Malaysia Day -16 September,2017 in Bintulu.

Tree Planting at Bintulu Sentral - 16 Sept'17

Painting the mural

Today is a special day for Bintuluians as we celebrate Malaysia Day in a unique way.  I joined the local community, government servants and students in a tree planting program at an open or green space within the Bintulu Sentral, a new shopping location just opened for business about two years ago.  The event was spearheaded by Bintulu Development Authority which provided the plants and place.  I planted a Hibiscus mutabilis species.

Me planting the Hibiscus mutabilis species

Participants happily planting

After the planting ceremony, I joined the crowd in a mural painting activity.  The exposed rock surfaced formed by an outcrop near the traffic lights junction close-by was chosen as the mural site.  Two types of mural painting were carried out.  One set of murals were painted along a short concrete wall about 320 meters long that surrounded the base of the outcrop.  Here I tried my hand at painting a tiny section of the mural design which was already laid using a template on the wall surface.  On the outcrop two ‘graffiti artists’ were busy doing the mural painting using spray cans and standing on scaffolding pipes laid perpendicular to the sloping rock surface, thereby comes the name of today’s project – Mural the Rock.

Painting a small section in the long mural, about 320 meters long when completed.

"Mural the Rock" project

Aerobic dancing on the sidelines

GM BDA - Rodziah Hj Morshidi

On the sidelines, an aerobic dance was organised for the public and students of all ages and denominations to participate.  Food and  plenty of drinking water were freely served to the participating public.   

At a tent location, music was broadcasted and a basking team was in action.  During one of the ‘basking time’ I joined the GM of BDA, Puan Rodziah Hj. Morshidi in delivering two Bee Gees number – To Love Somebody and Words, with me on the guitar.

Singing with GM BDA, Rodziah Hj. Morshidi.

 Today’s celebration has more meaning to me than the normal tea parties that are usually held in conjunction with Malaysia Day celebration.  It has been a unique event with a difference, memorable and truly unique.

Happy Malaysia Day, Sarawak!

  ( This is the fourth of a series of articles as my writing contribution on what Malaysia Day means to me as a Sarawakian 2017)                                

Once there was a stall

BDA Exhibition stall fully optimising allocated space, enhanced with new presentation ideas and techniques.

 In 1988 just 10 years after BDA (Bintulu Development Authority) was created as a Sarawak state statutory body, it took part in a state-level development expo held at Kuching.  This was the first time BDA was to expose itself  to the Kuching public and outside visitors of Sarawak  in the form of a development stall exhibition.  I was given the responsibility to coordinate and implement the BDA stall from concept to construction.  I had the best men to do the job.  Fumiaki Izumuda, a landscape architect attached to my Landscaping Division was tasked with the design of the stall.  Hong Seng Teck, an engineer and doing the quantity surveying in BDA was tasked with procurement of relevant materials in Kuching.  Both of them were assisted by electricians, carpenters, painters and general workers from the BDA.  Many novelties were introduced in the stall like the use of large transparencies with light boxes, models and a zoning map or structure plan.  During those times Bintulu was the only town in Sarawak that has a urban Structure Plan.  BDA's participation in the exhibition provided lots of experiences for me in doing exhibitions.  Later, in my days as a contractor I was able to successfully do many exhibitions for the national oil company, Petronas and Sarawak Shell based on my experiences in undertaking three major exhibitions during my BDA days.  The 1988 exhibition however was exceptional for BDA because it provided a platform for  aggressive marketing and branding of Bintulu's potentials to foreign and domestic stakeholders to jointly partake in its industrialization agenda.  Today, in its fourth boom starting in 2010 Bintulu is poised to become an industrial showpiece of Sarawak or Malaysia for that matter.

To see more images of Bintulu before and now, check them out in my other blog here .

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The week-long Development Expo started on 16 September, 1988 ; Opening hours 8 am - 10 pm daily.

Happy Malaysia Day, Sarawak!!

(Note:  On the 16th of September, Sarawak will celebrate its independence being a party to the formation of Malaysia.  As part of remembering history I'll create some posts on what  it means to be a Malaysian as I have experienced it.  Check out the rest of the postings by following this link here.)