Villagers left out of basic ammenities

PADAWAN: Villagers from six Bidayuh villages on the highlands of Upper Padawan are in need of basic amenities like road accessible by car, water and electricity supply.

The villages are Kampung Sepit, Kampung Kiding, Kampung Assum, Kampung Nusaraya, Kampung Kakas and Kampung Parang.

These villagers are supportive of the government of the day but are unhappy because they felt they had been left out and being denied of basic amenities.

These villages are under the state constituency of Tarat and Mambong Parliamentary constituency, whose representatives are Datuk Roland Sagah and Datuk Dr James Dawos respectively.

While other parts of the state are enjoying good road network, 24-hour electricity supply and clean water, the people from these six villages still have to walk long hours through jungle paths to reach their village and in the dark at night.

They said for more than 50 years they have been asking for the access road to be built to reach their villages but up to this day they never get it.
"It has been the case for generations after generations as these villages could only be reached either by air or on foot,” said Joseph Tau, 51, of Kampung Kiding.

By land, villagers have to walk three kilometers of steep and winding terrain to reach Kampung Kambug to nearest road to catch the transport to bring them to town.


At the moment the road is only built up to Kampung Kambug and from there it is a stroll to the Kampung Assum-Kampung Kiding junction followed by an uphill climb all the way passing green forests and streams for two hours to get to the destination.

“The authorities might think that we the people living in the Upper Padawan have gotten used to the hardship and battle for mental and physical strength are a way of life for us.

“From generation to generation the villagers still had to endure the same kind of hardship as our forefathers,” said Tau.
According to Tau there had been many cases where ill village folks had to be carried on stretchers and walked for three hours to rush them to the hospital.

He said there were also cases when the sick person just died in mid-way before he or she could even get the transport at the nearest base at Kampung Kambug to go to the hospital.

“Carrying the sick who is in need of urgent treatment for six kilometers (three-hour journey) on foot is no joke and this possible only when the weather is fine but when it rain it is another hassle for the villages,” said Tau.



According to Tau there were also cases of mothers giving birth to their child at half way.

“We are also denied of health care. The nearest Klinik Desa is at Kampung Annah Rais. Flying doctor service is only one a month and depending on the weather.

“There is no transport ready at the nearest clinic. We have to wait for good Samaritans to send the sick to the hospital. When any of the sick villagers died in the hospital we have to carry the casket up to the village. These are not made up stories but it is the reality faced by the villagers,” added Tau.

“We have no quality of life. When the villagers buy something for RM10 they will need to spend another RM10 for people to carry the goods on their back to our village.”

Tau said a gas cylinder at his village is sold at RM60 while Ron 95 fuel and diesel is RM3 per litre. For children going to school they have to cross few streams and walked on bamboo stilt.

There are also parents who travel by foot to send and pick their pre-school children to a pre-school at SK Kambug – walking down to the school for two hours and walking back to the village for another two hours.

Hence, Tau appealed to the government to build the road up to his village.

“We have been with the government all this years and 2020 is only six years to come but we still do not have road, no clean water and no electricity supply and no economic activities.

"How can we say that we are developed nation by 2020 if there are still villages are without road network, no clean water and electricity supply although only our village is only about 50 km from Kuching. It’s a case of so near and yet so far.

“We need road because with road there will be economic activities for the people,” stressed Tau.

Simon Ahem of Kampung Kiding said his village folks initiated their own road project by collecting money from those who had stable jobs in town but that was soon scrapped when the funds ran out.

According to Simon, the road construction started in December 2001 and stop in July 2002 due to insufficient fund.

He said those villagers working in town contributed a minimum of RM200 while each family gave RM100.

With that money they hired a bulldozer to bulldoze the pathway and had spent RM16,000 for the project.

The villagers used big three trunks to build the bridges across the rivers.

However the road is still not passable by motorcycle due to its bad and dangerous condition.

Simon all it need was for the government to allocate the some fund to upgrade the road and make it passable by vehicle.

“We don’t need RM10 million or RM100 million road, sufficient a gravel road passable by vehicle.

“We cannot forever live without road. We cannot improve our living standard as long as there is no road,” said Simon.

“Don’t know how long we have to wait,” he complained.

Simon pointed out that it is a real stumbling block to their economic improvement of the village folks.

“We really need the road now, than electricity and water supply because we believe road could bring in more economic activities for the people, thus will improve our standard of living,” he said.

“We want to be part of 2020, a developed nation with high income.

“We see development taking place elsewhere but here we can’t even get an access road. If you say the mountain ranges made it difficult for road to be built, I don’t think that’s a good enough reason. I have seen villages elsewhere in remote places up on the hills, that have access roads,” he said.

“We do hope the Government will consider upgrading the existing pathway, which was cleared 11 years back,” he appealed.

He believed with a good road, other facilities and amenities like electricity and water supply, proper waste management and land surveying works would be able to reach the villages easily.

He said the villagers were keen on helping the Government with plans to develop their area.

In fact, he said, if it was difficult to provide them with direct power supply, the village was willing to opt for a mini hydroelectric dam.

He said it would cost below RM200,000 to have one which includes a turbine of 60KW with a transformer unit.

