| We are not their coolies! Street Rubbish 4th August 1997
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 Datuk
Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, was in one of his
best crabby moods after two high profile weeks which saw him compared unfavourably
to Singapore elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew and described as "a relic of the
past" by US Secretary of State Madeline K. Albright, blaming currency devaluations
on US currency trader George Soros,who later denied trading in anything
apart from the Thai baht, and attacking the United Nations Human Rights
declaration for being pro-Western.
An embarassed and angry Dr Mahathir said that even though visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif earlier complimented Malaysia on its cleanliness, Mahathir advised that as Nawaz Sharif walked back from a shopping trip to Lot 10 to his hotel, "...he saw rubbish..like a jungle..". Referring to the litterers, Mahathir growled "...Do they think everbody else are coolies who have to clean up their dirt? We are not their coolies!...". Across the causeway, Singapore has an international reputation for the cleanliness of their streets, with steep fines for discarding even cigarette butts on the streets. North of the border in Bangkok, the police are rigorouly enforcing littering laws. A hastily scrawled cardboard sign at the corner of Soi 5 and Sukhumvit last month advised.. Please do not throw rubbish in the street. The police will fine you 2,000 baht. Do not even throw cigarette butt. Police will throw book at you!Signs in English in Bangkok, even cardboard ones, should be obeyed. One of our correspondants in Bangkok reported in June that a colleague was recently stopped by the police for a similar offense and after much haggling got the fine down to 500 Baht. "We are just like Singapore!", trumpeted the triumphant copper. Meanwhile in downtown Bukit Bintang in KL, the streets were still a mess at 6 am, according to our KL correspondant, who we had despatched with alacrity from his slumber in his hotel bed. Also for his trouble he was approached by 2 separate pimps during this early morning stroll. (the profession in KL never sleeps obviously!).. There is no doubt that a clean city is on the minds of all our leaders. And KL and Bangkok are making urgent steps to play catch up to the Lion city. More rubbish bins, which are sorely lacking and almost always overflowing, may be a good step. South-East Asian culture has a long tradition of street stalls and street living, and the Western models of city development, designed for people in usually cooler climes who eat inside, and adopted uncritically here with little thought to different living styles are a not insignificant part of the problem. |
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