Remote communities now into high-yielding rubber planting

http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/08/16/remote-communities-now-into-high-yielding-rubber-planting/

by Karen Bong, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on August 16, 2013, Friday

KUCHING: The Penan and Kelabit communities in the most remote settlements in Baram have already started with the planting of high-yielding rubber.

This was disclosed by Modernisation of Agriculture Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr Alfred Jabu yesterday, who also said a total of 72 Penan families in Long Beruang and 60 Kelabit families in Long Peluan participated in the scheme on 520 hectares of land. Jabu, who is also Rural Development Minister, pointed out that the project is part of the state government’s Rural Transformation Programme to eradicate poverty.

“The government’s aim is to help lift people out of poverty, especially those in the remotest interior of Sarawak, through agriculture,” he added.

Jabu was at the Kuching Borneo Convention Centre (BCCK) here to open the Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Salcra) Farm Development Committee Members Seminar.

“Backed by biotechnology advancement, we have now started planting the high quality rubber trees,” he said.

“We hope that the participants can generate sustainable income through the rubber plantation after four years (maturity). It is hoped that they can earn at least RM2,000 per month per family once the rubber trees reach maturity for tapping,” he emphasised. The project, introduced early last year, was launched by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The first phase of the project involved the clearing of land, building of infrastructure such as road to the estate and nursery for rubber saplings, followed by planting.

As rural development minister, Jabu said he would not be deterred by the unique challenges and difficulties faced in the rural interiors.

“Understandably, Baram located about 15 hours drive from Miri in good weather, is hardly accessible but despite the difficulties, I still choose to start the project,” he said. Thus, Jabu hopes that the participants can see the fruits of their hard work after four or five years and in turn change their negative perception of the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

“We hope to give the opportunities to the nomadic Penans, especially those who have been negatively influenced by certain non-governmental organisations (NGOs), to see the commitment of the BN government,” he said.

Proposed township to benefit Telang Usan — Rep

http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/08/15/proposed-township-to-benefit-telang-usan-rep/

Posted on August 15, 2013, Thursday

MIRI: The proposed Baram Hydroelectric Project (HEP) new township will bring many benefits to the Telang Usan constituency such as increasing the people’s standard of living.

Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau told The Borneo Post yesterday that the plan showed the government’s willingness and effort to develop and transform Baram into a better and more developed constituency by 2020.

“Personally, I agree with the proposal to turn this constituency into a modern one, while still reflecting the culture and traditions of the multi-ethnic people living in Baram.

“The people must understand that the proposed Telang Usan new township will also become a boost for tourism that surely will improve the livelihoods of the people in Baram,” he said.

Dennis pointed out that many members of the Orang Ulu community from Ulu Baram have achieved success in life, but did not return to the longhouses and contribute to the community.

“If this Telang Usan new township is built one day, it will also open many doors for job opportunities for these young people to go back to their roots and contribute something to the people and our country’s economic growth,” he said.

He urged Baram folk, especially the younger generation, to look at the positive side of the proposal which would benefit them and their families.

“Many opportunities will be given to them, especially job opportunities such as in the tourism industry,” he added.

On Tuesday, Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said the proposed township would have elements reflecting the rich history of the Kayans, Kenyahs and Kelabits, who migrated from East Java to Batang Kayan in Indonesia before settling in Kapit and Baram.

Bringing JOY to the highlands

http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/01/06/bringing-joy-to-the-highlands/

by Chang Yi. Posted on January 6, 2013, Sunday

JOANNA Joy is not only the MAS agent in Bario but also the owner of a large Bario pineapple garden and a homestay business.

PINEAPPLES FOR LUNCH: Kelabit friends bringing Bario pineapples for the afternoon meal prepared at the homestay. All dishes are individually cooked for each group.

A mother of two young adults who have been educated in Kuala Lumpur — one already working and the other completing his studies — she has, in response to the call of familial duty, returned to the Bario Highlands to look after her aged mother and adopted parents.

When she was a little girl, her parents allowed their relative to adopt her. So, she has two sets of parents like many of the indigenous people of Sarawak.

Joanna who had her early education in Bario, studied in Institut Teknologi Mara after completing secondary school. Upon graduation, she worked and got married and then found a job outside Bario – the usual story of young Kelabits. However, the highlands had been beckoning to her.

Her children are now fairly independent and chasing their own dreams. Her daughter has graduated with an MA in biotechnology from University Malaya and her son is studying to become an IT programmer from ITM.

The conditions were, thus, right for her to return and contribute to her hometown in the state’s scenic highlands.

