Pulau Seduku

Seduku Island Trip

As promised this post is about the official trip to Pulau Seduku which we made with the Ministry of Rural & Regional Development, Malaysia from Kuala Lumpur together with the FELCRA top management from Kuching and West Malaysia. I hope those readers who anticipated that I would be featuring some 'croc' photos in the post, I have to say I dare not because the villagers here have told me that if anyone can get up close and personal with these 'crocs' I think it will be the last photo that person will be able to take if he is unlucky. So I don't really feel lucky at this point in time so I guess I will be showing pictures of the settlement there a bit. I am not ready to do 'Crikey stunt' like the late Steve Erwin cover on the Seduku Island or better known as the 'Crocodile Island'. In CSI Miami one can notice that Horatio Caine has respect for the wildlife and he leaves those alligators in the Miami swamps alone. Furthermore our office is doing all it can to assist those who are trapped in a life of poverty on the island.

The journey started off in the we hours of the morning - reason being we have to reach Pulau Seduku by 7:00 a.m as it is only accessible during high tides. The window of access is about 2 hours failing which you will not be able to go to the island and have to wait for another nine to ten hours or so for the water level to go up again.

Seduku Island aka 'Crocodile Island' is located almost at the mouth of the vast Batang Lupar River. Our journey began from the Department of Drainage and Irrigration Office jetty. The trip will take about 40 minutes at 60 knots speed. We are set to pick up the 'Kuala Lumpur officers ' (as we refer them) at Bakong as they will begin their journey a bit later from Sri Aman via road. We really do not want to wake them up too early as we need them to be in tip top condition when they are at the island. But they can't be too late either as they will miss the water level window to the Island.

Navigating the river in the early morning darkness requires skill. The boatman with us had an assistant next to him to function as a second pair of eyes. One really wonders when they designed this boat earlier, shouldn't they have designed a chair that can be raised when required - the boatman's chair had a whole load of items to help him get a better line of sight. The driver was quite hyperactive, sitting and standing a couple of times. Our group in the boat did not mind this as we know that having an 'excited' boat driver is a good sign and it means he is alert. We do not really want to fall into the Batang Lupar river at this point in time due to an inexperienced or sleepy driver.

Anyway, we kept ourselves busy along the way- toying around with the GPS System to locate our positions on the river, stopping at some scenic spots along the river for an early 'Boat' breakfast'.

We managed to educate ourselves by picking up fruits on the trees that are reachable by the river bank. Here is a 'pedada fruit' which they say makes an excellent appetizer for any meals (I have yet to try it) and sometimes are used as fish bait. Some did suggest scooping the water for prawns as the area we stopped over was famous for it, but we never got to do it as our breakfast session took longer than expected.

We reached Bakong closed to 7:15 a.m - and the 'KL People' have not arrived yet so we hopped on the Bakong jetty and chatted with the local folks. There were extra smaller boats on standby at the jetty just in case the DID boat was not enough. Topics of our discussions were related to the subject of 'crocodile sightings' and 'history of crocodile attacks'. There has been a few attacks in this area in the last few decades - one in 1982 and another in 1992 and some more between 2002 and 2005. One scary event related to us was that a crocodile followed a villager quietly from behind his boat as he journeyed towards the river bank and approached the jetty to tie his boat. as he was about to tie his boat, the large croc caught him by his upper right leg and dragged him into the waters. Nearby villagers who saw what had happened sounded the alarm and a few villagers brought out their gongs and shotgun, making loud noises and shooting in the air to scare the reptile. Surrounding the river area with boats a few rounds of shots were fired at the reptile when it surfaced with the lifeless victim in its mouth - trying to find an exit along the river which had been blocked by the villagers, but the bullets were no match for the reptile's thick skin. The stand off took 4 hours before the crocodile released its victim and silently slipped into the darkness of the night.

After a few stories, the 'KL group' arrived and we quickly invited them into the boat before proceeding to the Island which is just across Bakong. I guess they rushed to the safest looking boat as we understood that during their journey in the car they too had been talking about the 'gentle creatures' of Seduku Island. I think all of them jumped into the boat and filled it up within 5 minutes.

