A grand celebration of achievements for Ipoh

It was truly an electrifying “five-star” night for over 1,000 Ipoh City Council staff, as they went all out to dress up in extravagant outfits to celebrate of the council being designated a recent five-star organisation.

Each department in the council was given a different theme to dress as. The event last Thursday saw council employees gracing the ballroom of the Casuarina@Meru Hotel as everything from pirates, rockstars, superheroes to ghosts.

Even Ipoh Mayor Datuk Zamri Man did not shy away from the opportunity to dress up.

Instead of his usual get-up of suit and tie for formal events, the mayor and the people in his office donned vibrant Bollywood-style outfits and re-enacted the famous dance scene from Indian Hindi classic Kuch Kuch Hota Hai during the parade into the ballroom.

As the lights dimmed, they shambled in like zombies, dressed in blood-smeared outfits, unnaturally black long hair, while carrying a coffin into the hall.

As frightening as theymight have appeared, this did not stop many guests from rushing forward to capture every scary moment with their cameras and smartphones.

Yet another team from the council dressed up as superheroes for the night.

Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir, who was present as guest-of-honour, said he was happy to see such inspiring team spirit from the council.

“With this kind of spirit and creativity, it is not impossible for Ipoh to be the best city in Malaysia.

“When the city council was awarded a five-star status for scoring 97.4% in the Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Ministery’s rating of local councils throughout Malaysia earlier this year, it was no mean feat.

“This is surely something that makes every citizen here proud,” Zambry said in his speech during the Ipoh City Council Dinner in conjunction with the 29th anniversary of Ipoh’s declaration as a city.

The dinner was also held to show appreciation for the work of the city council’s staff which resulted in the council being awarded the title of Best Local Government in Malaysia this year.

Zambry also said let the critics keep going on about how Ipoh is not clean enough.

“It is okay. Let us take this as a challenge to improve ourselves.

“If they say it’s not clean enough, we shall do our best to clean it up because at the end of the day, what we should strive to achieve is for Ipoh to be known as the cleanest and greenest city in Malaysia,” he said.

Guests tucked into the dinner served at the end of the speech, while Zamri walked around to hand out gifts to members of the media.

 (Source: The Star)