Thomas Tan
Once again, residents around SS2, Petaling Jaya came together to celebrate Malaysia Day Pesta Tanglung at Jalan SS2/22 field on Sept 28, 2013.
The event was held in conjunction with Malaysia Day on Sept 16 and the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival on Sept 19.
“The whole idea of this event is to get the residents to come together as a community to strengthen neighborhood spirit and unity,” said SS2 Selatan Residents Association (RA) secretary and organising chairman Lt. Col. (R) Michael Tan to Citizen Journalists Malaysia (CJMY).
“We collaborate with Touch Community Services (TCS) and Lovely Disabled Home in SS2 to bring this event for residents to meet one another, have fun and get to know one another better.
“With a strong sense of community and look out for each other only can we contribute to a more friendly, caring and safer place to live,” added Tan.
- Games coordinator Yong Zhen Kheng (left), his assistant Daniel Ong and other team members from Touch Community Services taking charge at the gamesbooths.
- A child playing a ball game to knock down plastic bottles like bowling pins.
Tan said there were about 1,900 households living in SS2 Selatan areas stretching between Taman Bahagia LRT station and right up to SS2/55.
He lamented the low RA membership of about 700 members and urged more residents, particularly the business community at SS2/24 to give their support by becoming RA members and benefit from community activities organised by the RA.
He said committee members of a mosque in SS2/6 joined the RA in their night patrolling and this has helped to build a good rapport with the community.
The RA hired a private security firm to patrol the SS2 Selatan area on a 24-hour basis with only about 240 households signed up for the services with each household paying a RM50 monthly fee.
“The police conduct their regular patrolling and we can see that all these activities have been effective in reducing crimes in SS2 Selatan,” said Tan.
Among those present at the event included PJ Utara MP Tony Pua, Damansara Utama state assemblywoman Yeo Bee Yin, Petaling Jaya City Councillor (MBPJ) councillor for SS2 Tony Cheong, SEA Park police station chief OCS Inspector Gunam Resul and Pastor Reynold Lim from TCS, Community Baptist Church, SS2.
However Pua, Yeo and Gunam left early to attend to other pressing matters.
Tony Cheong said he was happy to see this year’s crowd was bigger at more than 700 people over last year’s attendance and noticed less litter on the field this time around.
“You can see the Malay, Chinese and Indian are all here and you can see that they mingle with no cultural barriers and all enjoy alike.
“We live in a multiracial country and we share our cultures and traditions.
“We must encourage more of this type of beneficial programmes which bring communities together,” said Cheong.
During the event from 4pm – 9pm, there were halal mooncakes sampling for everyone and a lantern procession around the field.
Other activities carried out included children colouring contest, games, health checks, clown and musical performances and lucky draws.
A group of children were also seen playing with kongming flying lanterns. The candle-lighted paper lanterns were released and went very high up lighting the night sky.
The mooncakes were sponsored by Foh San and Kam Lun Tai, Vitagen drinks by Cotra Enterprise, Indocafe drinks by Regal Marketing & Trading, health check by a medical team from Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) and Anlene bone health check by Fonterra.
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