So I skipped into a smaller boat and we continued our journey to Pulau Seduku. Its just a 10 minutes ride across the river from Bakong. The boatman whom I was speaking to as we approached the island explained to me that there was a clear border between the human settlement and wildlife there. The Seduku village occupied the western side of the island while those the wildlife occupied the other three quarter. So one really does need an experienced boatman when cruising to the island as the water tends to get shallow in some areas and you may just hit a sandbar or 'something' - just pray its a floating wood because there was a time when a boat was capsized by the creature and the survivors had to swin to shore - luckily there were no casualties. One policeman lost his M16 at that time but I believe no one dares to conduct a dive in the area to recover the weapon. So far there is only one victim on the wildlife area side and it was of a timber worker who was taking his bath in the area (the Wildlife Area side of the photo above). When the search party led by the Police and Forestry Department went to recover what is left of the person, the sonar detector they used in that area detected hundreds of crocodiles of all sizes within a square kilometer area of the river.

The arriving guests were given a warm welcoming reception at the Seduku village jetty.

Our group had a short tour of this village which comprises of 145 families - concentrated on the South western corner of the Island. The villagers had been identified as those in the 'hard core poverty' category - most of them make a living as fishermen and farmers. They had lived in this area since the Brooke era (in the late 1890s) and most had title to the surrounding land. However the Island is set to be taken by the State Government as part of its effort to convert it into a Wildlife area/sanctuary. Once it is converted and gazetted into that, the human population will have to vacate the island. However a specified area across the island has been identified for the Seduku villagers' new resettlement.

There was also a school at Pulau Seduku which catered for the villagers' children but the numbers are not many as we were about to see

Here the ratio of student to teacher is 1:1 (one to one) and this is replicated in the other classes as the most I saw in one of the class was just 6 students

Meeting with the Pulau Seduku folks: discussions were held with the Seduku villagers and they have expressed their willingness to be resettled across the island on the mainland as they had been waiting for more than 5 years for it to materialise since the proposal was mooted out.

And so that's when the real work starts as we went back across Bakong to view the proposed resettlement site for the Seduku folks. The process of negotiations, procedural adherence are thrown on the table and the limitations of the State - Federal agencies' might are brought together to ensure that everything that can possibly be done for the Seduku folks are not hindered by red tapes. Of course we discovered that most of the hurdle that prevents us from progressing was that some administrative elements do not meet eye to eye but that is a learning opportunity for us. Listing out all the 'red tapes' that can make this proposal to fail, - like the funds are controlled by the Federal Government but the land issues are purely State matters, it can be pretty dicey and we hope to present it to the higher authorities so that they may thrash it out at their level without further delay. We would have done our part in ensuring that the implementation aspect will be smooth and executable.

And so, its all in a day's work - though we would not consider the matter to end there as more paperwork needs to be done as we return to our office. Our mission to make life better for the Pulau Seduku villagers is an ongoing effort (which cannot be done in a few days) and if this does not happen in my time, I hope the next person coming in will pursue it further. This effort is replicated across the State Administrative machinery as my other colleagues and comrades in arms are also identifying the villages and people who are trapped in poverty due to locality and try our best to ensure efficient delivery, giving the the people of Sarawak a better quality of life - irregardless of race or religion. God speed!

CNY Visits & Visitors

Chinese New Year in Sibu

The Year of the 'Golden' Ox arrived with the crackling sound of explosion and whistles in Sibu. Yes, at the stroke of midnight, like all the other towns in Sarawak, fireworks and probably I can say fire bombs were let loose by the celebrants. As my parent's lived in a predominantly Chinese neighbourhood, we got to enjoy some spectacular fireworks celebration.

Evidence of fireworks leftovers the previous night

Though fireworks was said to be 'banned' the town of Sibu seemed lighted up come midnight. The intensity this year though was not like in previous years where we would usually be treated with an hour of non stop 'artillery' barrages. This time it lasted just half an hour.

