Sabah News Flash

Government Servants Reminded: Service to the People

Government servants at all levels must serve the people at all times and not to abuse their powers.  Doing so will lower the level of trust of the people.  This call was made by Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Yahya Hussin Thursday at the opening of a seminar for the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAFI).

This call was also for ministers and assistant ministers in reference to the recent findings on the Sabah Water Department involving its director and deputy director.  For him, it did not just bring humiliation to the families of those involved but also to the people of Sabah.  Furthermore, he told government servants that privileged information should not be divulged to the public for this is a violation of the law.

Yahya also talked of the importance of the seminar.  Titled “Transformation of Agriculture Service Towards Smart Government”, the seminar is mainly about application of information and communications technology (ICT) to enhance performance in managing and analyzing data and in generating reports.  ICT facilities of government offices are not for social media purposes.  Besides affecting the network, it is a violation of Sabah’s ICT security policy.

19^th Hospitality Fiesta on November 5-6

The 19^th Hospitality Fiesta is slated on November 5-6 at the Klagan Regency Hotel’s Grand Ballroom.  Competitions will be held to showcase the skills and talents of the different professions in the hospitality industry in the Professional Category and the Apprentice Segment.  One such competition is the Butcher Challenge – cutting and deboning a whole chicken – which, according to an organizer of this fiesta, should take less than two minutes for a professional chef to do so.

The Hospitality Fiesta started in 1997 by students of the Asian Tourism International College (ATIC).  Through the years, it has become one of the much awaited competitions in Sabah, having been listed in the annual calendar of the Sabah Tourism Board.

Alvin Ting, organizing chairman, said that the number of participants is increasing every year and they are planning to attract fellow practitioners from Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines and other countries in future competitions.  For this year, nearly 300 hotel and college entries from Kota Kinabalu, Sarawak and other localities were received to vie for the medals given on a point system (gold medals for scores 90 per cent and above while silver and bronze medals for lower percentage brackets).  Judges are from well-known local and international hotels and colleges, including the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH).

Interested parties may contact the organizer at sabahhopitalityfiesta@gmail.com, among other contact channels.

Color Coding of Semporna Tourist Boats

To standardize tourist boat operations in Semporna, the Tourism and Culture Ministry (Motac), in its Image Enhancement Campaign, has required local boat operators to paint their boats white with green stripes, an indication that they are authorized to ferry tourists.  The ministry’s State Director Ag Ahmad Zaki Abu Bakar said Thursday that initially, 60 boats were selected for the pilot implementation.  The move was made to further improve the tourism image of Semporna and at the same time, increase the income of local boat operators and unite them against illegal activities.  Semporna has gradually become a diving haven and touts in the area are paying boat operators a much lesser price as compared to what they are charging tourist-passengers. Color coding excludes boats of resorts and commercial boat operators.