SMC councillors, staff need to be on the ground – Chairman
SIBU: Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) aspires to be a peopleoriented authority by 2021.
In pointing out this, its chairman Clarence Ting said SMC being a local council is primarily a service organisation, the level of government that is the closest to the people.
“Our goal that has been clearly stated is ‘We aspire to be a people-oriented authority by 2021.
“In order to achieve this ambitious goal, we as councillors and staff need to be on the ground, in other words ‘Turun padang’ in the area that we serve.
“In doing so, we get to know what the people’s problems are, the people’s needs and the people’s wishes are.
“As chairman since taking office I have taken the initiative to be on the ground as much as possible and in the process I know much about the municipality, there is no shortcut, there is no easy way, we all have to do the legwork so that the people in SMC will have confidence that we can deliver,” he said at the SMC Annual Dinner 2019 on Sunday night.
Minister of
Local
Government and Housing Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian, Assistant Minister of Local Government Datu Dr Penguang Manggil, Temenggong Dato Vincent Lau and SMC deputy chairman Bujang Zainuddin were among those present.
According to Ting, people’s needs are ever changing, thus the council should be in tune with this change and be able to adapt quickly.
This year, the council would continue to address the sinking drains and bumpy roads, he said.
“I call upon the developers to improve their quality of delivery and not to burden the council with sub standard works so that the council can make more allocations for other matters like building more parks and organising more activities during the year.
“In public health, we face the challenge of increasing rubbish, we are challenged by indiscriminate littering. We are shorthanded in our dog unit to combat the poor habits of residents letting out dogs without any harness.
“Residents are increasingly aware that the dreadful disease of rabies is with us, that an outbreak could happen at any time. This awareness has brought out a spike in notifying the council to rid public areas of dogs.
“In vector control, we remain vigilant in preventing dengue outbreak, and continue to monitor closely the dengue prone areas,” he added.
Effective Jan 1, Ting said SMC had banned the use of plastic straws in all food outlets.
“I am proud to say we are the first council to initiate this move. I wish to thank the Public Health Committee for their commitment and all the staff who have helped to make this happen.”
He also said starting Jan 1, the health department antismoking ban came into effect, with Health Department enforcement officers out on the streets enforcing the smoking ban in all food outlets.
“I support this ban, but the council is faced with a new challenge of cigarette butt littering. As of today I can see the situation has gotten from bad to worse. We have to address this issue urgently otherwise my plan for a cleaner Sibu will suffer a setback this year,” he explained.