UiTM Sabah has been certified as a Litter Free University. It is the first University recognized as such under the on-going large scale campaign against litterbugs conducted by the Kota Kinabalu City Hall. The Mayor of Kota Kinabalu City, Datuk Iliyas Ibrahim, personally presented the certificate of recognition to UiTM Sabah campus Director, Associate Professor Datuk Dr. Worran Haji Kabul, in a glamorous ceremony held at the campus main hall on 8 July 2010.
At the ceremony, the Mayor also presented a certificate of recognition as Litter Free Construction Site to the Manager of Fidel Construction which is presently undertaking major construction works in the campus. It is also the first construction site to gain recognition as such from the city Mayor.
Litter Free University is not just a name or a brand. It is at the same time a concept. As a concept, a litter free university has two meanings:
i. All those who work and study in the university are disciplined and ethical people. As disciplined and ethical people, they don’t litter in the university, and wherever they are; and
ii. As a show of support to the on-going large scale campaign against litterbugs in the city, all those who work and study in the litter free university will talk about this campaign wherever they are.
Those are the two fundamental requirements that will qualify a university to be recognized as a litter free university by the city Mayor. Therefore, on being recognized as such, it brings with it certain responsibility and commitment. The no littering habit of all those who work and study in this university is not confined to the university only, but it must be adopted as a culture, wherever they are. In addition to that, they also must pledge to talk about the anti litterbugs campaign wherever they are. It makes sense to keep on talking about this for the following reasons:
i. The more they talk about it, the more other people get to know about it and be transformed;
ii. The more they talk about it, the more this no littering habit is entrenched within their culture. It would be very unlikely they resort to littering again if they continue to talk about it.
The multiplying effect of this concept of litter free university, or any premise for that matter, is obvious. The more premises certified as litter free premises, the more this no littering culture is spread around. The ultimate objective of this anti litterbugs campaign as envisaged by Kota Kinabalu City Hall is the transformation of Kota Kinabalu into a Litter Free City. As a concept, a Litter Free City is distinguishable from a Clean City. A clean city does not entail there is no littering in the city. There are litters, but because the workers work so hard to clean up the litters, the city is clean. This is a clean city, but only for a while. Soon it will be dirty again because there are litterbugs around. Then the workers work hard again to clean up the mess. This syndrome is called ‘throw (rubbish) first, collect later’. A Litter Free City, on the other hand, means that there is no littering in the city. In this way the city is always clean. There may still be rubbish, but little. The number of workers required to clean up the rubbish is also greatly reduced.
To date, several premises had already been certified as litter free premises. The list includes several schools, offices, bank, condominium, shopping complex, village and resort. UiTM Sabah is the latest addition to the list.
The move by the UiTM Sabah campus Director to first declare the campus as a litter free campus, and to gain recognition as such from the City Mayor, is to establish and enhance the university’s credibility. UiTM Sabah is about to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Local Government and Housing Sabah for UiTM Sabah to provide consultancy services in the conduct of similar Anti Litterbugs Campaigns all over Sabah. UiTM Sabah has the expertise and now has the experience to do this.
Source: www.sabah.uitm.edu.my
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