Oooha and Yamseng toast mix with Mr. Goh and family - Chinese New Year visiting in progress

We kept the spirit of visiting during Chinese New Year alive as our family visited friends in full force. This scene is replicated Statewide as I read in other blogs about the various house visiting and open houses held by celebrants. This augurs well for the unity of the multi racial population of Sarawak.

New Year 'visitors'

There's a scene that I get to see in Sibu almost every year which is of a group of Chinese New Year 'visitors' comprised of a 'family' who goes from house to house wishing Happy New Year and asking for 'ang pows'. From my random observations and queries, most of them comprises of small Iban families usually led by the womenfolks. This 'practice' came into light since the last eight to ten years or so probably due to urban migration phenomenon. Its an interesting scene really. At one time we were in a friend's house these folks would come into an 'open' house and ask for ang pow. Though it was a tradition for the Chinese families to give ang pows to children but it seems that the adults here wish to have some also. The drinks and oranges offered would go into the back packs. It would be quite interesting if we start to find out the cause of this 'visiting trend' during festive season so that they do not downgrade their visitor status to beggar status. Perhaps a job for the Non Government Organisations (NGOs) that look into the plights of the Dayak's or Ibans' welfare in urban settings like SADIA and SDNU. It would be more appropriate for SADIA as they have noble Aims and Objectives (using the Kuching SADIA website as example) listed out for the community. Looking at SDNU's website, I can see that their cause now are more on a macro approach and International in perspective - maybe a new direction not incorporating Dayak welfare as it is felt that our community is quite progressive already? Anyway, Cheers and Gong Xi Fa Chai.

Crash Boom Bang

Drive Carefully This Festive Season....or Everytime you Drive

I will certainly be expecting fireworks tonight on the eve of Chinese New Year. Last year I got some spectacular images for my Fireworks post in Kuching and I hope Sibu can match it this year. But I experienced a few crash boom bangs on my drive up to Sibu from Kuching. One did remind me of my last post Accidental Luck where a young guy scraped through a freaky accident. There's this stretch of 'blind spot' along the Pan Borneo Highway which is a cause for concern for many road users - we liken it to The Bermuda Triangle.

Ooops......! There goes the ang pow money, to repair the car.

The journey home - scenes like this are a norm during the 'Balik Kampung' phenomena. This accident happened at the Rachan Recreational Park junction. Same place where I recorded the flood in Serian a week before. But one need not worry - just pick up a phone and some help will be on the way very soon, at least the tow truck will arrive first before anyone else.

But what happens if anything happens to you at the 'blind spot' aka Bermuda Triangle?

A trailer stalled at 'The Bermuda Triangle' - somewhere at the administrative boundary of Samarahan Division and Sri Aman Division. One can imagine if you want to overtake the stalled trailer it would be almost impossible to see the other incoming traffic. The driver was smart enough to place some diversions on the road on both sides to alert incoming traffic from both directions. That said, let's imagine if this happened at night when aspiring Sarawakian Formula One drivers cruise the highway.

The Bermuda Triangle in red

This 'blind spot' is a cause for worry as it covers a significant distance (15 to 20 kilometers). Let's just say I have been cruising this stretch for the past 8 to 10 years and this is the only stretch without mobile network coverage. And maybe by sheer coincidence if anything needs to go wrong with somebody's vehicle, most of it happens at this stretch. The most memeorable one was when a tour bus with a full load of passengers developed engine problems in the area. The stranded passengers had to walk a significant distance to get some assistance and the driver was smart enough to hitch a ride to an area where the phone signal was strong enough for him to call for assistance ~ which can take hours to arrive. The proximity with the Kalimantan Indonesia border also brings to light stories of roaming foreigners in this area. They may be just visiting our side minus the immigration papers but one has to throw caution to the wind. So if your vehicle stalls in this area in the dark of night - and if you travel alone or with your family, try to get help from the nearest village along the stretch (believe me there is not many), or try to seek help from a passing vehicle (but only if you are confident that the occupants of the vehicles are a group of boy scouts who are ready to assist and not some runaway criminals who just stole a luxury vehicle in the City). Remember there is no phone signal to enable you to call in the calvary and if your car is a BMW or Mercedes, your life is more important (next time fly if necessary because you have the money). However it is always hard to get someone to assist you as the driver of the vehicle who passes through this dark stretch of road (its totally dark with no lights) will also be quite jittery and any wierd dark figure waving by the side (or in the middle) of the road while he is driving 110 km per hour, can cause panic. But during this trying moments usually a tow truck will be considered a heaven sent saviour if it happens to pass by. If he charges a bomb, don't think twice about it. Just some road safety tips from Nadai Nama Nama.

