Malaise of poor maintenance

THOSE involved in the tourism industry should adopt good occupational safety and health (OSH) management practices and an excellent maintenance culture to help reduce the number of accidents and health problems in the sector.

The incident where 12 people were injured when part of a jetty in Pulau Anak Tikus, Langkawi, collapsed on Oct 29 once again highlighted the very poor maintenance and safety culture in our country.

In the 1.50pm incident, a group of 40 tourists, including from Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, were walking on the jetty when it suddenly gave way. They had just arrived in Pulau Anak Tikus, a popular destination known as Fossil Island.

The authorities responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the said jetty must be held responsible for the incident.

I agree with the Langkawi Tourism Organisation pro tem chairman Ahmad Pishol Ishak who said the incident is a wake-up call on the need to conduct proper maintenance of all tourism facilities and amenities throughout the island.

Jetties, especially wooden ones, must be frequently checked and safety audits carried out on such facilities as their condition could deteriorate due to wear and tear, inclement weather and the corrosive sea water.

Looking at the latest incident, it is clear that safety and health was not taken seriously and there was a lack of constant checking and monitoring. It also shows that the safety audit was not carried out regularly to ensure that the structure was safe.

Both federal and state governments should direct all the relevant authorities to undertake safety audits of all jetties and other facilities and do something to address our poor maintenance culture to avoid preventable incidents or accidents.

What happened in Langkawi was a needless incident and could have been avoided.

At the same time, the government should also allocate funds to repair and upgrade existing facilities for tourists, including jetties that are in poor condition.

The maintenance culture should also be improved and this could be done with more funding for the relevant government departments, agencies and local authorities with dedicated staff to carry out maintenance works.

When preparing the annual budget, the government must take into account the maintenance aspect and the cost must be included in the allocation to build tourism infrastructure and facilities.

Those responsible for the tourism facilities must provide sufficient annual allocation to maintain them since adequate funds and good maintenance culture would help ensure that the facilities provided are at an optimum level at all times.

Over the years, the government has spent billions on the development of infrastructure and facilities for the country but what is regrettable is the lack of maintenance and commitment to safety.

This has to be rectified and every effort must be made to inculcate the culture of maintenance and safety. Poor maintenance and safety can lead to accidents and injuries.

Various preventable incidents are also a reflection of a Malaysian malaise that is clearly manifested in inferior quality work, poor execution, inept management, poor maintenance and lack of ethics and integrity.

Everyone must curb this Malaysian malaise so that our country will no longer be deemed as “having a First World infrastructure but Third World mentality”.

TAN SRI LEE LAM THYE Kuala Lumpur