KEEPING MELAKA CLEAN

Monday, 4 January 2016
Beauties do their part to help keep Malacca clean

BY R.S.N. MURALI


Porta de Santiago or A Famosa fort is the landmark to visit when in Malacca.
 
MALACCA: If you are at the tourist spots here next week, expect to see a beauty pageant contestant handing you a pamphlet on keeping the Unesco Heritage City clean at all times.

Beauties from 52 countries are now in the state to vie for the Miss Tourism Queen of the Year International 2016 title.

The finals will be held at The Shore shopping complex here on Jan 16.

Pageant sponsor Kerjaya Prospek (M) Sdn Bhd will work with the Malacca Historic City Council (MBMB) to organise a roadshow at all tourists hotspots to distribute pamphlets on the “Don’t Mess With Melaka” campaign to traders and tourists.

“The girls will be at the hotspots to heat up the campaign,” the company’s CEO Datuk Tee Eng Ho said in an interview yesterday.

Tee said details of the campaign will be announced by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron on Jan 6.

He said Tourism World Organisation president David Singh has agreed to the contestants’ participation in the campaign as a precursor to the finals here.

“We will probably have models wearing the placards ‘Don’t Mess With Melaka’ to highlight the state’s seriousness to keep our city clean,” he added.

In a front page exclusive in The Star on Nov 29 last year, it was reported that the MBMB wants to introduce a new by-law to make litterbugs walk around with placards reading “Don’t Mess With Melaka”, and increase fines for offenders.

First-time offenders must sign an “oath of pledge” not to mess up the city at the MBMB magistrate’s court in Jalan Tun Sri Lanang here.

Tee said the contestants will also help the Malacca Tourism Department to introduce Malacca’s attractions to the world.

The pageant finals was supposed to be held in Bangkok, but due to eleventh hour glitches, the organisers decided to switch the venue to Kuala Lumpur. However, Tee managed to convince them to have it in his hometown.

The prestigious event, now in its 10th year, will see contestants from 52 countries vying for the crown.