KUCHING: Serian District Council (SDC) has been urged to continue their efforts to make Serian into a must-stop town for locals and tourists.
These efforts include ensuring the area offers a variety of food and maintaining its cleanliness.
Serian is the only small town in the whole country that has two flyovers and many will pass the area, said Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Datuk Amar Michael Manyin Jawong.
“But how do we make Serian a must-stop town? One is cleanliness, two is what you are going to offer to the people (in terms of food choices),” he said during SDC 60th diamond jubilee anniversary celebration at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) on Friday evening (Dec 18).
He said people and food could not be separated, thus Serian must have a variety of food not only for the locals but tourists as well.
“Not only kolo mee or laksa, but the Ibans, Bidayuhs, Malays and Chinese can come with their own delicacies so that there are plenty of choices for the people to sample,” he said.
Manyin who is also the Tebedu assemblyman then said not only Serian town itself must be clean but its coffee shops too, especially the public toilets.
“Your toilets must be clean. We have started with letter or alphabet grading system for coffee shops, so MDS you can specifically grade your toilets,” he said.
He said the council could emulate Beijing in China which has graded their toilets with a star grading system.
“Therefore to MDS, you have to specifically grade the toilets because a lot of people after going to the coffee shops, they will eat and go to the toilet and would say had I seen this (dirty toilet) earlier I would not have taken my food.
“This means that the toilet and the food preparing area are very dirty. Because of this people will never visit the shop again,” he said.
He therefore urged the council and its members to grade the toilets as one of their priorities.
“It is not easy and takes time, but all this while you have done a very good job. Continue your efforts because there is no limit to success,” said Manyin.
Also present were Ministry of Local Government and Housing acting permanent secretary Desmond Douglas Jerukan, Assistant Transport Minister Datuk Dr Jerip Susil, Assistant Minister of Youth and Sports Datuk Snowdan Lawan, Kedup assemblyman Martin Ben, Bukit Semuja assemblyman John Ilus, Serian Division Resident Tuah Suni, political secretary to the chief minister Dr Simon Sinang Bada, MDS chairman Lim Hock Meng and MDS secretary Constantine Gerald David Jonas.
