Sempurai (second right) with (from right) Lau, Goh and Puah posing for a photo-call. Coincidentally all four are from Sacred Heart Secondary School, making it so much easier for them to break down barriers and work closely together for the betterment of Sibu Jaya.
SIBU: Sibu Rural District Council (SRDC) views Sibu Jaya as an important township, and wants to be directly involved in the people’s well-being.
Newly appointed SRDC chairman Sempurai Petrus and deputy chairman Robert Lau Hui Yew, made an unannounced visit to this fast-growing township on Wednesday to get first-hand information on how to make the township more vibrant.
The duo was accompanied by council engineer Goh Thiam Ho.
“I have repeatedly said that fast-growing townships like Sibu Jaya and emerging townships like Selangau are very important to SRDC,” Sempurai said.
“There are large concentrations of people and as the local council directly involved in the people’s well-being, we must be very hands-on,” he added.
By being hands-on, SRDC would be in a better position to provide solutions to people’s problems.
Sempurai said he was glad to be working with Lau whom he termed as his partner in vision and mission.
“Both Robert and I have mutual respect for each other and we share a passion for helping people. We know that Sibu Jaya is important and we both want to do our best,” he stressed.
Both came from the same school — Sacred Heart Secondary School.
“I guess being in an all-boys’ school enables you to relate to each other faster and better,” Sempurai enthused.
On Sibu Jaya’s development, Lau highlighted the need for all parties to see the bigger picture and not to be carried away by their respective agendas.
“There is only one agenda as far as I am concerned and that is the orderly development of SibuJaya with the people’s interest uppermost in our agenda,” he said.
Top on the list would be figuring out a traffic flow that would help ease the congestion at peak hours in this township of some 30,000 people.
Apart from that, the social needs of the people would also rank high in terms of SRDC’s priorities for Sibu Jaya.
Distrepark’s Senior Manager Eddy Puah briefed the councillors on the township’s development.