Lau gestures as he speaks to the ‘tamu’ traders in Selangau.
SIBU: With its new team of councillors, Sibu Rural District Council (SRDC) has taken up the challenge to make Selangau a better place for living and conducting business.
They had been going to the ground to understand the conditions, see the problems first hand and explore options to resolve them.
Last Saturday, a group of SRDC councillors led by its deputy chairman Councillor Robert Lau again visited Selangau, which is about an hour’s drive from here.
Among the immediate issues at hand was the huge number of weekend traders, necessitating the need to find a better trading ground for them so that they do not congest the five-foot ways and roads.
SRDC has a proper market place for traders by the riverbank and this marketplace can be better managed to accommodate some if not all of these weekend traders.
SRDC’s other aim is to tidy up the bazaar in preparation for Pesta Selangau in early December.
At the same time, the councillors also discussed the future of Selangau once the Pan Borneo Highway is completed.
The highway will have a major impact on the bazaar, where the critical issue will be its accessibility from the highway.
Meanwhile, SRDC chairman Sempurai Petrus Ngelai hoped all the arrangements of the Selangau ‘Pasar Tamu’ will be done before Pesta Selangau, which runs from Dec 1 to 4.
The council hoped that Selangau bazaar’s cleanliness will be improved, especially behind the ‘tamu’ area facing the river, he added.
“The council will repaint the road directions and road signs to smoothen the flow of traffic. I hope the Selangau bazaar residents and ‘tamu’ traders will assist the council in this rearrangement to make their trading places neat and conducive for trading.
“I (have) assigned Lau as Standing Committee Chairman for Public Health to monitor the rearrangement exercise together with other councillors in-charge of Selangau Zone,” said Sempurai.
Selangau Bazaar is the second largest settlement within SRDC’s jurisdiction after Sibujaya.
The uniqueness of Selangau is the transformation of the bazaar during the weekends, especially during the morning hours. The bazaar will be flooded with weekend ‘tamu’ traders selling all kinds of items ranging from jungle produce to mobile phones and other electrical gadgets.
The traders serve the workers from the surrounding oil palm plantations and travellers along the Sibu-Bintulu trunk road.