Wartawan Nabalu News
14 Oct 2021
By Wartawan Nabalu News
KOTA KINABALU: The idea of having a theme park in the middle of Kundasang leaves netizens, especially the locals of Sabah, aghast as the town has always been seen as a natural gateway for the city folks and tourists alike.
The idea was put forward by Deputy Chief of Wiramuda Star Sabah, Kong Soon Choi who mentioned that the highland needs more attractions to entice more tourists.
In a report by Daily Express recently, he stated that fast food restaurants should also be added to the list to increase tourism facilities aside from having a theme park such as Sunway Lagoon.
Kong reasoned that such facilities are needed to help boost the economy in the town that boasts the highest mountain in Southeast Asia since the existing facilities are old.
However, dozens of locals opined that tourists usually go to Kundasang to escape the city and enjoy the tranquillity of nature, hence such development is unnecessary.
A quick survey by Nabalu News found that the majority of Sabahans wish to preserve the ‘Scotland of Borneo’ town and maintain its greenery.
Instead of creating a theme park, they suggested that government should focus more on improving public facilities such as repairing potholes along the roads, improve line connectivity, and creating more public toilets.
Reacting to the news, a Twitter user commented: “Keep the precious nature untouched! Improve on transportation, public facilities and hospitality, plus more cultural promotions and you are all set! Why must you think theme park is the way to go?”
“Please don’t disturb Kundasang. Enough with destroying our nature. Leave Kundsang alone,” another one said.
Nevertheless, some of them said yes to having more fast-food restaurants in the town to offer tourists wider food choices since it only has one fast food outlet.
Kundasang in the district of Ranau is located some 90 kilometres away from the state capital and is renowned for its fresh vegetable market as well as being the closest town to Mount Kinabalu.
It is also known to be the highest settlement in Malaysia mainly populated by the native of Dusun.
Aside from Mount Kinabalu, the little town that is often flooded by local and foreign tourists is also known for its cattle farm and tea garden.