Suggesting to Kota Sa­ma­ra­han Mu­nic­i­pal Coun­cil (MPKS) to be strict with our local hawkers in Tambirat, Samarahan

I have recently suggested to Kota Sa­ma­ra­han Mu­nic­i­pal Coun­cil (MPKS) to em­u­late Sibu Mu­nic­i­pal Coun­cil (SMC) measures by re­vok­ing the li­cence of traders who have failed to open their shops for busi­ness for days.This is because the ac­tions of such traders are akin to rob­bing the liveli­hood of those who were keen to op­er­ate but un­able to se­cure a li­cence due to the un­avail­abil­ity of trad­ing spa­ces. We have to be strict and must discipline them. Fol­low the SMC way where those who have trad­ing li­cences must open up shop al­most ev­ery day.

I think if these traders only open shop ac­cord­ing to sea­son, re­voke their trad­ing li­cences and if we refer  to the reg­u­la­tion im­ple­mented by SMC at its Sun­day Mar­ket near Jalan In­dah, those li­censed hawk­ers who have been al­lo­cated trad­ing space risk hav­ing their per­mits re­voked if they fail to turn up to trade for more than two days with­out pro­vid­ing the coun­cil with valid rea­sons. As such, their va­cated trad­ing space would then be made avail­able to oth­ers who had ap­plied for the trad­ing lots.

I have mentioned this dur­ing the earth-break­ing cer­e­mony for the new Kam­pung Tam­bi­rat Hawker Cen­tre last Sunday and I have also warned that the new RM7-mil­lion cen­tre could end up look­ing dull and un­de­r­oc­cu­pied if not all of the tak­enup lots were to open for busi­ness daily. We must remember that when cus­tomers or vis­i­tors come and see this, they would tell oth­ers what they saw and news of the dull and un­oc­cu­pied Kam­pung Tam­bi­rat Hawker Cen­tre would spread, giv­ing a bad im­pres­sion of it.

There­fore we have to be strict. If a trader does not open shop for more than five days in a row with­out valid rea­sons, re­voke his trad­ing li­cence. There are other traders who are keen to open shop there; bet­ter give them that op­por­tu­nity. I hope the construction of the Kam­pung Tam­bi­rat Hawker Cen­trewill be­gin im­me­di­ately and it is ex­pected to be com­pleted within 12 months. Once com­pleted, the facility would be un­der the purview of MPKS and have at least 80 trad­ing lots.

The con­struc­tion of the centre was orig­i­nally planned to start in the mid­dle of this year but had to be de­layed due to the Covid-19 pan­demic. This is one of sev­eral projects un­der the In­te­grated Re­gional Sarawak De­vel­op­ment Au­thor­ity (IRSDA) be­ing de­vel­oped in Asajaya, par­tic­u­larly Kam­pung Tam­bi­rat – the big­gest vil­lage in Asajaya. I had also high­lighted the RM31-mil­lion Tam­bi­rat Wa­ter­front project which will be­gin con­struc­tion soon, to­gether with the RM35-mil­lion 900m-em­bank­ment project along the Batang Sa­ma­ra­han river­bank in Kam­pung Tam­bi­rat. Both projects which were an­nounced last year are cur­rently in the ten­der process and should be com­pleted within 24 months once con­struc­tion begins, he added.

Hoping for the Covid19 pan­demic to be over soon so that na­tions can start re­open­ing their borders soon

During our recent visit to the Loa­gan Bunut Na­tional Park in Ulu Baram, I have expressed hope for the Covid19 pan­demic to be over soon so that na­tions can start re­open­ing their borders and for us in Malaysia as well as in Sarawak, we can once again wel­come tourists to our shores.

We have actually prepared a lot of plans and strate­gies to be im­ple­mented in post-pan­demic and places such as in Ulu Baram is a wonderful site of in­ter­est for tourists. The re­gion as a whole could be con­sid­ered a tourism prod­uct – from its vast fer­tile land to the lo­cal cul­ture – which could a ract both lo­cal and for­eign vis­i­tors. For this rea­son, myself and our entourage from Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Sarawak (MOTACS), Sarawak Tourism Board (STB), Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) have chosen to take the 2-hour jour­ney from Miri to Long Lama town just to visit Loa­gan Bunut Na­tional Park so that all of us could see first-hand the tourism po­ten­tial in north­ern re­gion of the state.

Loagan Bunut is also the state’s largest nat­u­ral lake lo­cated in the park and it could be­come part of the tour itin­er­ary once the road link­ing Miri city to Kuala Melinau and Long Lama town is com­pleted in the next few years. I also be­lieve what Loa­gan Bunut Na­tional Park of­fers to lo­cals or in­ter­na­tional vis­i­tors can­not be found in any other na­tional parks we have in Sarawak. There­fore once our ru­ral roads are im­proved, it will en­able cre­ative pack­ag­ing to be done by tour op­er­a­tors and will def­i­nitely open up a wide range of op­por­tu­ni­ties for lo­cals to par­tic­i­pate in the tourism in­dus­try. Another important aspect is also on good con­nec­tiv­ity will also en­able those who love trav­el­ling on their own to add to lo­cal tourism. These are among the success factors which will help us in making our recovery efforts a reality.

