MIRI Mayor Lawrence Lai dreams of a brighter and greener resort city and intends to colour and brighten up Miri with public street arts and murals.




The IM4U masterpiece at Miri Heritage Centre


Lai points to a public street art done by Miri youths.

Lai said it may be a part of the city’s new vision where one of the strategic trusts involves ‘community and culture’.

He said he wanted to engage the community especially the youths to do their part for the city.

“Instead of idling around, I hope to channel the youths’ energy to something positive and contributable to the city.

“The city council may provide access for the youths to showcase their artistic side on the walls of public toilets and the public library where the art may bring a green message to the community,” he pointed out.

He said public street arts were already found at Miri Handicraft Centre through collaboration with IM4U, the first ever such project in Malaysia, with one side of the mural done by IM4U while the other side was done by members of some local youth bodies.

He said the murals were completed by five to six local artists in a period of two weeks sometime in May, with all the expenses sponsored by IM4U.

“This can showcase Malaysian artists and our colourful multiracial culture,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Lai said the city council’s decision to re-launch the campaign ‘Say no to Plastic 2.0’ to encourage the public to use eco bags was because the campaign was slowly losing its impact.

“The city council engaged Curtin University to do research and survey on the impact of the campaign ‘Say No to Plastic 1.0’ which was launched in 2010 and found that the impact was slowly losing its effect.

“The ‘Say No to Plastic’ campaign was re-launched to emphasise what we started in 2010 and to heighten the public’s awareness in creating a greener Miri,” he explained.

Towards this end, he encouraged the public to avoid using plastic and Styrofoam and use paper or bio-degradable boxes and bags instead.

He was glad to say that Miri was the first city in Malaysia to charge 20 sen for each plastic bag in shopping malls every day, with half of the money collected going to charity while the other half goes to the ‘Green Culture Fund’.