So currently the 'Bermuda Triangle's Link in this area is not so Hot, and no Yellow Man roams this Territory.

As we cruised along, we encountered a crowd of people and cars at the Betong junction area. It has to be an accident I told myself. Curiousity kills a cat they say, and so I stopped by the side to have a look.

The location of the accident on Google Map

Sure enough when I looked down over the area of attention I was surprised to see an overturned 4WD vehicle (could be a Prado or Hilux) and some clothes by the side - its so damaged that I could not make out the make of the vehicle

Omigosh - It has gone down quite a distance and I was thinking if there was any survivors. The same question rang in the minds of the curious onlookers, did anyone survive this accident? Was it a self accident as there was no other vehicle nearby?

Finally someone pointed out that there was no casualties in this accident. The driver (in shorts) was talking to Father Aries (in blue) and he seemed alright to me. He was travelling with his two children and they escaped with light bruises, by the look of the 4WD condition, that is a miracle, but the children have been rushed to Betong Hospital for further treatment

The tyre marks tell a story of how this accident happened and the broken concrete shows the impact as it hits the drain and plunges into the side of the road

While taking the photo of the tyre marks I realised that the vehicle came from the other side of the road and I was parking on part of the evidence. Horatio Caine will burn me alive for this but then again this is not a Crime Scene.

As I continued my journey along with the other road users who had seen the accident, I could not help noticing that we were going in a steady convoy and everyone was observing the speed limit. It takes scenes like this to heighten road users' awareness. I also got to think how different the situation would if this had happened at the Bermuda Triangle. So drive safely people.

Gong Xi Fa Chai 2009

Year of the Ox - Hoping For A Bull Run!

Chinese New Year 2009 is around the corner - Wishing all Nadai Nama Nama Readers a Happy New Year. We look forward to a bullish year! I will be celebrating Chinese New Year 2009 in Sibu with my Mummy and Daddy! Looking forward to meeting up and visiting my school classmates who are celebrating Chinese New Year. Ang pow mali... ang pow mali :)

Rain Go away

Handling Distress Calls

The first three weeks of January 2009 will soon be history or herstory. I remember distinctly that a few weeks ago I was toasting to Merry Christmas and new year 2009. January seemed to become a runaway train. The speed we are going now we can might just well prepare for 2010 celebrations. The intensity of the wet season seemed to have caused a black hole in our time wallet causing precious seconds and minutes to disappear. Whatever time I have which should have been allocated for planning for the upcoming months has been washed away by the swift flood currents. Its my first experience in tackling potential disaster situations. Though Sri Aman had it easy compared to Kuching Division and Samarahan Division which saw more than 3500 families being moved to the evacuation centers. Our figures involved only the evacuation of 42 families at Pangkalan Pantu. It could have been more if the scattered string of longhouses in the Sri Aman District, Lingga and Pantu Sub Districts affected by the flood agreed to move. The flood water in these areas reached almost 3 feet but the occupants refused to leave their longhouses. Though it was their choice, our concern was their safety for if anything untowards happened to them, it will be hard to give assistance as the areas mentioned lacked proper road and communication access. Coordinating the various departments to spring into action is a tougher call - you have to think of your team's safety and well being too.

