SMC rankled by feeble response to people forum
SIBU: Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) will carry out a postmortem on its meet-the-peoplesessions following lukewarm response from members of the public during the last two sessions.
According to its deputy chairperson Rogayah Jemain, the response from their sessions at SMK Tung Hua last week and at SMK Deshon yesterday was far from satisfactory.
“The response I can say is very poor compared to earlier sessions in Bukit Lima, Nang Sang and in the villages. There were only about 40 and 50 people in attendance.
“We will do a post-mortem on the meet-the-people sessions,” she said at the session in SMK Deshon yesterday.
She said she did not know the reasons for the poor response, adding that she was equally disappointed with the response from Kapitans in the two areas - SMK Tung Hua and SMK Deshon.
The council, she continued, had expected the community leaders to turn up for the session.
Rogayah described the meetthe-people-session as a good programme to engage the people to better understand problems besieging them, while finding solutions to the problems.
She said the session functioned as a two-way communication and a good platform for residents to voice their concerns and forward their suggestions.
“The session is beneficial especially to housewives as officers from our public health section were there to share their knowledge on composting.”
The session, which started around 11am yesterday involved three zones – Pedada Road and the surrounding lanes, Rajang Park and Taman Seduan as well as areas in Pahlawan.
The residents raised issues pertaining to road maintenance, drainage, street-lighting and stray dogs, among others, during the question-and-answer session, held at the school hall.
SMC engineer Jong Thian Puk, public health, environment and municipal services standing committee chairperson Rhoda Ting and Councillor Andy Ting were among those present.