By Ashley Sim
KUCHING, Jan 30: Kuching South City Council (MBKS) mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng urges parties not to politicise the issue of the dysfunctional escalators and instead file a complaint through the proper channels rather than bring it up on social media.
Wee was responding to special assistant to Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) Chong Chieng Jen, Michael Kong Feng Nian, who issued a statement yesterday (Jan 29) lambasting the MBKS mayor for throwing the Public Works Department (JKR) Sarawak under the bus over the allegedly dysfunctional escalators at both ends of the overhead bridge in front of Timberland Medical Centre (TMC).
“In my Facebook Live, I said very clearly that JKR had not handed over the infrastructure facility to MBKS, and thus the maintenance work is currently not under the council’s jurisdiction,” he told reporters today following the press conference on the MBKS Chap Goh Mei concert held at MBKS here.
He said elected representatives should know their surroundings well and familiarise themselves with which party is responsible for the facilities’ maintenance.
“We are all in the government; we help each other internally. And the most important thing is to help the people we serve,” he added.
Wee continued by stating that parties who raised the issue should file a formal complaint rather than politicising the issue.
“Lodge a complaint and get it done, and people, the council, and you will be happy. To me, FB (Facebook) is not the proper channel.
“You don’t expect us to follow your FB. Then why should we create iPeople, Talikhidmat, (and) all that? So go through the proper channel. Let us listen to you and get things done,” he asserted.
Furthermore, he urged that because it is a new year, it is best to make a fresh start and work differently to serve the people better.
“It requires a lot of money to maintain the escalator. For us, we want to see things run properly so that we can take over.
“We must have the capacity to maintain it. Functional means we can still use it,” the mayor highlighted.
Wee also emphasised that the escalators are closed due to repeated acts of vandalism.
“JKR has responded, and I think that clears it up. The other thing that the parties should do is that they should have condemned those who vandalised the escalator. Are we saying that those people who vandalised are correct? If yes, then we have failed,” he added. — DayakDaily
