SANDAKAN: Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan, wants the Batu Sapi Heritage Park to remain a major tourist attraction here.
He said the park has the potential to be a recreational area, as well as an attraction for hill climbing and jungle trekking around the park.
Firdaus, who is also Batu Sapi MP, said the area is a heritage site with its own history.
“This is our place to tell our historical story and to spread it to the rest of the community from within and outside the country,” he told a press conference here last Saturday after officiating the Batu Sapi Heritage Park Volunteerism Programme. ‘Batu Sapi monument’.
The programme was organised by his Ministry in collaboration with the Sandakan Municipal Council.
“We can also learn from the stories told and this will educate us to better understand our heritage and have better appreciation of the site,” he added.
“We have carried out strategic collaboration between the Ministry, the Batu Sapi Parliamentary Office and the Sandakan Municipal Council to ensure the Park remains attractive to tourists from within and outside Sabah.
“The question is how do we attract foreign tourists to this Park, which is an important identity in the Batu Sapi area?
“It is for this reason why we have a strategic cooperation which focuses not only in terms of its development, but also in terms of what is to be featured in it,” he said.
He urged the Sandakan Municipal Council to identify products that can be highlighted in the Batu Sapi area.
Present were Sandakan Municipal Council President Henry Idol and Sandakan District Deputy Police Chief Supt Ramasamy Kuppan.
Henry presented the Tourism Master Plan for Batu Sapi to Khairul during the event.
On another matter, Khairul hopes the Sandakan Municipal Council will take steps to prevent theft and vandalism at the Batu Sapi Heritage Park from happening again.
He said this in reaction to Saturday’s observations, which led to the finding of certain park facilities missing, believed to have been stolen by irresponsible parties.
Efforts to beautify the Park are being carried out actively through the strategic collaboration.
The park is well-known for its unusual rock formation, which resembles a four-legged bull. The three-foot-long boulder is thought to be the consequence of erosion.
Various myths and stories have been told about the rock, which draws those who wish to learn more about it.
However, Khairul said Batu Sapi is not suitable to be an industrial zone as it is situated along a coastal area.
“If you observe, it (industrial zone) is not logical because this area is on the coast and no coastal area is used as an industrial zone unless it is related to maritime activities.
“On the contrary, coastal areas such as Batu Sapi should be an area for the marine industry because there are many fishermen here. It is close to the sea in addition to being suitable for tourism,”
Meanwhile, Khairul hoped that MPS will take a serious look at resolving village gazetting issues where some villages have yet to be gazetted in accordance to existing legislations.
“It is clear that this is important for the residents so that they have a place to live and have a guarantee of staying here,” he said.
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