A Malaysian man was so fed up with a pothole along the main road near his village in Sabah that he transplanted a banana tree in the hole to warn other motorists of the problem, and posted about it on social media.

Mr Mahathir Aripin posted a picture on his Facebook page of the banana plant standing upright in the pothole in Jalan Sandakan-Lahad Datu in the state of Sabah.

Fresh soil was placed around the trunk to ensure the plant remained upright.

“I feel sorry for the road users. I’ll cover it with tar next time,” he said in his post on Jan 29.

The authorities got the hint – within hours of the post, the pothole was filled up.

This was confirmed by the Sabah Public Works Department, which said its workers, who were in the area for road maintenance works, had filled up the pothole.

The department blamed “continuous rain” for its inability to repair the road earlier.

Other people before Mr Mahathir had also placed banana trees in potholes to protest the authorities’ inability to fix the problem.

In 2021, residents in Kulim, in the northern Malaysian state of Kedah, planted banana trees in two potholes that had not been fixed for more than two years.

That same year, a man in Florida also did the same over the poor condition of a private road near his business. 

Mr Mahathir received praise and support from other road users for his action.

The road conditions in Sabah have been “the worst in the whole of Malaysia” for years, commented Mr Leon Chan.

Many even cheekily said Mr Mahathir should have planted a durian tree instead.

Malay daily Kosmo! reported that the pothole was located near Kampung Paris Satu, about 500m from the site of a fatal accident in which a four-year-old girl died when the car she was travelling in collided with an express bus.