A Moment With Sibu Maddest Man! (Part 1)

He is not a stranger in the eyes of most Sibu people. Some people said he is crazy! Some said he is helpful. Some said he is just an old man. Some claimed he is too free and have nothing to do. But for me, I will said he's the maddest man in Sibu town at the moment!

"Is he a bird? Is he a plane? No! He is Hii Tiong Huat!"

I am calling him as "The maddest man in town" not for negative reasons, I will tell you why in a short while.

He's more well-known in his Chinese name 许长发 as his face and his big name quite frequently being printed on Sibu local newspapers. He is not a MP or state assemblyman neither a local council member nor politician, yet he always acts as the voice of community. He even doesn't mind to walk onto the street single-handed with banner on hand or wearing t-shirt with special wording written on it to protest against the local council or any authority concern on issues which have close relationship with Sibuian daily life.

Among his "crazy" actions including stop his van in the middle of a busy road then kept pointing his finger to a blockage in a major drain which he believed was one of the reason of frequent flooding in Sibu. His message to the local council was clear, clean the drain and remove the blockage to allow smoother drain water flow thus reduce the flooding. However, his act was causing traffic jam and his van was smashed by some of the angry public.

[Hii pointing at drain blockage as reported in See Hua Daily News]

The maddest or craziest thing he did was about 2 months ago, with his brother's help, he removed a "Lapangan Terbang" road sign at Jalan Deshon which showing the direction to Sibu Airport then replanted it at the junction turning into the airport. He did so because he felt that the road sign is more needed at that location as there were no clear road sign which caused a lot of people missed the junction when going to airport. There was once a dead accident occurred just because the driver missed the junction then making illegal turning back.

[Hii Removing airport road sign as reported in See Hua Daily News]

Local council then lodged a police report on him for his action but the incident came to an end after he removed back the road sigh to its original place. He did so not for vandalism, but to awaken the sleeping local council the road lack of road sign is life threatening which I really agree with him!

[Hii with his brother's help replanted the road sign at a more suitable and needed place]

By now you should know already why I called him "The maddest man in town"? He is mad for good sake, for community welfare and for Sibuian or even Sarawakian and not for his own benefits! He is much better than a lot of local council members who sitting inside air-cond office doing nothing yet earning big money! Can you find another one which is madder than him in term of this? That's why he worth a respect at this point!

[Hii protested on permanent grant for lands on a busy street]

Recently he got a uniform with his English and Chinese name as well as his bank account number printed on it. I think the main purpose is to raise some voluntary fund for himself. About who come out with the idea or sponsor him the t-shirt, I have no idea at the moment.

[Hii with his new uniform posting at Dewan Undangan Negeri Kuching and protested against the banning of some state assemblymen]

[Hii stood inside a big drain to notify the authority dangerous of deep rain without cover]

[This article in See Hua Daily News written about Hii gave hard life to Sibu Municipal Council]

[See Hua Daily News reporter interviewed with Hii]

[Hii protested for the bird!!??]