Christmas and New Year celebration for unity

The SS2B Rukun Tetangga (RT) in Petaling Jaya hosted about 500 people who lived around SS2 area at the Christmas and New Year celebration dinner at the school hall of Puay Chai Primary School, SS2 recently.

The festive celebration dinner was aimed at promoting unity, fostering closer friendship
and enhancing good neighbourliness among the SS2 residents.

Coming from different backgrounds, the residents came together for a jolly evening feast – a sumptuous 9-course Chinese cuisine and Malay cuisine for the Muslim guests, followed by song and dance performances, Christmas carols, table games, contests, lucky draws and dancing.

“It’s a very good feeling to have all of you coming here tonight in one big hall. This is a very special night because how often can you have all the neighbours sitting down for a festive dinner and to get to know one another,” said SS2B RT chairperson Lee Kwee Cheng upon welcoming everyone.

“We normally hold such events in the open fields and we are extremely pleased with the overwhelming support extended by our residents to such an event held indoor for the first time.

We have 49 tables that seat up to 490 people of family members and friends in the neighbourhood. We appreciate all of you taking time to join in this festive dinner. Let us value the time together, get to know new friends and strengthen old friendships in this neighbourhood.

“Everybody needs good neighbours and make your neighbours your best friends,” she said in reference to the theme song of “Neighbours” – a long-running Australian television soap opera that entertained audiences worldwide.

“A neighbour in need is indeed worth many friends mile away and because we are united as a residential body, we have a united voice and are able to say with collective responsibility, to take care of ourselves and to improve security in our neighbourhood.”

On the Skim Rondaan Sukarela (SRS) or Voluntary Patrol Scheme, Lee said that their patrolling in the neigbourhood is not meant to catch thieves or criminals.

“By patrolling in our neighbourhood, we get to know our neighbours better and when neighbours get to know one another, that’s the first protection for security when you know your neighbours.

“We also invite our friendly neighbourhood police to patrol with us from time to time. Our
patrolling are only done at night four times a week for a certain hours but since most of the crimes are committed during the daytime, we hired security guards to cover the SS2B area with 78% residents participation.

Guests who arrived for this meaningful unity dinner (50% of cost subsidized by SS2B RT) were given a bright red Santa hat to wear. Among the highlights for the evening were the fancy dress competition, fancy hat contest and ‘Christmas twist’ which had everyone getting up from their seats to dance.

Among the guests present were Petaling Jaya city councillor Tony Cheong Siew Thong, OCS of SEA Park police station Inspector Gunam Resul bin Gulam Mohammad, former Damansara Utama state assemblyman Dato’ C.K. Lim, MBPJ senior assistant director of environmental health Dr Chitradavi a/p Vadivellu, MBPJ One-Stop Centre (OSC) unit head Lee Lih Shyan, Section 21 SEA Park Residents Association chairman Gan Keng and SS20 Damansara Utama/Kim RT chairperson Eileen Thong.

Petaling Jaya city councillor (MBPJ) Tony Cheong said the celebration helped to strengthen the unity and harmony among the residents.

“This is one of the great events from one of the very active RTs in SS2. The SS2B RT is very proactive and in every festive occasion or every two months once they will organize one program or activity for this community.

“As a councillor in the SS2 area, I will try my best to support and provide any assistance in whatever way possible to the programs and activities organised by SS2B RT for the betterment and unity in the community.

Tony later presented two cheques of RM2,000 each to SS2B RT, one being his contribution from his allocation and the other contribution from Edmund Kong, executive director of  Dijaya Corporation.

The OCS of SEA Park police station Inspector Gunam Resul bin Gulam Mohammad joined the SS2B RT committees on stage in singing-along with the meaningful theme song “Neighbours”.

Gunam later presented a certificate of appreciation to John Chia, the head of SS2 RT SRS team for their tireless and selfless volunteerism, dedicated effort and the invaluable time spent in contributing to the peace and security in the neighbourhood.

He said: “This event is a great way to bring the people together and it is especially important to get them to know one another. It helps in our work when residents relay information to us on issues relating to crime and crime prevention in their areas and this help to create a better and safer place to live in.

“The SS2B RT engaged a security company to strengthen the security level in the neighbourhood and we, the police also conduct regular patrolling in the area. The crime rate in this area is very good. Sometimes for a month or for two weeks we recorded zero crime rate.

“People response is very good and the SRS team has done a good job. We, the police conduct joint patrolling with the SRS team of SS2B RT and this ‘two-way’ communication is very good and proved very effective in reducing crimes.