Pekan: Royal town and PM’s constituency, but…
By Arshad Khan, Harakah Daily
Whatever happened to Malaysia’s health inspectors and enforcement? Do such departments and their personnel still exist or have they absorbed into other departments with different roles?
Somehow, these departments really do not exist anymore for the last decade or so, otherwise how could the food outlets be allowed to operate under unhygienic conditions?
Pekan, Pahang is just one of the hundreds of towns all over the country with dirty eateries and zero enforcement. But other than being honoured with the country’s top member of parliament as its representative, there is little else the residents here could be proud of.
Pekan is a small coastal town near the mouth of the Pahang river. There are some important features and dwellings but do not attract much tourists except those needing a journey’s break bound for the north from the south or the other way around.
This was supposed to be motorway but converted for food stalls
There are no food for the adventurous palates and cottage products are negligible. Treeless and hot, it has nothing to offer to outsiders.
Even the fact that the Prime Minister hails from Pekan has not made the place popular other than some ‘planned’ industries for livelihood of the voters. The indigenous people have been driven out of their natural habitat in the nearby forests and placed in ramshackles with nothing much to do for a decent living; theirs is a pathetic situation even though they are the real people of the land we live in.
What happened to their former forests? Your guess is as good as mine! Did someone scream “Timber!”?
Never flowing water in drains
In Pekan’s town centre we find garbage strewn almost behind every building, in the drains and alley ways. All over, the drains do not flow but remain stagnant with dark – at times pus-like, water heavily loaded with all sorts of garbage. Does this remind you of anything?
Yes, riverside dwellings where all the human activities one could think of are done daily. They are like the buffalo tied to a pole, grazing, does its business, and then sits down after a while for a rest or snooze!
Yes, that is how people should be compared. People who can think have choices whereas buffaloes cannot think like man and when they are tied, have no choice at all. Humans are not tied at a point but never learn.
