BINTULU: A fire fighting committee should be formed in every longhouse as a preliminary body to coordinate emergency procedures during fire incident as well as to set preventive action that could save such settlement and its dwellers.

Bintulu Member of Parliament, Dato' Seri Tiong King Sing said this specialised committee could obtain proper training from the Fire and Rescue Department to enhance their competency while avoiding havoc during emergency.

"Having a functioning fire-fighting committee per each longhouse can be a proactive measure towards saving properties and lives during fire incident involving longhouses," he added when speaking at a dialogue session at Rh Kujat near Sungai Sebungan, Sebauh, Thursday evening.

Longhouse residents, he added, had to play their part actively in dealing with the safety of their homes and not to be overly dependant to assistance from the Government in mobilising themselves.

He saw that longhouse residents, being part of the rural populations, had a great potential to improve their livelihood as well as their level of independence should they be willing to part with unhealthy habits like excessive drinking and smoking.

He preferred them to take up saving habit by diverting a portion of income that they normally spent for the unhealthy habits towards a common fund that could be shared for the benefit of all occupants of each longhouse.

Tiong also urged the longhouse folks to be on constant communication with the government via himself or the relevant government departments so that the problems that they endured could be solved expeditiously.

Such a communication could also assist the government to keep track on the progress of any project that had been awarded at longhouses while preventing any attempt to abuse government fund that had been allocated.

Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament also called on officers from government departments and agencies to be prepared to provide comprehensive explanations when queried by the people requiring their services.

The officers were also told to prevent emotions to rule themselves when dealing with the people in order to prevent misunderstandings that would only lead to a bad impression to be created about the Government.

The dialogue session was initiated by the District Information Services Department and involved officers of several government departments based in Sebauh sub-district as well as here. A signature campaign in conjunction with Aman Malaysia project was also carried out.

Sebauh Sarawak Administrative Officer Michael Ronnie, Bintulu district information officer Zubaidi Mohd Razat, Bintulu Hospital director Dr Mohd Paid Yusof and Tuai Rumah Kujat ak Ushee were among those attending the session.