Look into the future, CM tells local authorities

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FOR REMEMBRANCE: MBKS councillors and staff posing for a group photograph with the chief minister and wife in front of the council building

KUCHING: It is high time that local councils look beyond their day-to-day tasks and focus on drawing up plans to meet the needs of the future, advised Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud yesterday.

To him, their role is no longer about providing more roads, taller buildings and basic amenities but on finding ways to make people happy when living in the cities and major towns.

He said although generally most local councils in the state, Kuching South City Council (MBKS) in particular, have been able to make lots of changes they have not achieved what it takes to meet the changing needs of the future generation.

“I am glad that lots of changes have been made but what we have today is still not enough. I am sorry to say this but the challenges for the future is even greater as the city population grows bigger.

“For Kuching city, one thing for sure is its population is forever increasing.  Now we already have a population of about 600,000 people and by 2020 we will reach around one million or more than that.”

Therefore, he said, it was the duty and responsibility of local government leaders, being the closest to the community within their respective areas, to find ways to get everyone to participate in every aspect of development taking place around them.

“We have to remember that as the population grows bigger, the way of life will also change. There is a possibility that people will be divided into two streams, namely those who are able to enjoy themselves with better amenities and those who find the city too big and want to find their own little corner.

“We don’t want too many people to be in the second group. We should think of ways to not allow old people to be completely cut off from our society and not allow our children to go to little corners of their own for being not able to mix with other people and that is when they become victims of bad social habits,” he said when speaking at the MBKS Aidilfitri reception here yesterday.

He warned that the situation would get more serious as people progress to a higher income society.

He noted that even now the people’s way of lives have changed a lot as the result of greater prosperity that the city has achieved which sometimes was often taken for granted by the younger generation.

“As a result of this we will be facing lots of problem if we don’t really think ahead from now and this should be the focus of the local councils today.

“We want to make people happy when living in our city. However that cannot happen unless the lowest organisation like local government are run by dedicated people starting from the mayor or chairman, the staff, councillors and people who are associated with them,” he said.

On the local councils, he said they should no longer be regarded as political forum but service forum.

“If you think you want to be a councillor as a step to be a politician, I can tell that you are not going to the top but if you want to be a councillor with the intention to make other people in the community happy then you are a first class councillor,” he stressed.

He said as leaders at the grassroots level, they should be able to communicate with everyone apart from building a good team in their respective organisations.

“This is because no leader can bring about transformation unless he can join his staff to be part of the team and that is what MBKS had been able to achieve today,” he commended.

In his speech, Taib also noted that the KMC flat which was now no longer a conducive place to live in could be restructured, provided that the tenants were prepared for the changes.

“If the inhabitants want to have a more comfortable environment to live, complete with playground, community hall, sports facilities then they must be prepared to pay slightly more because as you know nothing is free,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, the reception yesterday was also attended by Taib’s wife Puan Sri Ragad Kurdi Taib, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu, Environment and Public Health Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh and Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office (Islamic Affairs) Datuk Daud Abdul Rahman.