YAB Datuk Seri Ir. Idris Haron, Chief Minister of Melaka
Emblazoned with the ‘Don’t Mess with Melaka’ t-shirt, Datuk Seri Ir. Idris Haron cuts a distinguished yet approachable figure. He personifies Melaka’s tenacity and willingness to face challenges head-on. Based on Gaya Travel Magazine’s experience in interviewing him, we realise that Datuk Seri Idris is a person who takes challenges in his own stride because he knows that they would only make him stronger and wiser. Melaka seems set for better years ahead with a leader like him.
Having been in office as the Chief Minister of Melaka since 7 May 2013, Datuk Seri Idris intends to bring back the glory of Melaka’s past by maintaining Melaka’s position as one of the most preferred tourism destinations in Malaysia. Melaka has been receiving travellers far and wide due to its role as an international trading post and the epicentre of the Melaka Sultanate empire in the 15th century. The state strongly leverages on this fact to make it more relevant to travellers in this day and age.
Melaka as a tourism hotspot
With such wealth of history, legacy and vestiges, Melaka has been enlisted as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since July 2008, together with Georgetown. In 2012, The New York Times recognised Melaka as one of the top 45 places to visit in the world. The state is also strong in culture, besides exquisite architecture that can be seen in the UNESCO core area, including landmarks such as the Stadthuys, A’Famosa Port of Santiago and St. Paul’s Hill.
Tourism provides a huge contribution to Melaka’s economy, therefore participating in international travel fairs is crucial to increase visibility and awareness towards the state. Melaka participates in international travel fairs such as the World Travel Mart in London, International Tourisme Bourse in Berlin and the Arabian Travel Mart in Dubai together with Tourism Malaysia. “Our positioning strategy is that travellers must visit Melaka whenever they visit Malaysia, otherwise their visit to Malaysia is not complete. Visiting Melaka means visiting Malaysia,” Datuk Seri Idris advocates.
Datuk Seri Idris is adamant that whenever Tourism Malaysia is on sales mission, Melaka should always be part of that delegation because the state is able to offer much to travellers. When selling Melaka and Malaysia to the international audience, in most cases Melaka significantly contributes through its slew of amazing performers and artistes who captivate the crowd and help to make the state as well as Malaysia attractive. “The Minister of Tourism and Culture Malaysia YB Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz also expects Melaka to join whenever Malaysia participates in travel fairs,” Datuk Seri Idris beams.
Melaka also has its own programmes to lure tourists, especially among fellow Malaysians, to visit Melaka. “We appreciate domestic tourists. They contribute more than 75% of the total tourist arrivals to Melaka every year. Last year (2015), we recorded 16.7 million tourist arrivals, with the majority coming from the domestic market. On average, the domestic tourists stay for 2.6 nights in Melaka,” points Datuk Seri Idris.
In terms of foreign tourists, Singapore contributes significantly to Melaka’s tourism industry. The state also recorded the highest arrivals of Chinese tourists in 2015, numbering 869,000, due to the strong relationship forged between Melaka and the Republic of China, without even having to do large scale promotion but by constantly reminding Chinese tourists of Melaka’s hospitality and friendliness. “We are projecting a larger number of Chinese tourists from mainland China to arrive in Melaka when 26 chartered flights from Guangdong to Melaka commences in July 2016,” Datuk Seri Idris reveals.
The Malaysian government projects that eight million mainland Chinese tourists will be visiting Malaysia in 2016. “If you divide that number into per day, it will be more than 20,000 tourists from China coming into Malaysia, requiring more than 1,000 flights that can accommodate up to 200 passengers to land in airports throughout Malaysia, including Melaka. Since we are able to estimate the number of Chinese tourists arriving in Melaka, we can now ready the infrastructure to receive them here,” Datuk Seri Idris calculates.
Bringing Melaka to greater heights
“My predecessor has done much to turn Melaka into what it is today by bringing Melaka to the world stage. My task now is to elevate Melaka a notch higher, which is a great challenge because the state’s achievement is already high,” observes Datuk Seri Idris.
To complement the plans that have been laid out by the former Chief Minister of Melaka Tan Sri Ali Rustam, the state government now embarks on Melaka Phase II programme that emphasises on four attributes to propel Melaka further: high-quality products and services; efficient mechanisms or systems in place to ensure that the quality of the products and services delivered are consistent at all times; conducive working environment and liveability; and inculcating ownership mentality and high integrity among the people of Melaka to ensure that the state remains clean, safe and secure.
Melaka state government also institutes the National Blue Ocean Strategy that requires all departments and agencies, including the management of Melaka River, to set work quality standards and deliverables. The move provided an impetus for Melaka River to become the best river in Malaysia and among the best transformed in the world. “Your visit to Melaka would also not be complete without taking the cruise along the Melaka River, which is where Melaka’s history began,” recommends Datuk Seri Idris.
Interestingly, Melaka River was not as conducive as it is now because 20 years ago, it was polluted, left unattended and became an eyesore. The state government, through its foresight, turned the problem into an opportunity by cleaning it up and instituted a law that requires properties located within a one-kilometre radius from the river and along the banks to switch their front entrances to face the river instead. When the law was first passed, Datuk Seri Idris admitted that the state faced immense obstacles. “It was very difficult since it involved changing the local mindset. The Chief Minister’s office used its authority over the issue to cajole the property owners to abide by the law,” Datuk Seri Idris reminisces.
