MALAYSIANS seem to have the tendency for misplacing their national and state pride when it comes to certain things.
ANNOYANCE: Waterways such as the Sarawak River are often favoured dumping grounds for trash.
Take our attitude towards public spaces and public cleanliness for example.
A recent visit by thesundaypost to Kuching city centre was mostly a pleasant experience. Locals and tourists alike were taking full advantage of the sunny weather and blue skies to take in the sights, sounds and smells along the Sarawak River.
However, it was impossible to overlook the fact that some people had no qualms about the treating the waterfront as one big personal litter bin despite squads of cleaners and maintenance personnel deployed by the Commission of the City of Kuching North (DBKU) to maintain cleanliness of the place.
There seemed to be litter everywhere except in the dedicated trash disposal units where it was supposed to be. Just about everything else – including the river itself, flower pots, and plant hedges – had been turned into convenient places for the discrete disposal of kuaci skins, cigarette butts, empty cans, beer bottles, plastic bags and plastic bottles despite the fact that rubbish bins are placed at regular intervals all along the waterfront.
Even the crocodile statues facing the Astana are not been spared this indignity of being turned into impromptu rubbish receptacles.
At this time when matters such as the removal of fuel subsidies, institutional corruption and rising costs of living are the prevailing issues on most people’s minds, it seems almost trivial – nitpicking even – to highlight something as mundane as litter.
SO NEAR YET SO FAR: The presence of a large rubbish skip next to the Sarawak Museum carpark does little to encourage the public to dispose of their trash in it instead of by the side. --
Litter everywhere
However, the value of a litter-free location should not be something to be taken lightly. In addition to the obvious aesthetics, the social value of a clean public space is also inextricably entwined with public health and safety as well as improving the economic and property value of the location, as demonstrated recently by the immense public interest over the Tabuan River.
Unfortunately, litter is not a problem only confined to certain areas – it’s everywhere. How many of us can attest to personally witnessing acts of public littering on a daily basis – from motorists throwing unwanted trash directly onto the road to our neighbours disposing household waste into the neighbourhood drain.
The inescapable irony is that people often litter for the very reason that they want to live in clean surroundings.
The solution towards our litter problem isn’t so much hiring more municipal workers to go after litterbugs – it’s about cleaning up our attitude towards public spaces and facilities.
And we can either do this willingly to respect the community’s right to share a clean public space or unwillingly when the authorities come knocking on our doors.
The way how we treat our public spaces is not just about hygiene and cleanliness or maintaining an image for tourists and visitors. The bigger underlying issue is about pride – and dare we say, the patriotic defence – of our culture and way of life.
When Malaysians visit foreign countries like Australia, they take extra care to behave well.
They say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, make extra effort to smile, stand in line and do not litter or spit in public.
What is there to stop us from doing the same here in our homeland other than changing our attitudes and mindsets?
When it comes to defending our national or even state pride in this area, we have to share the responsibility with the authorities because they cannot do it alone – not without needlessly throwing more money and manpower into it rather than other more critical problems.
Dilemma
In general, there will never be enough resources for the local councils to create and maintain high standards of cleanliness within the parameters they have been given.
But at the same time, it seems rather obvious that without serious enforcement to provide bite to various by-laws and regulations, it will be even more difficult to change public mindset to walk that extra few feet towards the rubbish bin to dispose of their litter.
The public has to wean itself off the belief that public cleanliness is someone else’s problem or that it is solely the responsibility of the authorities by virtue of us paying our taxes.
Accountability
We need to stop waving off criticism and start shouldering some responsibility and accountability for how we treat our public spaces.
No doubt, the authorities do have their roles to play towards creating safe and clean public environments where people feel at ease to be there. They should and must make sure that the highest physical and behavioural standards possible are enforced and adhered to whether by or from their own personnel or the public.
Whether it is providing extra trash collection services during peak periods to building infrastructure and services such as the on-going construction of the Centralised Sewerage System (which aims to collect and treat most of Kuching’s wastewater and sewerage), the authorities must continually seek avenues to make it easier for high standards of public health and safety to be achieved and maintained.
The public must also do their bit as citizen watchmen to make sure various authorities and public officials charged with public cleanliness and safety do not depart from the standards they have promised or are bound by virtue of office to deliver.
Littering shows lack of civic-mindedness and disrespect towards other stakeholders who share the same space, whether towards the authorities, the members of the public or the business community.
These attitudes of indifference for their fellow man’s best interests also tends to translate into vandalism and defacement of both public and private property.
Public littering and indifference towards our shared responsibility for public hygiene and safety are just indefensible no matter what the reason.
We should not inflict our litter on other people because at the end of the day, no one wants to be surrounded by rubbish.