9/11/11 THE CURLING MEOW....

Kuching, originally was called Sarawak. That why the river dividing Kuching into the south and north parts, is called Sungai Sarawak, not Sungai or Batang Kuching. Why than, Kuching is named Kuching not sustained as Sarawak? Well, Brooke, the Angmo, that how they signified growth. Sarawak was the original small place, to signify the growth of their power, thus Sarawak enlarge with the extent of space they colonized.

(2) Kucing is a nice pet animal. Tame. Passionating. Entertaining. Loyal. A real friend.So much great quality of the most loveable pet. But Kuching doesn't get it name from kucing, a cat, in Malay. The closest speculation is that it was named after a small stream, Sg. Kuching, running accros the St Mary Primary School down the Medan PELITA to Lebuh Wayang and met the Sg Sarawak at the River Bank Suit. The river then was named after the Bukit Mata Kuching, the home of Hilton Hotel, which again was named after a local fruit tree called Mata Kuching.

(3) Nonetheless, those cats statue at the McDonald Roundabout, Padungan Junction and Roundabout are all just a gimmick for the easy remembrance of the foreign visitors. Kucing is basically just a logo, but not the true origin of Kuching. Taking such a statue as the logo has it own merit. As I have described above, the characters of kucing and Kuching is just almost similar. As a pet, kucing is the most loveable human friend across religions, ethnics and cultures. Kuching, on the other hand, a socio-geographical subject is cool, splendid, inviting, tranquil, serene, etc place. A real friend of green and nature lover.

(4) But unfortunately, kucing and Kuching is just a curling meow, as it turns hungry, or need attention. A cat just keep meowing, curling around our legs doesn't matter if we have to step or stumble on them. I have such notion, when now I felt the service sector in Kuching is not sparking enough. Kuching need serious attention. We need to work hard to bring a much needed lives to Kuching. As I see it, all the major activities organized in Kuching are all public driven. All those regattas, exhibitions, fiesta, etc, all are public initiated. The true economic significant of all those events are yet to be seen. Worst if the true commercial Balance Sheet be examined.

(5) By nature, Kuching is lovely. But those beauties are distance, can't be easily touch or memorably celebrated. Kuching is a mountain at the distance. Beautiful at far. Though to touch. Why?

(6) It is very basic. Firstly, they must be a magnet to pull people over to Kuching. Secondly, there must be an efficient mean to reach Kuching. Both are not in priority order, but there must come together. In singapore, they have the casinos as the magnet, yet they organized an efficient transportation to reach to the Casino to the extend, they even provide shuttle not from Changi but from Johore Baharu. Subject and mean must come hand in hand.

(7) With the merger of AirAsia and MAS, I guess is a strategy to kill FireFly. Soon that will happen. Yet we longing to see or hear a voice what would be the next strategy so as not to be trapped in this Zero Sum Game. Would Sarawak be served well without the FireFly? Probably it is better for Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei, and Kalimantan to form a consortium to buy over FireFly, and turn into AirBorneo that would serve East of SEA as well as to serve our domestic needs. Let us foster a much efficient TransBorneo Mobility. Hopefully with such arrangement we could form USB after USA. If there is an A, then there should be a B.

(8) On the other hand, just a mere natural tropical beauties, that won't give Kuching the magnetic force to attract visitors. We still lacking in substances for celebration. Kek Lapis, Terubok Masin UiTM, Pasu Sarawak, Tikar Sarawak, Laksa Sarawak, Mee Kolok and Gambir Sarawak are not sufficient. These are mere, take home ole-ole. We need more of a place to celebrate. The visit here must be a memorable one.

(9) My visit to Luang Prabang in Laos and Siem Rep in Cambodia made me realized how, especially the foreigners love to celebrate local arts and cultures. People search for the Pyramids, Great Wall, Taj Mahal, Borobodur, Angkor Wat, etc is the greater manifestation of such interest. We must be able to think, conceptualize, detailing and thus building upon our rich arts and cultures as the magnet that could pull people to Kuching and any other cities. It must be seriously noted that individual nation has their unique arts and cultures. Thus, making our arts and cultures available and accessible are paramount to bring people to Kuching.

(10) Frequent visitor can't just keep visiting the same Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV). Can't we not build a real living traditional modern neighborhoods and celebrating places just by the footstep of Hilton or Magharetta? Mingling among the local real lives would give greater experience to visitors. Memorable indeed. Welcoming back in fact. Let not merely building a modern Kuching (I laugh to this), but let have a Culturally Celebrated Kuching. How? Knock-knock, put our heads together!


Matang Jaya, Kuching
15 Nov., 2011