City With A Soul

Cities across Asia are experiencing tremendous growth with the increasing economic wealth and influx of investments, people and infrastructures to the point of competing with each other for world records in such achievements! All too often cities become lonely places with such high rise buildings and complexes leading to people becoming complete strangers to neighbours, indifferent and turning a cold shoulder to those living on the periphery of society. Kuching City too has seen much development as the capital city of the state with new industries, shopping centres and residential properties sprouting all around; the difference is that it still has its soul and vitality!

“We certainly don’t want our beloved city Kuching to be just like any other cities where people are always hurrying along their own agendas and not caring at all about their surroundings, neighbourhoods or marginalized people like rural migrants and the handicapped, urban poor and elderly,” said DBKU Mayor Datuk Haji Abang Abdul Wahap. “While we acknowledge that the city is a natural melting pot for people from different places, cultures, religions and age group, we nevertheless do not want them to be indifferent to one another. Kuching must strive to maintain its soul and vitality, conscience and apathy to everyone, everywhere every time. After all, Kuching is often called the ‘City of Smiles’ and we certainly have not earned this title by being inconsiderate or indifferent; in fact, we have always welcomed strangers and showed them our sincere care and understanding, sometimes to the point of taking them to our own homes! This is the Kuching that people from all over the world who have been here have noticed about us and we certainly do not want to change from being a warm and friendly city to be just like any other city without a soul.”

“Fortunately for us, we had the foresight of our Chief Minister who long ago foresee the emptiness of cities without vitality and soul by putting in place the necessary conditions to ensure that these will not affect Kuching City with proper planning of inner and outer city limits, clean and proper maintenance of streets and buildings, preservation of historical buildings and encouraging greater diversity of cultures, architectural concepts and balanced developments in different parts without jeopardizing any area from being further developed in future. All these have paved the way for a balanced and structured development agenda, which ultimately brings people from all walks of life together in a safe, secure and friendly environment. Naturally, our police and other governmental agencies and ministries have contributed generously to the well being of our city which today continues to show its people side to visitors from all over the world,” he added.



The Mayor summed it all up as ‘Esprit de corps’ in our shared destiny of making Kuching City a livable and pleasant place. Even the elderly and handicap members of society here are treated with care and respect in specially built homes and centres with support from all sectors of the society. It is such caring attitude that has built the city over the years and continued to be pursued by the government and society at large. It was therefore not surprising that among the accolades of Kuching City include being conferred the status of ‘Cleanest City in Malaysia ’ by a United Nation agency. Additionally, DBKU puts in much effort to alleviate the urban poor in the city, working with NGOs in different areas of expertise like shelter, education, food and counseling for these groups of people. Most of the council’s activities in the area are carried out as part of its CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives as the most frontline agency of the government in such social matters. To provide better assistance to rural farmers who flock to the city every weekend to sell their farm products, DBKU has teamed up with FAMA in the setting up of a new and conducive market place, Medan Niaga which is expected to be operational in the later part of this year in Petra Jaya. DBKU has also partner with the SSPCA (Sarawak Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) in carrying out castration and controlling stray cats, dogs on the streets as an ongoing service for the community.

“While we can talk about our past achievements, we must place more emphasis on the future as this will determine where we go from here,” he pointed out. “As an agency at the forefront of the city’s development, we have to continuously monitor our contributions and strive to improve wherever possible as new developments and changes require different approaches to doing things, which means we must also be innovative and seek residents feedbacks to carry out our work. In line with the international demand for low carbon index in our activities, DBKU has long advocate green concepts in its dealings with residences, NGOs, government agencies and industries to continue to make the city a green and livable one.”

In the quest to be responsive to the demands from all residents in the city, DBKU has even upgraded its service lines to be a 24-hour on-call line (082-446688) for convenience, timely and responsive agency. It has also identified more areas within the city as green lungs and recreational facilities for residences and the public alike by continuously making the city more user friendly and healthy too!