we just need to play our part – no matter how small it might be,” she pointed out.