Currently, the village depends on generator for power and gravity feed for water.

Former Bengoh Assemblyman Datuk William Tanyuh Nub hoped their State assemblyman (Datuk Roland Sagah) and the MP (Datuk Dr James Dawos) would urgently look into the plight of those villagers.

Tanyuh said these are long overdue problems faced by the people in these villages and should be addressed by the government urgently.

“My idea was to address these problems there but after I was not re-nominated to contest in the constituency in the election, so now things are being left uncompleted,” said Tanyuh.

Tanyuh said when he was the elected the people representative he initiated the construction of access road to his village Kampung Kiding and was determined to connect the road with the surrounding villages but half way after they ran out of fund.

Obviously the villages are being neglected and left behind.

Several Kampung Kiding had asked Datuk Roland Sagah and Datuk James Dawos Mamit for help to construct a road to Kiding.

“Now that Datuk Dr Dawos had won the election we hoped he will look into our plight so that we too can enjoy the fruit of development,” he said.

Hopefully this road will enable the other surrounding villages such as Kakas, Assum, Parang and Nusaraya to be connected," he added.

Kiding is next to the Indonesian village of Goon Tembawang which is dependent on Sarawak for their survival.

"They are took far away from their own centre and as such have to travel to Padawan by foot for hours to purchase or buy provisions.

There are 68 houses in Kampung Kiding with about 300 people. The village was established in 1880.

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Audrey Batise is the Dayung Sangon Biperoh 2013

 

THE WINNERS: Audrey (seated), flanked by the runners up and other contestants, posed for group photograph after the prize presentation

Audrey Batise Kais from Kampung Git defeated 14 other contestants to win the first-ever Dayung Sangon Biperoh title (Miss Biperoh Beautiful 2013).

Her poise, and eloquence when answering question, scored her big marks.

She will represent the Biperoh clan at the Bidayuh beauty queen pageant to be held in July.

The 23-year-old, a diploma in environmental health holder and currently a health inspector, walked away with the main prize of RM1,500 cash, a trophy and a hamper.

In second place was 24-year-old clerk Debbie Jesselynn David from Kampung Karu and third was 18-year-old student Edlina Diana Borders from Kampung Giam.

They both brought back RM1,000 and RM700 cash respectively and hampers.

The other 12 contestants did not go home empty handed as they each got RM100 cash prize and hampers sponsored by Nestle.

The consolation prize winners Ellyvia Nawog, 20, Wina Uding Dollin, 23, Jane Masing Perry Rikan, 25, Chloe Syaine Robin, 22, Cathy Lam Akeng, 24, Amanda Lona Ah Kok, 20, Elmarina Toming, 22, Anastasia Glennie Aking, 20, Natalie Philip Dorab, 20, Yvonnie Marie Charles Riam, 19, Anthea Thomas, 25, and Velarie Robert, 20.

Prizes were presented by guest of honour Assistant Minister of Public Health Dr Jerip Susil and wife Lee Chai Foong.

Earlier, Biperoh Association of Kuching (BAK) president Dr Benedict Poris said the beauty pageant was held to promote love for culture and traditions amongst the younger generation.

He pointed out this was because the contestants must wear authentic Bidayuh traditional costumes during the contest which they need to source for themselves.

"The winner will represent the Biperoh people for the beauty contest to be held during the Gawai Fest organised by Redeems (Association of Research and Development Movement of Singai) in July," he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Jerip who is also Bengoh assemblyman and a Biperoh himself, praised the effort of BAK to organise such event can produce 'beauties with qualities' among the Biperoh.

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Nogeh proved them all wrong

Despite all the negative remarks made against him and his party (Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party) new comer Anthony Nogeh Gumbek won the Mas Gading seat, defeating three other contenders with 2,156 votes majority.

Nogeh garnered 8,265 votes against Independent candidate who is the former MP Datuk Dr Tiki Lafe 6,109 votes,  DAP’s Mordi Bimol, who got 5,293 votes while another former MP Patrick Anek Uren of State Reform Party (STAR) only received 462 votes and lost his deposit.

Based on the votes in polling districts, Nogeh performed well in areas under Opar state seat, but he lost many votes in Tasik Biru, especially in Singai areas and also some Jagoi-Bratak areas; namely Suba Buan, Suba Bandar, Stungkor, Stass and Sibuluh.

DAP won a lot of votes in Chinese areas, namely Tondong, Sebuku and Taiton, and also performed admirably in Kampung Stenggang. The votes in Kampung Stenggang swung in the eleven hours as it was earlier reported that the village is the opposition strong hold.

Of the three Bidayuh majority seats, Mas Gading was rated the hottest mainly due to heated rivalry between BN supporters and loyalists of Dr Tiki, who was said to still command respect from many community leaders.

About 79.1 per cent of the 25,821 registered voters in the constituency turned up to vote this time, compared to 67.37 per cent in 2008.

In the 2008 general election, Dr Tiki, who was then in BN, won by a majority of 4,301 votes against hisnearest challenger Dr Patau Rubis of SNAP.

