CHIEF Justice Richard Malanjum, who recently led court staff, including judges, in a gotong-royong at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex, was instrumental in cleaning up Kg Sembulan Tengah in Kota Kinabalu.

The sight of a respected judge getting his hands dirty still sticks with residents of the village, which was transformed as a result of his efforts. 

The village, surrounded by top hotels, had resembled a landfill, to the embarassment of Kota Kinabalu. Malanjum’s work not only left it clean, but also, more importantly, less susceptible to dengue. 

Sixty-year-old Ainah Bantul, who has lived more than 20 years in Kg Sembulan Tengah, can attest to the changes.

“People used to treat this place as their personal landfill,” she told The Malaysian Insight.

“But when Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) stepped in with the group of judges, all of us had to do away with our old habits. 

“Now, nobody dares throw rubbish out the door anymore, including myself.”

The cleaner environment and visible presence of the law also drove away hoodlums and drug dealers.

“I know some pushers are still around, perhaps, loitering near the mosque, but they no longer do their business in the open like before,” said Ainah, who has four children and runs a food business from home.

Some 1,000 residents, including foreign workers, live in this village that time forgot, while Kota Kinabalu evolved into a city amid an influx of migrants, a long-standing problem for Sabah due to its proximity to southern Philippines.

Up until the 1980s, the village was neat and picturesque, but land reclamation on the Sembulan seafront and the construction of a coastal highway caused the sleepy fishing backwater to lose its postcard-pretty image of sunsets and coconut trees.

Migrants flooded the village, building illegal structures, and seeking work in construction and at restaurants, where low wages drove many of them to crime. 

Many of the original residents moved out as the illegal settlements grew.

The village further deteriorated in the 21st century, looking more and more like a landfill as rubbish spread like a carpet beneath the houses while Kota Kinabalu’s skyline changed with the addition of new buildings.

In 2015, the National Anti-Drug Agency declared Kg Sembulan Tengah as one of two drug hotspots in the state capital. Two years ago, DBKK pronounced the village a “black area” for its high crime rate.

A fire in 2016 triggered change.

DBKK prevented migrants from returning to rebuild their homes, while the Sabah judiciary, led by Malanjum, the then chief judge of Sabah and Sarawak, held a gotong-royong to clean up the village on July 24, 2016. 

The clean-up was an outreach programme by the Sabah Court Environmental Working Group. 

More than 67 tonnes of rubbish were cleared that day, but Malanjum, appalled by the state of the village, knew that one gotong-royong was not going to change anything.

Some 37 heads of families were hauled to court and charged with indiscriminate rubbish-dumping under city by-laws on littering.

Instead of fining them up to RM10,000 each, the court ordered them to do community service. They were to clean their homes for four hours a day, for a month.

DBKK officers were then stationed at the village daily, on the orders of Kota Kinabalu Mayor Yeo Boon Hai. 

For two years, the officers monitored the villagers, making sure everyone used the communal rubbish bins placed around the village.

Housewife Hamsia Sahamsia said DBKK officers taught them how to create a floating device that acted as a boundary marker to stop rubbish from flowing under their houses, built on stilts over swamp waters.

“The floating device is made of discarded plastic bottles tied together and placed below our stilt houses. It’s very easy to fix if broken,” said the 25-year-old mother of two. 

“At first, it was hard for us to learn to properly dispose of our own rubbish as the bin is some distance away.

“But, DBKK officers made sure we did it properly, giving us advice when we refused, and then warnings if we continued to refuse.”

Hamsia said her husband was initially reluctant to comply and would argue with DBKK officers, saying the house they lived in was rented, and that its cleanliness was the owner’s responsibility.

“But that is not right. We rented the house, and as keepers of the property, we should be responsible.”

Her husband eventually agreed. 

Ibnu Hatta, 56, said it took him some time to learn about the importance of good hygiene and accept his responsibilities.

“In the end, it’s about accepting that it is the right thing to do.

“I have 20 people living in my house, including my mother, siblings and in-laws, and their children. I don’t want any of them to fall sick,” said the retired construction worker.

State Health Department statistics show that fewer residents are falling sick, especially with dengue. The number of dengue cases in the village dropped from 86 in 2015 to 20 last year. – August 19, 2018.