It was close to midnight. I was on my way home and had to make a quick pit stop.
With most restaurants closed, the best bet was the nearest petrol station.
Generally, public toilets in Malaysia are little houses of horror. Most of the time, they are wet, and the flush never seems to work.
I’ve entered a toilet at a food court in Ampang, only to be greeted by a huge rat in the urinal.
To be fair, some petrol stations have gone the extra mile to ensure their loos are decent.
But the Shell station in Taman OUG deserves an A+. It was amazing to see a public toilet that beats toilets even in the finest of hotels.
The floor and walls were sparklingly clean. There were pots and fresh greenery, and the best part – the flush worked!
Even the hand washing area had been beautified.
A petrol station worker said the ‘beautiful toilets’ were the result of a change in management.
“Management baru, boss baru. Semua mesti bersih, cantik,” he added.
Why is this a big deal?
It is a big deal for the hundreds of thousands of e-hailing riders and drivers and drivers of public transportation vehicles who have to use public toilets when nature calls.
These daily ‘heroes’ have been at the forefront of providing food, sending items, and ferrying people, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country in 2020.
Unfortunately, when they do have to answer the call of nature, they would sometimes be forced to ease themselves in dirty, smelly loos.
There had been numerous government and local council-driven campaigns in the past to keep public toilets clean.
In 2019, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he was “embarrassed” by the poor state of public toilets in Malaysia.
Dr Mahathir added that most of the time, they were filthy, and he blamed this on the lack of civil responsibility.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in 2020, advised the public to refrain from using dirty public toilets as a precaution against Covid-19.
He also advised those managing public toilets to ensure that they were clean and disinfected regularly.
Dr Mahathir was right to say that it all boils down to civic mindedness. Toilets don’t get dirty on their own. Users are responsible for ensuring that toilets remain clean.
Hopefully, the toilets at the Taman OUG Shell station will remain clean, by the users, for the users.