Besides looking after her aging mother and adoptive parents, Joanna has put her time to good use by helping her people wherever she can. Presently, she is also holding down two jobs — as operational manager of Bario Airport and MAS agent.

She said she is not going to retire yet because she still has many dreams to fulfill. A few years ago, she started a pineapple farm on a piece of land near the airport. And not long ago, she opened a homestay business.

When friends from West Malaysia and overseas visit her, she is happy to show them her pineapple farm. She planted the young suckers with the help of her relatives, and is now harvesting as many as 10 to 15 fruits a day — sometimes more. Any surplus will be made into jam.

Challenging problems

However, Joanna has problems using her food processor to make jam. When the Bario dam is low, there is virtually no electricity for the community. And since power supply is dependent on the water level in the dam, it is not everyday that she can use her food processor to make jam. Fortunately, there is a generator at the secondary school in the area which she can rely on when the need arises.

HOME-MADE: Joanna’s home-made pineapple jam.

Joanna also faces a serious problem in her pineapple business. Sending the fruits by air to Miri is very expensive. She sells her pineapples at RM2 per kilo to passengers and relatives.

Malaysian Airlines allows free luggage of 10kg. Passengers are weighed before checking in with their hand luggage. Each pineapple easily weighs up to 3 kilos. If someone buys a box of pineapples, he or she may have to pay an extra RM30 surcharge because of excess baggage.

Relatives bringing a pineapple or two for their family or friends would usually wait for a friendly passenger to help hand-carry the fruits for them to Miri. That’s the way of the people in the highlands – always ready to help each other.

Besides pineapples, Joanna’s family also plant rice. If she cannot farm the land herself, she will ask other padi planters for help — perhaps on a sharecropping basis.

In the past, her parents had no problem planting enough rice to feed the whole family for a period of two years. Will she allow her land to lay fallow for the next few years?

In fact, Joanna is having to face many issues related to growing rice and pineapples in the highlands. Can she get a grant to start a pineapple jam cottage industry? She has been sourcing for help from friends and government agents but to no avail so far.

She sells her home-made jam at counters that are open to her but she has to remember not to over-produce because her refrigerator cannot operate 24 hours a day due to limited electricity supply in Bario.

Moreover, many of the better educated younger women who bemoan the lack of basic utilities – adequate electricity supply, for example – in the area have left to find work elsewhere.

Airport Homestay

WITH VISITORS: Joanna (right) and her visitors in front of her homestay.

Homestay business in Bario is irregular. Things usually pick up only during festive celebrations.

However, for holiday-makers – both local and foreign – homestay accommodation and related facilities are available in Bario as well as nearby villages which offer attractions like kayaking and salt mines.

One popular setup is Joanna’s Bario Airport Homestay which offers good food. The chef frequently comes up with “very refreshing dishes.” Fresh talipia from Joanna’s pond next to the homestay is available everyday!

Dessert consists of a huge plate of freshly-plucked pineapples, and vegetables bought from the surrounding homesteads although green-thumbed Joanna grows most of her own vegetables.

Joanna Joy is a shinning example of an enterprising Kelabit woman who meets her challenges with plenty of cheers. If the challenges she is facing can be overcome, many younger highlanders would probably stay back to work and help boost the local economy.

With plantation roads linking Bario to Marudi, the future looks good for those Kelabits hoping to return home after their retirement — and even for the younger ones after their education outside the highlands.

According to a young government officer in Marudi, there might be more jobs in Bario in the future as more businesses can be opened up. With so many possibilities, the rural-urban migration which has been affecting many Bario families, could see a reversal.

On the road

http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/10/21/248759/

by Chang Yi. Posted on October 21, 2012, Sunday


Penan mothers and early childhood learning 

THE tebung (hollow wood drum) of Bario sounds the wake-up call at 5.30am like clockwork everyday. And indeed it is the clock of the Highlands.

FOR A BETTER FUTURE: A Penan mother walking her child to school in the early hours of the morning.

The beautiful rainforest sound resonates through the forest, rousing the late wakers among the fauna as well as the little children of Bario Asal and the surrounding villages.

The tebung (at least one in each Highland village) also belts out the same wake-up call in the other settlements although not all at 5.30am like Bario. For example, at Pa Adang (a Penan settlement) in the upper reaches of the Lawas valley, the wake-up call is at 6am.

Usually, by this time, many Penan mothers from Aral Dalan will be walking along the lonely path to Bario Asal where their children attend pre-school and primary classes. They walk for one hour (from six to seven) and surprisingly – to many urbanites – will arrive at school fresh and happy. This is a feat not many city people can easily fathom.

