I really pity the cleaners and personally I happened to know that cleaners are working very hard to keep Singapore as clean as possible. Some of them report to work as early as 6.30 am, just to clear away all the rubbish created by litterbugs. My neighbourhood is almost no litters when I am out to school, but sadly, the same place turns into garbage environment when I pass by again after school. Residents then blame those innocent cleaners for not doing their jobs well. This is something that makes me feel unjustified.
Smokers are one of the biggest culprits of littering. For instance, smokers in my estate will always throw their cigarette butt on the floor after their puff. This occurs even when there is a rubbish bin near sight. It is common to see motorists who smoke while driving, finish their puff, flicking out the cigarette butt on to the road. It is then followed by high rise littering by inconsiderate flat residents, throwing out litters such as used tissue papers and food wrappers.
They are the minority maybe, but it puzzled me that after so many years of education, I thought we should know better. I complement those who did not litter. But, I condemn those who know in their heart that they had littered and still blame on someone else.
Hence I feel that MP Lee’s proposal is effective and works well with Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Vivian Balakrishnan statement that the government should consider giving formal training to citizens and to also review the fines and penalties.
In my opinion, ‘No Cleaners Day’ should be held at least twice each year, without any early mention of dates to the residents. ‘No Cleaners Day’ should be announced to Singapore residents on the actual day, to stimulate that the cleaners are not always available to do the cleaning. Residents still have the overall responsibility of keeping Singapore clean. This is part of a formal training to teach the residents not to be over dependent on cleaners and always need to play their own roles.
With that, I really hope that the government will take up MP Lee’s proposal and it will be a huge success.