Sandakan MP leads Muslim cemetery clean-up
SANDAKAN: Sandakan member of parliament Stephen Wong Tien Fatt and Max Million Lee, who represented Tanjong Papat assemblyman Frankie Poon Ming Fung, yesterday led members of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and volunteers to carry out a clean-up of the Sim Sim Muslim cemetery site near here.
A Sim-Sim villager, Ahmad Sakkil, said he was very grateful and happy with the action taken by the local leaders to clean up the cemetery site as the cleanliness of the cemetery hd gotten out of hand.
“Before the ‘gotong royong’ session, the cemetery site was an eyesore (because it was dirty) as it was visible to all road users because of its location (at the side of the main road leading to the town centre). The cemetery site was overgrown with bushes and wild plants. A flood incident a few years ago had also caused a few of the tombstones to slide off the cliff.
“I am very happy that the local leaders are paying attention to this cemetery now, where our relatives are buried. We (villagers) were pleasantly shocked to see Stephen Wong cleaning up the cemetery as he is now a minister (Minister of Health and People’s Wellbeing). We are all very proud to have him as our MP,” Ahmad said.
The cleaning-up session, which started around 9 am yesterday, ended by noon. There were several other cleaning-up sessions that were held on the same day here, including one at Pasir Putih beach in Batu Sapi organised by Karamunting assemblyman George Hiew.