After placing their children safely at school, the Penan mothers walk for another hour home. Their next journey (on foot) to Bario is at 11am to pick up their children. After that, it’s another hour’s walk home. Walking long distances is part of Penan life from time immemorial.

Pre-school education in Sarawak and Malaysia in general provides a simple meal cooked by the teachers and teaching assistants. Hence, the Penan mothers do not have to bring lunch packs to their children. Most of the Penan children are underweight. Some even look just three years old – not five!

According to medical doctors serving in Sarawak, Penan children may be small due to various factors like lack of proper nutrition and good healthcare. Genetically, the Penans are small in stature and very fine-boned.

In the early mornings at the Bario Highlands, the temperatures can be as cool as 23 degrees celcius or lower. And it used to be even lower when luxuriant tall trees covered the mountains and no roads were known to the Penans.

The Penan mothers and children who walk to Bario, wear wind breakers or warm woollen clothes. And some of the children are so used to being barefooted that they don’t necessarily wear shoes (most cannot afford shoes anyway).

WAITING FOR MUM: A Penan boy waiting for his mother to pick him up from school.

The mothers I met said they were from Aral Dalan, a Kelabit village now giving them generous space and shelter. Some of these Penans are actually building their huts near the National Park of Pulong Tau. Being nomadic in the past, they cannot say exactly where their original settlement was because they were free to roam and hunt a long time ago.

So far, upon settling down, they are co-existing well with their Kelabit neighbours in Aral Dalan and Bario Asal.

The state government and its various agencies have long been finding ways to identify suitable areas for the Penans, “locate” them and “resettle” them like at Batu Bungan in the Baram.

Geographically, the Penans used to be known or classified as nomadic tribes who moved from place to place in the north eastern parts of Sarawak and the upper reaches of the Limbang and Lawas Rivers. Further south, they were found in the Kelabit Highlands and the Belaga region or the upper Rajang.

Last nomadic tribes

Today, some remnant groups are known to be the last of the nomadic tribes of Sarawak. Several groups have settled down and are receiving good education. About 100 Penans have obtained diplomas and degrees since the formation of Malaysia while one or two are already millionaires.

Bario is a special case because more than 20 Penan families have settled at Aral Dalan, a village about one hour from Bario. According to some villagers, the Penans have moved to this part because their children can attend school at neaby Bario. Besides, the environment near the National Park of Pulong Tau also seems most viable to their lifestyle.

Young Penan parents are sending their children to pre-primary and primary schools in Bario. Moreover, many are fairly comfortable with the kind Kelabits who share the same religious beliefs.

The Penan parents also like the primary school teachers from all parts of the state – Kapit and Sibu, for example. According to a little Penan boy, these teachers are not only caring but can also teach very well.

PART TIME JOB: This Penan girl is working temporarily for the primary school in Bario.

For the very first time, they are interacting and having good social life in school. Furthermore, they can broaden their outlook by participating in everyday learning in the classrooms with children from the other communities such as Malays and even Bidayuhs (children from the Army Camp at Bario).

Several children at the Bario Primary School are of mixed parentage – Kelabit-Chinese and Lun-Bawang-Kelabit.

It is from their primary school experience that the Penan children are able to have a wider world view.

One young Penan girl, now working temporarily at the primary school, said she hoped to get a permanent job with the government. This, she added, would give her and her family a steady income.
She is looking forward to the day when she either goes for further studies or gets a permanent job with the government. She is not afraid to leave Bario for other parts of the world.

THUMBS-UP: These two Penan children walk long distances everyday to attend pre-school in Bario.

According to a professional in Marudi, many of the myths about the Penans are not being debunked. He noted that with better government facilities being provided in the remote areas, more and more Penans are settling down.

Penan parents now realise the importance of keeping their children in school throughout the whole school year as opposed to the common perception that Penan parents will take their children out of school during the fruit season.

Perhaps, this is still being done by some Penan parents in the remotest parts of the state but it is very rare because of changes to their lifestyle, good advice from the community leaders and better educational facilities provided by the government in the interior.

More and more Penans want their children to be educated and get permanent jobs as teachers and government servants after leaving school.

As one Penan mother puts it: That’s why I’m willing to walk four hours everyday to send my two children to school. It’s their future. It’s also my future.

Bario woman elevated as High Court judge

http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/09/29/bario-woman-elevated-as-high-court-judge/

by Khabil Kiram. Posted on September 29, 2012, Saturday

Supang and her husband, Geoffry William Mariner.

