CLEANLINESS, they say, is next to Godliness.
It’s a message the faithful who thronged to worship Lord Muruga during Thaipusam last week would do well to remember.
After two years of the pandemic, the celebrations were back in full fervour last week. And it was indeed a sight to behold.
But there was another side to it – a sorry sight of litter and rubbish all over the place.
The kavadi this year were more plentiful, the chariots the faithful pulled with hooks in their backs were more elaborate, bigger, taller. The crowds were huge.
Excitement was at a fever pitch – and this was just in Penang, my hometown.
The 513 expansive steps that undulate up the hill to the Waterfall Temple are large, with plenty of room, enough for a kavadi to stop and dance. On Saturday night, though, there was little standing room – the crowd was that big.
I was there fulfilling my vow, something I have done for about half a century now, and it was beautiful.
Kind, generous folk were everywhere. The refreshment stalls that lined the streets had increased in number from three years ago. There was an abundance of free food.
At the refreshment stalls, or thaneer panthal, they were handing out drinks in plastic and paper cups.
There were nasi lemak, rice with different curries and side dishes, mee, mee hoon, buns and much more. All were handed out in plastic containers and paper packets.
The crowds lined up outside these stalls as kavadi bearers and those accompanying them danced on the road as loud, catchy music played.
The chariots – there are two, one silver, one gold and both rivals – had to go very slow due to the huge crowds. The silver chariot reached its destination well after 3.30am, long after the usual midnight schedule.
However, behind the chariots came a convoy of more than a dozen dump trucks – to collect the rubbish. There was a whole lot of that.
Hundreds of thousands of coconuts that were smashed on the streets, banana trees that adorned the panthal, fruits and sweets – all ended up inside the trucks, which filled up in no time.
While the chariots and kavadi were awe-inspiring, what they left behind was ugly.
Rubbish was everywhere, especially near the temple where the faithful gathered to start on the pilgrimage to the hill.
Large dumpsters had been placed there, but they were still too small to handle the sheer amount of garbage, especially the cartons and plastic bottles that were discarded after the milk was poured into containers to be offered for prayers.
The local council did its best, but with the roads impassable to traffic due to the crowd and kavadi, the lorries could not come often enough to clear the dumpsters away. And the bins overflowed to the surroundings areas.
It didn’t help that the people didn’t seem to care. They lined up outside temples, laid out banana leaves on which they placed fruits, milk cartons and other prayer paraphernalia.
Once done, they set out on the trek to the hill, leaving the leaves and their contents sitting by the roadside. Others came along, pushed the stuff to the side, laid out their own leaves and did it all over again.
But it wasn’t all bad. Remember the Japanese at the World Cup? They cleaned up after every match. We had our own version of the Japanese fans – a group calling themselves Clean Thaipusam.
The group that had started out in Batu Caves had spread its wings to Penang this year.
One of its leaders, Kogie Loganathan, an executive with a government-linked company, said she has been doing Thaipusam clean-ups for several years now. And she has seen the problems.
People are greedy, she said. When food is handed out at the panthal, they take more than they can eat. And then they throw away what they cannot eat, plastic containers and all.
Those who offer prayers can be just as bad. They leave behind bananas, apples, oranges, coconuts and even sweetmeats and other grains.
“We collected as much of the ‘abandoned’ fruits and grains as we could,” said Kogie.
Most of the food was taken to the jungles of Batu Ferringhi where wild monkeys and squirrels had a field day.
Some nature lovers may not quite like the idea of people feeding wild animals, but it was a once-in-a-year thing and it’s better that they be fed than have the food go to waste.
During the three days of Thaipusam in Penang alone, the city council collected more than 185 tonnes of rubbish!
Kogie’s group also distributed garbage bags to stall operators at the Waterfall Temple area because most did not provide bins. When the bags were full, they were tied up and replaced with fresh ones.
“If not, people would keep throwing rubbish into the bags until they overflow and the whole area is scattered with rubbish,” Kogie said.
The group, which even has a catchy ditty on why hygiene is sacred, is seeing its efforts in Batu Caves paying off.
In 2019, they provided about 400 big boxes for people to throw in their rubbish. The idea caught on and sponsors have now joined the campaign for a clean celebration.
I am told the celebrations in Batu Caves were much cleaner this year, thanks to Alam Flora and KL City Hall. Even the public have become more aware.
Thanks to Clean Thaipusam’s efforts, Penangites are becoming more aware, too. A few other groups, including many Chinese, have now promised to join the campaign.
They won’t just be telling people to keep clean, or cleaning up the garbage but will also help recycle all those plastic bottles and paper containers.
Those milk cartons are going to be hell to recycle, though. Made of paper, with plastic, nylon and aluminium lining, separating them will not be easy.
It’s not just Thaipusam. Malaysians just love to litter. Take the National Day parades, government-organised open houses or any other street fest. There is always a mountain of rubbish afterwards.
People just don’t seem to care – even in their own homes.
Only recently, seven people were arrested after a man threw a whisky bottle from a condominium.
We are told that people throw all sorts of rubbish – general waste, used diapers, bags of faeces and urine – from high-rise apartments, not caring about the effects it will have on those down below.
On Penang Island, the Rifle Range Flats is notorious, as are the Macallum Stree Ghaut flats and those at Noordin Street and River Road. On the mainland, there is the Teluk Indah flats in Prai, dubbed the dirtiest flats in the country.
We really need to clean up our act.
Reaching out to God is not just about climbing up the steps to the temple. The first step is in keeping our surroundings clean.
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