Mayor denies agreeing to review coupon parking

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KOTA KINABALU: Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir has denied claims by opposition Kota Kinabalu Member of Parliament Jimmy Wong that he had agreed to review the coupon parking system.

“I have been receiving positive feedback about the system and to date, the compliance level had been satisfactory with fines issued mostly for habitual offenders only and has yet to take cases to court.

“Hence, I don’t see the need for a review, nor am I aware of any plans to do so,” he said after launching the Malaysian Drug Prevention Association (Pemadam) Kota Kinabalu Branch 18th annual general meeting yesterday.

In his speech earlier, Abidin said that drug issue is still a problem despite continuous and tireless efforts by the Malaysian Drug Prevention Association (Pemadam) Kota Kinabalu to curb the social issue in the state.

Statistics from the National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK) revealed that in 2013, there were 650 drug addicts in Sabah, 423 of whom were new cases and 90 were habitual offenders.

“Despite many positive changes seen as the results of the work of Pemadam and AADk as well as various parties involved, we are well aware that drug addiction continues to be an issue (where) we still have to work harder to fight it,” said Abidin who is the Pemadam Kota Kinabalu advisor.

He urged Pemadam to continue stepping up efforts to curb the problem of drug addiction among the society in Sabah.

However, he said it was not the work and responsibility of Pemadam and the authorities alone but also that of all parties, and called on everyone to contribute to the solution.

“As a member of society, we play a vital role to work together to solve the problem of drug addiction in the city.

“The easiest way to do this is simply to keep reminding our children, relatives, friends and neighbours on the dangers of drug abuse,” he said.

Abidin continued to stress the importance of parents’ role in the equation, reminding them to provide sufficient attention and care to their children, as parents’ negligence continue to be one of the biggest factors that leads youngsters to abusing drugs.

“I suggest that Pemadam involves parents or family heads in their awareness programmes as negligence had been identified as one of the biggest contributing factors to the problem,” said Abidin.

Meanwhile, Pemadam Kota Kinabalu chairman Datuk Yeo Boon Hai said the association had doubled its efforts in 2014 and organised the IMAN programme actively.

“To date, the programme had involved 12 primary schools and eight secondary schools in Kota Kinabalu, involving 5,195 primary school pupils and 5,779 secondary school students, with a total of 10,974 students.

“This showed a good improvement considering it’s a 150 per cent increase in numbers compared to the 4,348 students in 2013,” said Yeo in his speech.

Other than that, Pemadam Kota Kinabalu had also organised the CEKAL programme for higher learning institutions at Polytechnic Kota Kinabalu involving some 1,000 students.

Apart from taking efforts to overcome the issue at school level, Pemadam Kota Kinabalu had also held CEKAP programme involving school principals and headmasters, Kota Kinabalu City Hall staff as well as the association’s members.