No need to argue on the recent com­mer­cial set­tle­ment agree­ment be­tween the state govern­ment and Petro­liam Na­sional Ber­had (Petronas)

We fully support our Right Honourable Chief Minister's #AbangJo who recently said only time will tell whether Sarawak and its people have been short­changed in the com­mer­cial set­tle­ment agree­ment be­tween the state govern­ment and Petro­liam Na­sional Ber­had (Petronas).

He was right when having said there was no need to ar­gue with cer­tain quar­ters who thought oth­er­wise.

“Time will tell whether it (agree­ment) is cor­rect or not. We don’t have to ar­gue be­cause we have the rights al­ready,” he told our media friends when met after of­fi­ci­at­ing the 10th an­niver­sary of Ma’had Tah­fiz Tun Ab­dul Rah­man Ya’kub (Mat­tary) at Ma­jma Tuanku Ab­dul Halim Muadzam Shah Hall held on 10 December.

Our chief min­is­ter was asked to com­ment on the recent state­ment made by Batu Lin­tang's State As­sem­bly­man YB See Chee How who be­lieved that we had been short­changed in the com­mer­cial set­tle­ment agree­ment with Petronas.

YB See Chee How is a member of Parti Sarawak Ber­satu (PSB) pres­i­den­tial coun­cil mem­ber and had said that what was most dis­ap­point­ing and un­ac­cept­able to Sarawakians was the fact that the state govern­ment had con­ceded ground on the con­sti­tu­tion­al­ity and le­gal­ity of the ap­pli­ca­tion of the pro­vi­sions in the Pe­tro­leum De­vel­op­ment Act (PDA) 1974.

The Sarawak govern­ment and Petronas had recently signed the com­mer­cial set­tle­ment agree­ment on is­sues in­volv­ing the state’s sales tax and oil min­ing laws which would es­tab­lish a frame­work be­tween the na­tional oil com­pany and the state govern­ment that would see Sarawak more ac­tively in­volved in its on­shore oil and gas ac­tiv­i­ties through Pe­tro­leum Sarawak Bhd (Pet­ros).

Both Petronas and the state govern­ment agreed to es­tab­lish a con­sul­ta­tive frame­work to en­hance col­lab­o­ra­tion through a struc­tured and for­malised av­enue com­pris­ing a joint co­or­di­na­tion com­mit­tee and an an­nual strate­gic di­a­logue. Th­ese plat­forms will be co-chaired by Abang Jo­hari and Petronas chair­man Tan Sri Ah­mad Nizam Salleh.

Sarawak had prepared 117 events and festivals to promote and attract tourists in 2021

Kudos to Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Sarawak (MTACS) which has listed a total of 117 events and festivals under next year's Sarawak Tourism Calendar of Events to promote tourism and attract tourists to Sarawak. 

Our 2021 calendar of events was announced by the Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture YB Datuk Sebastian Ting yesterday after he chaired the Sarawak Tourism Coordination Committee (STCC) meeting held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) in Jalan Bako. It's a fact that in 2020, we have facied a difficult time due Covid19 pandemic and the tourism industry is severely affected. 

Our State Government through MTACS ministry has however worked hard to prepare and focus on preparation for 2021. Out of that 105 events were managed to be held throughout the state this year, he said among the new events included in the 2021 tourism calendarwill be the opening of the Borneo Cultural Museum (expected in March) as well as the World Rainforest Music Festival, Borneo Jazz Music Festival, Benak Festival, Borneo Cultural Festival and Sarawak Regatta.  also congratulate the ministry for having to focus next on community-based or domestic events because the state’s tourism industry had been affected by the Covid19 pandemic.

Rebuking allegations made by our former government backbencher

Recently I have rebuked the allegations made by our former government backbencher, YB Dr Johnical Rayong Ngipa who claimed Sarawak GPS Government had failed to develop rural areas.

As the Vice President of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), I have described Engkilili assemblyman Johnical Rayong Ngipa as a “confused man” because over the years our State Government had a good development track record. We have always been emphasising rural development, hence, GPS has strength in the rural areas. I think he is a confused guy because he forgot that he was with the state ruling coalition all these years before joining Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB).

Prior to joining PSB, YB Rayong was a former leader in the Sarawak United Peoples’ Party which is also a component of GPS. If the current GPS government had failed to develop the rural areas in the state, what was he doing back then? Does it mean he was a failed assemblyman or he suddenly becomes a good one after joining PSB. I did not want to sound arrogant but we are “puzzled” with YB Rayong’s claim that PSB could do better.