“Eccentric” - Retired Lorry Driver Keeps Recreational Park Clean

 By Jerry Francis 

Retiree Yeoh at 'work' from 6.30am to 9.30am for the last ten years

IPOH: While scores of residents are jogging, walking or participating in various forms of exercises in the morning on a small recreational park in Ipoh, retired lorry driver Yeoh Say Bah pressed himself into providing community service by cleaning the park.

He can be seen in the park at Taman One Pertama from 6.30am to 9.30am everyday for the last ten years.

With a cangkul and a rack, he would be trimming the grass or just generally cleaning up the jogging track and children’s playing ground.

Yeoh Say Bah, 81, ..'I will continue..'

  “As long as my body can take it, I will continue to carry out this task,” said 81-year-old Yeoh when I met him in the park recently.

 It is indeed rare to come across a person, who had imposed upon himself a community service and had been carrying it out with full determination for a long time.

 It all began in 2010, when he was frustrated by the failure of the Ipoh City Council to maintain the recreational park.  There was then overgrown grass and clogged drains.

 So he decided to do something. Ever since he has been single-handedly keeping the park clean.

 “At first, some residents would tease me by saying that I was being paid by the city council or that I was an eccentric. Whatever they said did not bother me,” he said.

“I just carry on with the task, which I had voluntarily committed. After all it is also a form of exercise for me,” added Yeoh, who is already hunched and bowed legged.

Obviously he is contended with the task of keeping the park clean, but the actions of some youths who often gathered in the park and threw bottles and cans around are making his job difficult.

He has to clear the litter and pieces of broken bottles before those joggers and children who frequent the park could get hurt.

“Look at the drains around the park too. They are clogged up with dried leaves and dirt but the city council is yet to clear them. In the past I even got into the deep drains to clear them, but now I can no longer do so,” he said.

The effort of this unsung hero is being greatly appreciated by the residents in the taman and those in the surrounding housing estates. They would often stop and talk to him. Some had even offered to raise funds to help him purchase weed-killers and other items to carry out his task.

“I don’t need donations,” he stressed. “All I asked is for them to bring in their used plastic containers and bottles, which I can sell to raise some money to buy what I need for the task. They could deliver them to my house or bring them to the park.”       

Although he has become somewhat like a celebrity among the residents, but not so with the city council, which had so far not shown any appreciation to him for doing a job that the council should be doing.

And that is not all, a man claiming to be an employee of the city council recently threatened to issue a fine to him for carrying out a controlled open burning of dried leaves at the park.

I hope when the council celebrates “City Day” in May, some recognition can be accorded to Yeoh for his community service. A show of appreciation from the city council will inspire others to play a part towards achieving the “Cleanest City” status for Ipoh by 2023.

 Ends