SANDAKAN: Former Judicial Commissioner Supang Lian, whose humble beginning started in the far-flung village of Paq Umur in Bario, Sarawak, was yesterday elevated to a High Court judge and will return to serve in her native Sarawak as High Court judge in Sibu effective mid-October to replace Justice Datuk Yew Jen Kie.

“Who would have dreamt that an indigenous girl from the rainforest of Borneo from an ethnic group barely 5,000 in number could possibly become a High Court judge?

“One thing is certain and it says a lot for our nation … that the people with a background like mine are given that opportunity,” said Supang in her speech during her elevation ceremony.

She attributes her success to her late father, who imbued her with a strong sense of independence and self-belief.

“My father was among the first Kelabit from the highland to have obtained some form of formal education and at a young age he was recruited into the British Constabulary Force and was stationed mainly in Kuching.

“When we grew up, he spoke of the world far and beyond the mountains and as was then possible in the longhouse setting, he nourished us with a greater latitude to find our own ways in life, for he believed in us and inspired us to reach for the stars,” she said.

Supang also expressed her fondness for Sabah, averring that Sabahans are welcoming, unassuming and friendly, leading her to the discovery “that everyone here can sing and dance.”

She expressed tremendous thankfulness for the position of trust bestowed upon her as well as gratitude to a long list of people, including her Irish husband, Geoffry William Mariner and her other family members, fellow judges and members of the legal fraternity.

http://www.theborneopost.com/2011/07/19/govt-dedicated-in-developing-orang-ulu-youths-%E2%80%94-rep/

by Samuel Aubrey, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on July 19, 2011, Tuesday

KUCHING: Despite the government’s efforts to send youths from ethnic minorities for skills training, there are still those few who chose to remain jobless, choosing to return to their villages after successfully completing their training.

Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau said that during his visits within his constituency, he met Orang Ulu youths who had returned to their settlements despite possessing skill certifications which guarantees good income.

“They were hesitant to venture into the job market, and some were even undecided giving the excuse that they wanted to make the decision at the village. Only a few took up the offer to stay with me while they looked for jobs.

“Some even blamed the government for not providing them with work. These youths should have the commitment to look for jobs because the skills certificates they posses can land them a job anywhere,” he said during a welcoming dinner for 36 participants of the Prime Minister Department’s sponsored Skills Training Programme for Ethnic Minorities (PLKEM) on Sunday.

On PLKEM, Dennis said this truly represented the BN government’s commitment to ensure ethnic minorities in the interior are not left behind from the mainstream of development.

He believed PLKEM would ensure a balanced socio-economic development and social wellness within the community and provide quality human capital for Sarawak’s Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE).

“The PLKEM is a unique and exclusive programme for Sarawak’s ethnic communities in terms of capacity building for SCORE. As a representative of the ethnic communities, I want to express my appreciation to the federal government for providing allocation and opportunities for our youths,” he said.

PLKEM and other skills training programmes for school leavers are the most effective method to empower ethnic minorities to stand on their own feet he said.

Meanwhile, Sarawak Human Resource Development Council for School Leavers executive secretary Dr Zufar Yadi said the PLKEM has benefitted 915 youths from the state’s ethnic minorities since 2009, involving allocations of RM28.5 million.

He said the targeted groups are Penan, Tagal, Bukitan, Bisaya, Lun Bawang, Kenyah, Kedayan, Punan. Kiput, Kayan, Saban, Murut, Berawan, Kejaman, Kelabit, Bakong, Sekapan, Dusun, Sebob and other ethnic minorities in Sarawak based on the interpretation of the Federal Constitution. Under this programme, the youths are sent to six training institutes namely Pusat Latihan Pembangunan Belia (PLPB) Kuching, Sarawak Skills Development Centre (PPKS) Kuching or Miri, Pusat Latihan Kemahiran Yahos, Pelita Maslaut Maritime Training Centre, Kolej Yayasan Sabah and Kolej Yayasan Negri Sembilan.

He revealed that the youths are given financial assistance of RM6,000 to RM7,000 for every level of skill certification to cover training fees, accommodation, hand tools, sustenance allowance and return transportation.

“The allowance for transportation is for student who comes in from his village and when he returns, not just one way. It covers the costs of transportation even by 4WD vehicle from the village to the airport,” he said.

The 36 participants have come from Kapit, Belaga, Bintulu, Baram, Miri Limbang and Lawas. They would be enrolled at the PLPB Kuching managed by the Chief Minister Department’s Quality and Human Resource Management Unit.