Rumah Ajon longhouse dwellers receiving the canvas within 48 hours of our visit

As Rumah Ajon longhouse was the first incident that we handled in my The Way It is Here post, I am happy to note our response to Rumah Ajon's request was within 48 hours. The recommendations by the Public Works Department to cover the area with canvas was acted on immediately for any delay in doing so would result in a serious landslide. We had also hoped that this would be the only case that our Disaster and Relief Committee has to handle - and boy, were we wrong. Rain started to fall the next day (10th January 2009) and it never stopped then.

Image of Pangkalan Pantu and Sungai Strap in Sri Aman on 9th January 2009 during our trip to Rumah Ajon, Pantu - notice safe level of water at the jetty

Water began to rise on 11th January 2009 at Pangkalan Pantu and the evacuation process began

The flood water level rose to dizzying heights

The villagers at the Pangkalan Pantu Jetty area had not expected the water to rise so fast and some were totally caught flat footed. Compare the level of water above at the Jetty - that was the height of the flood for the next few days

In other areas, reports of landslides trickled in. One longhouse in Mungu Sawa was affected as earth chunks destroyed the back portion of one of the longhouses there. I noticed the similiarity that it has with Rumah Ajon - the locality of the longhouse can be considered unsuitable (with that hill at the back) but I guess again that it the way it is here.

The back portion of the longhouse destroyed by the landslide

Part of the kitchen structure of the longhouse affected by the landslide

Another area which we recieved a distress call was a longhouse in Penghulu Tinggi's area at Stumbin, Lingga Sub District. Water came into the house and filled it up to almost two and half feet high

One of the longouse dwellers indicating the height of the flood water level which was almost beyond two feet

Some longhouse dwellers who were at home at that time managed to save their food stocks - the unlucky ones lost a season's supply of beras

Some thought of various ways to safe their furnitures by putting bricks to raise their furnitire's height - but as the water rose, I was thinking, were these folks not thinking of the best way to safe themselves? Maybe they thought its still safe as their house was two storey

Man made barrier against the might of nature - some of the longhouse dwellers quickly built barrier structures hoping that it can contain the incoming waters - okay I thought - what about the other entrances as this particular longhouse has twenty plus doors

Landslides incidents are a norm in our areas - some roads were experience minor landslide and we have to know this in advance so that it does not cut off supply routes

We would usually send out our team to investigate reported incidents, be it landslide, flooded houses - without fail, except when it was too risiky to do so. The team will then report the situation to the operations room

For longhouses affected, aid will be provided. In the above picture, our State Administrative Officer (Awang Syukri) obtains the details and data of the longhouse dwellers affected by the landslide incident.

Road conditions are also a factor in determining our mobility - especially in delivering aid or assessing reported incidents

Somethings you may think that having a 4 Wheel Drive vehicle you can cross the most treacherous terrain - one thing I discover is that the tyres on the vehicles we use for our daily administrative duties are not meant for the rough countryside

Sending aid using the lorries would not be the best solution - another team of rescuers would have to be sent to rescue these team. Another lesson learnt - if you are in a rescue team, make sure there is another back up team there to rescue you in case you get stuck.

Some of the flood victims have to make do at the evacuation centres which are managed by the District Office and the Welfare Department. Managing the families also poses another challenge as expectations on government assistance are quite high.

The most important thing is our officers' caring attitude. Here the District Officer Encik Mahri works tirelessly to understand the needs of the flood victims

Again, as the notorious rain clouds blew away over Sri Aman Division, I have nothing much to offer except praise for my colleagues and government agencies in the Disaster and Relief Commttee in Sri Aman. They rose to the challenge - although there was no major one, the important thing was we do our part to minimize the trauma of the flood victims. No lives were lost during our watch. For us, it will be just another day in our administrative chapters. Stressed out? You bet. Though there are many areas in the work procedures and communication between agencies that I would like to see improved, but as I have said, with the infrastructure, infostructure and manpower constraints that we have, the team steered by our Resident and the other agencies managed the flood situation rather efficiently. We just thank God there was no major disaster and mother nature was kinder to the Sri Aman folks. Congratulations people!