Commentary
It had been ages since I went to a playground with my nieces and nephews, until last week when I visited one of my favourite playgrounds located at Tanjong Lobang beach, for a walk and to enjoy the sea breeze.
However, the poorly maintained playground caught my attention.
I’m not trying to compare our playgrounds with those abroad, which tend to have better facilities than what we have here.
I do feel very blessed that we have been provided with park facilities for our leisure activities during the weekend.
However, it pains me to see how most of the parks or playgrounds here are not well-maintained. It feels like I’m strolling through a post-zombie apocalyse ‘Walking Dead’ zone.
Even months after the poor conditions are reported to the authorities, it seems to take ages for the relevant authorities to make an effort to repair these parks.
Why does it take so much time to take action? Is the safety of those who go there, especially kids, not significant at all? Playground-related injuries are something which scares me very much.
This is 2018, and it is ‘Visit Miri Year’, but it seems to be that the parks are being sidelined.
I wonder if most of our playgrounds in Miri are safe for kids to use.
A brief check has revealed that some park facilities in Taman Awam, or the City Fan are also experiencing similar problems.
Rusting metal fixtures and swings with rusty chains may be the cause of potentially life-threatening accidents.
For the record, all playgrounds or public park facilities in the city are managed by private companies and not Miri City Council (MCC).
This was explained by Miri Mayor Adam Yii when contacted by this writer recently.
However, as evidenced by the numerous complaints by Mirians pertaining to the matter on social media, most of them have no knowledge of who really is in charge of maintaining these public parks and playground facilities.
“The majority of them are pointing the finger at MCC for the lack of maintenance works,” said local resident Kenny Wong.
Some residents think that it is about time that all damaged parks and playgrounds be closed or repaired for the safety of the children.
“For me, it doesn’t matter who is in charge of these parks. The most important thing is that we must solve the problem and do the repair works for the benefit of Mirians,” said another resident David Lubau.
“Perhaps the local authorities, even though these damaged parks or playgrounds are not under their scope, can monitor the repair works by private companies to ensure a smooth process,” he added. — DayakDaily
