VPY 2012 sinking in apathy

Are Malaysians to accept the fact that outside of Kuala Lumpur and Penang, the work ethic is so laid back, that the machinery of the state is at risk of grinding to a halt?

With three months to go before the end of the year, very few Perakians are aware that this is Visit Perak Year (VPY) 2012. The organisation and planning for such a major event in the Perak calendar has been lackadaisical and slipshod.

No amount of press releases can hide the fact that once again, the Perak state government has been caught unprepared.

Perak is not short of attractions, both natural and man-made, to keep everyone interested but the problem is that Perak lacks capable leaders with passion, drive and commitment.

Ordinary people are too scared to speak up whilst others are too apathetic to bother. Without the interaction of Perakians, how can Perak tourism be successful?

Last July, the chairman of the Perak Tourism Committee, Hamidah Osman (left), told the Ipoh Echo, a local bi-monthly free community newspaper, that "locals must think tourism and do tourism."

She said, "Visit Perak Year 2012 will involve the whole state. We need to create awareness throughout the state and have the local residents as well as local councils participate."

A few months later, the Perak committee's lack of strategies was again highlighted in the local community newspaper. Ipohites had expressed their alarm at the committee's lack of planning and its failure to involve the public in VPY.

When Hamidah announced last Saturday, "We are going on an aggressive campaign to draw tourists to Perak. We have set aside RM2mil to promote VPY this year and the amount will most probably be doubled next year", many were sceptical.

She told reporters about the committee's efforts to engage local radio stations and print media.

 Billboards along highways

Unfortunately, Hamidah is of the opinion that erecting 17 billboards along highways and at the KL International Airport, Low Cost Carrier Terminal and KL Sentral as well as placing advertisements in travel magazines would magically attract visitors to Perak for VPY.

She has not given any detailed plans for tackling cleanliness and tardiness in the state. Some of our eateries and almost all of our toilets are filthy. Drains are clogged up and piles of rubbish line some of the roads leading to the attractions.

How will she resolve the poor communication between the tourism staff, who have direct contact with foreigners, and her office?

The spoken English of the Perak tourism office staff in Ipoh is not easily understood. Their knowledge of the sites is equally poor.

Moreover, some employees are more interested in playing computer games than attending to tourists who drop in at the office.

A number of tourists use public transport. Ipoh's buses are irregular and the routes are poorly planned. Will Hamidah interact with the appropriate department to build a decent public transport system?

Our attractions cannot be reached by people when roads are badly signposted. 

The Taiping Zoo is one such example. Signs to the zoo are small, hidden behind trees or other billboards and these signs are not lit at night.

This is especially important for people who are interested in Taiping's night safari. On completion of the night safari, visitors will find that there are inadequate signs to direct them onto the highway.

So, when will Hamidah perform spot-checks on tourist sites?

Some of Perak's tourist attractions are disappointing. The Taiping Zoo is decrepit. The animals housed in poorly maintained cages in the Gunung Lang recreational facility are in a deplorable state.

The rabbits are diseased, the mangy ostriches have no water and the deer are so stressed that they resort to eating their own faeces.

Speaking to tourist guides at other attractions has been illuminating. The problems are easily rectified but the people who run these companies have no interest in investing in their staff or in improving the site. Their bottom line is only to make money.

It is disappointing that the people who are in charge of Perak tourism are the ones who are least creative.

Why do they believe that tourism can be increased if they were to go on trips to overseas locations?

In August, Ipoh Mayor Roshidi Hashim stated that he was serious about getting ready for VPY.

He then announced that he had recently returned from a visit to China as part of a Ministry of Tourism's ‘Sales Mission to China' delegation led by Tourism Minister Dr Ng Yen Yen (right).

Do these people not realise that wasting taxpayers' money on an all-expenses-paid junkets is irresponsible?

Diversity of architectural buildings

One of Perak's attractions is the diversity of architectural buildings found in the state. Panglima Lane or Concubine Lane in the centre of Ipoh is falling apart but Hamidah is alleged to have said that there is no public funding available.

Perakians are unimpressed that the public purse is abused by politicians on study trips abroad and yet the government can't allocate a fund for restoring old buildings, so private owners can help preserve Perak's heritage.

There is a constant tussle between big business and those who eke out a living on the riverbanks.

The fireflies attraction at Kampung Dew is at risk. The buffer zone of trees along the riverbank has been reduced, so that the river is illuminated by the lights that line the near-by motorway.

Moreover, the natural habitat of these insects is slowly being destroyed. The land has been cleared and palm oil trees planted close to the riverbank.

A few months ago, the palm oil factory released toxic effluents into the river and the fishermen discovered that the pollutants had killed off their source of income.

Will Hamidah engage the other departments in the state to address the problems that those in the tourist industry face?

Or will big business influence her way of thinking so that she can only pay lip service to the tourism trade?

Where does Hamidah think Perak's challenges in tourism lie, because these problems are only the tip of the iceberg?

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In 'real-speak', this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.