Tag: Kota Kinabalu

Sports

After six years, mountain races are back in Sabah

Sabah Insights

Mount Trusmadi poses a formidable challenge to Mount Kinabalu

Mount Trusmadi in the heart of Sabah.

Sabah is launching the Mount Trusmadi International Climbathon on May 25 as mountain races make a comeback after a six-year hiatus. It is Malaysia’s second tallest mountain after Mount Kinabalu (4,095m) that sits deep in the jungle of the interior of the north Borneo island state. It stands at 2,642m, about two-thirds the height of Mount Kinabalu whose climbathon was scrapped in 2018 after a 30-year run. The Trusmadi race is said to be even tougher than Kinabalu’s which is reputed to be the world’s toughest mountain race. And the Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon is making a comeback this year. No date has been fixed but it is expected in October as it had been in the past.

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Tourism

A Nanjing-Tawau frenzy

Sabah Insights

Will chartered flights from China augur well for east coast tourism

Tawau town

Getting airlines to fly tourists from China to Tawau, the east coast agricultural town, has been a struggle. Previous attempts to set up direct flights between Chinese cities and Tawau have come to nought. So Christina Liew, Sabah’s minister of tourism, culture and environment, was understandably elated when the inaugural chartered flight carrying 157 Chinese tourists from Nanjing in eastern China touched down at Tawau airport on January 23. “I am excited that this new route will contribute to the growth and development of Tawau as a prominent international destination,” she said. But her optimism may be premature.

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Government

Malaysia’s most feared taxman is Kota Kinabalu mayor

Sabah Insights

Sabin Samitah’s job may be hampered as state election looms

Kota Kinabalu mayor Sabin Samitah (left) with Luyang lawmaker Ginger Phoong Jin Zhe – Picture courtesy of The Borneo Post

Seven years ago, the name Sabin Samitah struck fear in Malaysia’s corporate world. As chief executive officer of the Inland Revenue Board, he slapped companies and businessmen with multi-million-ringgit income tax bills and penalties for under declaring income as soon as he assumed office in December 2016. Among those he cracked down were the companies of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamed’s three sons, and property developer Lee Kim Yew, a close friend of Mahathir, who founded Country Heights Holdings Berhad. Then in October 2021, two months short of his five-year contract, he abruptly quit his job. In September that year he had slapped former prime minister Najib Razak with a RM1.7-billion tax bill which drew condemnations from Mr Najib who is serving a 12-year jail sentence for corruption and money laundering. The Ranau-born Mr Sabin, 63, has now become the seventh mayor of Kota Kinabalu. His appointment on new year’s day was understandably greeted with trepidation by those who know him. Yet he hasn’t said that he would go after ratepayers who owe the Dewan Bandaraya (city hall) about RM50m in council taxes. But he has set his sight on giving the state capital cleaner public toilets in three months.

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Tourism

Sabah Hospitality Fiesta mirrors ATI College’s success

Sabah Insights

How one man builds a premier tourism school out of nowhere.

Wong Khen Thau

There was all round scepticism when Wong Khen Thau started Sabah’s first hospitality and tourism school in Kota Kinabalu 27 years ago. The hotel industry didn’t give him a chance to succeed because it thought that he was copying what hotels were already doing: on the job training of their frontline staff. Hoteliers didn’t think that he was offering anything new to the industry. And they were quite right to doubt him because Wong knew little about hotel and catering. He was a school teacher who had turned himself into a businessman selling home appliances. But all was not lost. His Asian Tourism Institute, staffed by a handful of hotel industry experts, received its first batch of 40 students for a six-month certificate course in food and beverage, housekeeping and front office operations – thanks to the sponsorship of then tourism minister Bernard Dompok. And from that small beginning, the Asian Tourism International College, as it is now known, has become the premier tourism and hotel and catering school which has produced more than 12,000 skilled workers for Sabah’s hotel industry, according to Mabel Cheong, the college’s registrar.

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Society

A merrier month of December

Sabah Insights

Sabah cultural extravaganza stresses that Malaysia is a secular nation

The Bajau Suluk culture will be on display at the Dec Cover Sabah extravaganza.

The merry month of December is getting merrier. And the calendar looks crowded towards the end of the year. Adding to the Christmas spirit and ushering in the new year are cultural events lined up for the inaugural cultural and touristic extravaganza called Dec-Cover Sabah 2023. It showcases the state’s cultural diversity and drives home the point that Malaysia is a secular country.

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Government

Collecting the “uncollectible”

Sabah Insights

Jimmy Wong
Jimmy Wong

Parking fees in Kota Kinabalu are some of the lowest in the world. Motorists pay between 20 and 50 sen (6 and 14 cents) to park for 30 minutes or an hour in the city. Of course, depending on how busy the area is, the rate doubles or triples the longer they park. But parking here is still very cheap. Yet Kota Kinabalu City Hall has been unable to collect most of the money. It is saddled with outstanding parking fees and fines to a staggering RM58 million over the last 10 years, according to mayor Abidin Madingkir. An “amnesty” to allow defaulters to pay a fraction of what they owe has failed. And another attempt to make motorists pay upfront in a coupon system has irked them.

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