No matter how lavishly decorated a restaurant may be, foul smells emanating from its toilets often guarantee that diners never return.

Indeed, clean public toilets are often used as a magnet to draw visitors.

Malaysia understands this. August 24-25 will see that country hold the National Toilet Summit, to educate the public about the importance of clean commodes.

Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Robert Lau told Associated Press: "Having clean restrooms in this country is a serious challenge that we have to tackle."

"If a toilet were a person [in Malaysia], he should protest to the Human Rights Commission, because of being very unfairly treated," said Lau.

He said the meeting would bring together local officials and international experts on toilet management, including Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organisation.

"The vision ... is to establish a clean-toilet culture," he said. "The mission is to raise users' etiquette and motivate changes in the psychological ethics and attitudes of users and owners."

Public toilets in Malaysia have long disgusted residents and tourists alike with their lack of such basic items as toilet paper, soap - and sometimes even toilet seats. Many fall prey to vandals.

Lau said such eyesores scared away tourists.

Shopping malls and other commercial establishments that do not have clean toilets may not have their business licences renewed, he said, adding that the government is also considering imposing fines on vendors who keep dirty washrooms.

Even with dirty public toilets, Malaysia chalked up 16.43 million tourist arrivals last year, up from 15.7 million the previous year. Very impressive compared with the 12 million who visited Thailand last year, no matter how much we advertise our white sandy beaches and those Siamese smiles.

I really wonder how many more would come to this country if all our public toilets were clean.

A close look at Thailand reveals that the Kingdom also gets its fair share of complaints about dirtiness. Visiting Chatuchak Weekend Market, visitors try their best to avoid having to go to the toilets provided. And who can blame them? You can smell the bad odour from 10 metres away. Shop stalls located near the toilets deserve a lot of sympathy.

It would be nice if we could have a National Toilet Summit of our own.

achara_d@nationgroup.com