KOTA KINABALU: The Quality Restroom Association of Malaysia (QRAM) Sabah Chapter, called on the government to pay equal attention to the importance of toilet cleanliness everywhere, especially public toilets.
Its national vice chairman Damian Chai said with the launching of the national-level Rat Control Campaign today, QRAM wished to see equal acknowledgment given to toilet cleanliness by organising similar nationwide campaigns to promote its importance.
“When it comes to toilets, we feel like the government is rather neglectful of its importance and not given the due attention.
“The development of a clean toilet culture in any country requires political will, with consistent efforts at educating and substantial funding. The latter is usually the most difficult to secure,” said Chai.
“In conjunction with the nationwide Rat Control campaign to be launched today by the Minister of Urban Well-being, Housing, and Local Government Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, I wish to remind the relevant ministry not to forget the toilets as they are equally important,” said Chai.
According to Chai, the 2001 incident where a group of Japanese students who were on a tour to Malaysia submitted a report to the then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir saying that everything here was ‘ichiban’ (the best) except toilets, showed how important toilet cleanliness is when it comes to impression by tourists and foreigners.
He added that QRAM founder Datuk Robert Lau had formed the association due to being frustrated with the increasingly foul reputation of public toilets and toilet habits in the country.
Meanwhile, Chai also brought up the postponement of the World Toilet General Assembly Forum and Expo, which was scheduled to be participated by 69 countries last May in Kota Kinabalu, to make way for the 13th general election.
He urged the government to allocated some fund and make way for the event some time next year for the benefit of the civil society in Sabah and Malaysia as a whole.