Nogeh, when interviewed after the announcement of results, said the win showed people of Mas Gading still had faith in BN.

He thanked campaigners especially Opar assemblyman Ranum Mina of Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and members from all BN components who had made the victory possible.

He somewhat congratulated his three opponents for campaigning in a civilised manner and wished to tell them that he would always regard them as friends.

“Yes, I am relieved that I have won. It has been a long campaigning period of two weeks. There were hiccups along the way. But we have enjoyed it, I got to meet the rakyat and as I said, all the three other candidates were friendly and we shook hands as we bumped into each other,” he said.

To a question, he conceded there were times that his team feared losing due to stories in the blogosphere and the social media.

“If you read the blogs, they said we were trailing far behind. But we carried on, met up with the rakyat and let them as voters decide,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mordi, 28, looked gracious in defeat as he seemed surprised with the more than 5,000 votes he had garnered.

He told reporters that he would continue fighting for the interests of the people, saying he wanted to emulate Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen who is now a popular elected representative despite losing previous elections.

Asked if he would contest again in the next state election in the seat of Tasik Biru, he said: “Maybe, it depends on the party. I think I have done my best for Mas Gading.”

“I have worked hard for the past two years. In the last 15 days, I still moved around though not feeling well due to lack of sleep. It’s the people’s choice, they have spoken, I respect the decision and I congratulate the new MP (Nogeh),” he said.

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Vote for Tiki is vote for DAP

BAU: DAP candidate in Mas Gading constituency Mordi Bimol must be happily laughing away in seeing incumbent MP Datuk Dr Tiki Lafe splitting Bidayuh votes, thus greatly improving his winning chances.

Anthony Nogeh...the only BN's candidate in Mas Gading.

“Tiki is doing us a big favour. A vote for Tiki is a vote for DAP,” says many DAP members in Mas Gading.

There were suspicious that Tiki is collaborating with DAP to beat Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate from SPDP Anthony Nogeh Gumbek

.

Thing are made worst when some hands are pressuring community leaders and councilors not to cooperate with or support Nogeh and BN. 

Many suspect assistant minister Datuk Peter Nansian Nguse as the invisible hands and this may be well founded.

“Who else in Mas Gading who can issue orders that can frighten the community leaders? If Nansian is behind the village leaders being hostile to BN, this is totally unacceptable. This is openly betraying BN,” said BN loyal supporters in Bau.

There has been mounting pressure for BN leaders to do something immediately or BN in Mas Gading will falter and fail.

“If action is taken late this too can be fatal,” they opined.

In Peninsula Malaysia any BN member who goes against BN faces will get automatic expulsion for life. Let there be a clear lesson.

If BN in Mas Gading is fighting against DAP alone, BN can and will sail through easily as the majority Bidayuhs see DAP as both Peninsula – based and extreme Chinese based. 

There is no way for DAP to be accepted among the Bidayuhs who are generally pro-BN in gratitude for what BN has done and will be doing for them.

A grateful people, the Bidayuhs do not forget or forsake those who helped them. This is both Bidayuh nature and culture.

By itself DAP gets nowhere in any Bidayuh area and so DAP seeks Bidayuh surrogates to split Bidayuyh votes.

DAP believed that Tiki is its perfect partner in this election. Thus, it is possible that DAP may has a say in why Tiki is standing against BN. 

If so, this is an unholy alliance with the sole purpose of making DAP to win.

There seems to be no limit to lying and betrayal. This makes politics so murky and so unnecessarily disfigured.

Meanwhile PBB deputy publicity chief Datuk Peter Minos claimed that Tiki has continued to pressure the community leaders and councilors in Mas Gading to support him.

He said Tiki is using his position as chairman of the National Service Council and silently aided by one key BN 'unseen hand' in pressuring many community leaders in Mas Gading like the penghulus, village heads and councilors to assist him. 

“Tiki claims of also in government and supported clandestinely by some government people. 

“That is why some community leaders are scared of him, apart from believing him as former MP. Some community leaders are refusing BN people to enter their villages and chasing away BN campaigners,” said Minos.

He said the matters had been brought up to the top leaders and he hoped action be swiftly taken to stop some community leaders in Mas Gading from being so hostile to BN. 

“If no action is taken soon on the recalcitrant n defiant community leaders, things can go horribly wrong and BN can be in trouble in Mas Gading.

“Community leaders should be supporting and not attacking BN,” he aded.

Minos said some community leaders in Mas Gading are very bold and are openly campaigning against BN.

He said some are in cahoot even with DAP in helping Tiki. 

“Tiki's BN 'unseen hand' chief supporter, said to be one assistant minister is silently using his official position in directing some community leaders to do things for Tiki. 

“This explains why some of the community leaders are so bold in going against BN. Some of them are saying that Tiki is also BN calon and BN-supported. 

“That Tiki is BN-alternative calon. That if tiki wins he will be accepted with open arms by BN. That tiki will be re-appointed minister, after being sacked in 2008” said Minos.

These are preposterous claims but some community leaders apparently believe them, added Minos.

“We BN people are repeating our call that swift action be taken or otherwise some of the community leaders may and will go out of hand to the detriment of BN,” added Minos.

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