“Nowadays, due to the positive impact from that law, people now appreciate it and give high marks towards the state’s effort in cleaning up the river and turning it into a tourist attraction. The law brings benefit to them, physically and economically,” he adds. Even The Asian Development Bank recognises that Melaka River ‘has been transformed from a polluted drainage canal to a tourist attraction and enjoyable green space for city residents’. “It is imperative that we take care of our river systems now because we would all be at risk of losing them if we are not careful,” Datuk Seri Idris cautions.
Phase II of the Melaka River Programme involves the opening of the Future Trail along the river, which is currently being upgraded and will include sports and recreational spaces for young people such as futsal and volleyball courts to be built on both sides of the river, besides a spectacular light show at night.
The 4.5-km long stretch of Melaka River that is already in use is called the Heritage Trail. The government also plans to improve this part of the river by upgrading and sprucing up the Hang Tuah Commercial Centre to make it more dynamic and reflect the local culture.
Melaka as an exemplary green and clean state
The Melaka state government takes the environment seriously by adopting green technology. Melaka has nine government buildings that comply with the green building standards audited by the Green Council. Melaka is the only state that provides over 200 acres for the Solar Valley project as a way to diversify the state’s sources of energy, besides allocating 1,200 acres of land to the Melaka Green Technology Corporation, the agency that facilitates the development of green technology. “All of the development built within that allocated land should be green certified, otherwise they are not allowed. No other state in Malaysia has made such allocation towards green development,” claims Datuk Seri Idris.
Talking about maintaining Melaka’s environment, Datuk Seri Idris does not skirt the issue regarding the controversial slogan ‘Don’t Mess with Melaka’, which is actually meant for the state’s cleanliness campaign that Melaka embarks on after finding its cleanliness level fell two points than previously measured. To get the message across to the people of Melaka that maintaining cleanliness is imperative, the state needs an effective campaign, which brought him back to the time when he studied in Texas in 1985.
“The mayor of Texas was serious in combatting crime and filth in the streets, thus his office opted for the tagline ‘Don’t Mess with Texas’ as a warning to those who wanted to continue corrupting the city,” Datuk Seri Idris recalls. The whole city rallied to the mayor’s call, and the message was also carried by the state’s sportsmen and athletes to influence the public to support the laudable effort. “As a matter of fact, the words are still in use in Texas today,” he adds.
“It is all up to the public to interpret the slogan in any way they want, but the state prefers it because it readily catches attention and easily understood. There needs to be some weight in the message to deter litterers from continuing to dirty their surroundings,” Datuk Seri Idris expounds. He ensures that although Melaka’s slogan is similar to Texas’, it does not infringe upon any copyright issues. Datuk Seri Idris personally contacted the people in Texas to confirm the matter. As a matter of fact, the office of the mayor of Texas congratulated the state of Melaka for emulating the campaign and adopting a similar stance to help make the world cleaner and a better place.
Datuk Seri Idris also introduces the ‘No Plastic Bag’ initiative to wean the public off plastic bags so that less of them circulate in public and thrown into the environment. It is unfortunate that such initiative is misunderstood – it is not that the Melaka state government forbids the public from using plastic bags; instead, the initiative urges the public to be more discerning when using them. “When the members of the public know that the supermarkets do not provide plastic bags, they would automatically use their own plastic or non-plastic bags to carry the items,” Datuk Seri Idris foresees.
Once the members of the public receive plastic bags from the supermarkets or retailers, the state recommends that they clean and reuse the bags rather than throwing the bags away. Should the public reuse the plastic bags, the number of plastic bags thrown away can be significantly reduced up to 500 tonnes per year, consequently reducing the amount of land needed for landfills.
When asked whether the state of Melaka will go in the way of the Indian government by banning plastic bags altogether, Datuk Seri Idris resoundingly said “yes, in the future. And this will prove to be among the most difficult tasks that the state would have ever undertaken. But for the sake of the future generation, we must do it. Many leatherback turtles, even whales, die because they swallow plastic bags that are thrown into the sea, which are mistaken for seaweed, marine vegetation or small animal,” he passionately explains.
Gaya Travel Magazine truly admires Datuk Seri Idris’ and Melaka state government’s savviness with regard to the issue of protecting the environment and the need to change our lifestyle so as to benefit the future generation. One fine day in the future, Melaka will definitely become a state that emphasises on saving the environment and the world. “If other parties do not want to join me in saving the world, that is fine. Just don’t ruin the earth. Let me do it alone,” stresses Datuk Seri Idris.
Datuk Seri Idris hopes that Melaka will attain a higher level than where it is currently at, besides being a leading tourism destination that offers genuine world-class hospitality to travellers near and far. “I hope that whatever the state plans for the next few years will be realised such as the Melaka River Programme Phase II, which ultimately should enable small vessels to enter the river’s various canals and even conveniently enter into buildings along the river. The river will be revived as a waterway to transport the members of the public from one point to another. I also envisage that Melaka would be able to realise its plans over the next few years as its tourism products are further enhanced. Finally, I hope that the people of Melaka understand the state government’s aspirations, which is to make Melaka vibrant economically and socially, ensuring that it remains prosperous and hospitable,” Datuk Seri Idris ruminates wisely, ending the interview.
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