Preserve our liveable city status

Not every vacant land should be turned into shopping malls, commercial centres and condominiums — CM

KUCHING: Kuching City must not become a victim of its own success by trading its liveable city status for a concrete jungle like many mega cities in the world.

Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem said Kuching must eschew such a development trend as many of these mega cities did not make it to the Top 10 list of the most liveable cities in the world.

Instead, he pointed out, mid-size cities like Melbourne in Australia and Vancouver in Canada continued to remain among the most liveable cities in the world for a number of years.

“Kuching must not be a victim of its own success, like those mega cities that are practically concrete jungles with overstretched infrastructure,” he said at the launching of Kuching Festival here last night. Adenan’s text of speech was read by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.

The event, which was officiated at by Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, was also to commemorate the 28th anniversary of Kuching City.

Adenan stressed that not every piece of vacant land in the city should be turned into shopping malls, commercial centres, and condominiums.

“Like other great cities in the world, Kuching must not screw up its greenery in the name of development and modernisation,” he said.

“Kuching needs more green lungs, like Samajaya Nature Reserve, as part of the overall effort to upgrade its standing as a liveable city.”

For instance, Adenan said the state government planned to transform Kuching Reservoir Park into Unity Park. Such a park with unity as its theme befits Kuching’s status as a ‘City of Unity’.

“We are proud that Kuching City was the first city to be declared City of Unity in the country last year.”

On another matter, Adenan said the state government was working with the federal government to improve public transportation by implementing the Stage Bus Service Transformation Programme (SBST) here. SBST is a nationwide programme, and Kuching is one of the seven cities in the country picked for the initiative.

“It is estimated that for the SBST programme to be implemented in Kuching and parts of Samarahan, the government will have to spend about RM60 million per year.”

Under the SBST programme, the government would determine the number and types of buses, the bus routes, and service frequency.

“The government will then appoint and pay a network operator to deliver the services in terms of vehicle per kilometre. In return, the government will receive the bus fare revenue collected from passengers using the bus services.”

He hoped the SBST operation could start at the end of next year because public transportation had become an issue in the country, including Kuching.

Citing the 2006 annual report of the Road Transport Department, he said private passenger cars and motorcycles had been increasing at an average rate of 10 per cent and 4.5 per cent respectively since 2000.

“Use of public transports has declined in the past years, and Kuching is no exception.”

Adenan said a study conducted by the State Planning Unit reported that public transport patronage had dropped significantly since the 1990s to a rate of 13.3 per cent in 2005, and public bus ridership had suffered the most.

“Now you don’t see much of Chin Lian Long and STC buses plying routes within the city and its suburbs. The number of bus users in Kuching is negligible, and this hardly befits a growing city with more than half a million people. Hopefully, if everything goes well, this will change by the end of the next year.”

Among those at the colourful ceremony was were Taib’s wife, Toh Puan Datuk Patinggi Ragad Kurdi Taib, Minister of Local Government Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian, Minister of Youth, Sports and Solidarity Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong, Kuching North City Commission (DBKU) Datuk Bandar Datuk Abang Abdul Wahap Abang Julai and Kuching South City Council (MBKS) Mayor Dato James Chan.