The multi storey car park rose from what was once a street level carpark for about 100 cars.
By C C Pung
Justice of Peace
I consider Foh Sang my neighbourhood.
When I first moved back to Kota Kinabalu (KK) in 1979, I stayed in a house about 3-minute walk from the Foh Sang shops.
Until a few years ago, my daily routine took me past the place everyday.
I witnessed its evolution from a tiny satellite town serving a handful of emerging housing estates in the KK suburbs to an iconic Chinatown of KK where successuve politicians staged crowd-pleasing activities.
As is common in such supposedly popular public space with a limited space frequently by almost entirely Chinese, the ugly sides of the human face manifest.
There are chaos from the outward (parking chaos, disorderliness, exorbitant rent and thus mad prices of food) to the inside (political squabbling over works contract, hawker stall allocation, etc).
After years of manoeuvres and shenanigans, a multi storey car park rose from what was once a street level carpark for about 100 cars.
It solved a problem and created at least two new ones.
One is public discontent about the high parking charges.
The KK people are a weird lot who can afford BMWs and the latest BYDs but will show their teeth over a few ringgit parking fees.
The second problem is over management by some people who are best described as clever-by-half.
Foh Sang is a tiny place where chaos and disorderliness are essential outcomes when you add people to the mix.
But tolerable chaos and controlled disorderliness ought to be regarded as Foh Sang’s charms.
To me, none of Picasso’s work would have been appreciated as much as they have been if they were all drawn with rulers and the subjects’ faces as round as the face of that politician powdering his face daily.
Foh Sang comes with the rough edges and the rustic feel.
Other than food, Foh Sang is represented by noise, rough-talking patrons, waste water splashed into drains and motorist quarrelling over double parking.
Go somewhere else if you are overwhelmed.
To those who are trying too hard to turn Foh Sang into something else, stop.
If you represent the so-called ‘authorities’, just work on the cleanliness.
Dogs don’t need clothes.
A bit of shampoo and grooming, yes.
Hallelujah.
