Poor attitude or no enforcement in Penang?

Beaches in Penang dirty due to poor attitude

Is Penang dirty because of the people's attitude or is it because there is no enforcement?

- How many times have you seen MPPP staff cleaning up a beach?
- How many times have you seen MPPP staff cleaning up your neighborhood playground?
- How many times have you seen MPPP enforcers issuing a summons to a litterbug?
- How many times have you seen MPPP administrators actually on the job, somewhere?

It is so easy just to blame it on the public. Have they checked to see if rubbish bins are easily available in major tourist spots or practically anywhere else where the public is prone to discard rubbish?

Any person walking around Penang can see that rubbish is strewn whenever there is no proper rubbish bin in sight. Can you blame the public for this?

Yes, sometimes there are those who throw rubbish everywhere especially out of their cars and on the sidewalks. So where are the enforcers? Why is MPPP so interested to enforce the meter car park system (I think there must be over a thousand summons each day on the island alone, this can be easily verified looking at the QUE system in place at the payment counter in Komtar) but there is hardly any fines on littering?

Is our meter car park system a tourist attraction?

Penang Stinks! - Comments by Arab Tourists

The Star, 3 May 2007: Malaysian Tourism Minister Gets First Hand Account From Tourists

Overcharging by taxi drivers and traders, stinking cabs and poor knowledge by unsmiling frontliners have marred Malaysia’s image among Arab tourists.

This feedback from Arab travel agents has left Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor red in the face.

He lamented that taxi drivers, sometimes, could not answer basic questions, like what the weather was like and queries on exchange rates.

“Sometimes, the taxis even stink!” he said, adding that he also received complaints from tour agencies here that the beaches in Penang and Kota Kinabalu were polluted with rubbish and sewage.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported that Malaysia has won an award as this year’s top choice summer holiday destination for United Arab Emirates (UAE) residents. (???!!)

Muslims - By Force

Al-Jazeera reports:-

Islamic authorities in Malaysia have removed a baby girl from her father's home and placed her mother in a religious rehabilitation centre in what has become the latest case to highlight the country's fragile racial and religious balance.

The case of 15-month-old Divya Darshini, and her mother, Revathi Masoosai, has cast light on the conflict between two parallel legal systems – civil and shariah - in multi-ethnic Malaysia.

Born as Siti Fatimah to a Muslim family, Revathi initially sought to legally change her name before deciding to marry the man she loved, Suresh Veerapan, in a Hindu rite in 2004.

Divya, was born about a year later.

But Malaysian law does not recognise marriages between Muslims and non-Muslims and in March religious officials, acting within Malaysian law, removed the child from Suresh's home and handed her over to Revathi's family.

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