A beautiful but sad Song.
IT is a beautiful but sad Song.
This
township in the Central Region has a beautiful name. And as the name
suggests, it is a jewel, one that should rightly be sparkling with
day-long vibrancy, but is not, at deltas of two tributaries of the
mighty Rajang — the Song River and Katibas River.
Sitting by Song
Wharf, one is amazed by the natural beauty of the riverine town with
longboats of different colours coming and going as gracefully as
tropical fishes swimming freely among the reefs and the rocks beneath
the waves.
The town may be small — no more than a few rows of old
and new shops — but there is a hive of activities there in the morning,
being the commercial centre, serving about 150 longhouses within the
Katibas constituency in Song District.
However, come afternoon,
especially after four when the last express-boat departs the wharf, the
town gradually winds down to a standstill. After the last expressboat
leaves, Song is cut off from the rest of the world. There is no
connecting road to even the nearest town. The jewel loses its lustre.
It
is now the 21st Century but Song still depends solely on the Rajang to
link up with other towns such as Kapit, Kanowit and Sibu.
Though
an inland town, it is really more like an island. Sadly, after 50 years
of independence, Song is still trapped in a time warp. This is the
reality the townsfolk have been living with all this time.
According
to a local resident Toh Tze Hua, Song, in general, has remained in the
doldrums not only in terms of overland transportation but also other
aspects of development.
Toh, born and raised in Song, can vouch for the stagnation of development in the town.
“Nothing
has changed. Song has been the same from my young days till now, except
that two rows of shophouses are coming up. But they are the outcome of
private initiative,” he told thesundaypost.
Toh noted that while development of other towns was taking off, Song had been completely left out of the state development plan.
The
residents find this disappointing and frustrating, saying their area
has always been a stronghold of the Barisan Nasional but never rewarded
for their loyalty.
There are in total 8,542 voters in Katibas constituency.
The Ibans make up 91 per cent, the Chinese, four per cent and the Malays, four per cent.
For
2011 state election, only 5,378 voters turned up to cast their ballots
and BN state assemblyman Datuk Ambrose Blikau garnered 3,326 votes to
win the seat.
“Year after year, we have been supporting BN. But
what have we got in return? We don’t even have a proper road, linking
the town with the sub-urban area,” Toh said, pointing out that the road
(Jalan Takan) connecting Song to its hinterland is still gravel-based.
Toh,
a former councillor and businessman, believes to hasten development, it
is important for Song to be linked physically to other parts of the
state.
Presently, Sibu is already connected to Kanowit, and from there to Ngemah, by road.
It
is only 14km from Ngemah to Song and a road connecting them was under
construction but it suddenly stopped after 7km was completed.
Toh
and many other longhouse residents hoped this road could be completed as
soon as possible, especially now that RM500 million has been pumped
into rural development.
“What we want is connecting with the rest of Sarawak by road — not total reliance on river transport,” Toh said.
The horrible state of the road linking Song and Ng Miaw.
Atrocious road condition
Meanwhile,
the villagers of Ng Miaw, a settlement of three longhouses, have been
lamenting the atrocious condition of the link road between Song and
their village.
Coincidentally, the road is also 14km long but it
is in such a horrible state that vehicle owners avoid it unless they
have absolutely no choice.
“The road has been damaged by some
quarters since five to six years ago.
We have been requesting for repair
but so far, nothing has been done.
“Many of our youths working in
peninsular Malaysia or other parts of the world, are disappointed to
find the road still in utter disrepair when they return to celebrate
Gawai every year.
“My granddaughter, a kindergarten school
teacher, bought a new car and it had a puncture after being driven on
that road for only a month.
“No one dares use the road when it is
raining. We can only use it during dry days and even so, we are risking
our lives and damaging our cars. It’s a very dangerous road to travel
on,” said 70-year-old Dengon Gol, a resident of Rumah Jala in Ng Miaw.
What Dengon said is quite true.
A
trip to the settlement on this road (if you can call it a road) takes
over 45 minutes although the distance is only 14km. With big cracks,
potholes, eroded uneven surface and steep gradients, the road is not for
the faint-hearted.
Bad roads, or the lack of road connectivity, is not the only bane to the socio-economic well-being of Song’s folk.
Education
is another sad song the people are singing — ever louder with each
passing day not out of design but a deep sense of despair and
abandonment.
For example, the skeletal structure of the unfinished
SMK Song II, stands exposed to the elements, serving as a poignant
reminder to the locals of their own plight.
The RM24 million
project started in 2013 and scheduled for completion by 2014 but
construction was abruptly halted last December.
According to Toh, the project has been left idle since due to high transportation costs.
“The
only way to transport building materials from Sibu to Song is by river.
You can imagine how expensive that is,” said Toh, a building contractor
himself.
The abandoned SMK Song II.
Other neglected projects
SMK
Song II is not the only abandoned government school project. The
agriculture sub-station at Nanga Engkuah is another project left to its
own fate — like Song itself.
And a few hundred metres from SMK
Song II is the Song Fire Station. The latter, like the school, was
abandoned for a while but construction resumed recently.
Then, there is the sad episode of ‘cannot do without’ dependence on generators for power by Song’s schools.
Sixteen
primary and secondary schools are found in Song District, of which 14
are rural schools and still at the mercy of generators for their
lightings.
A company has been contracted to maintain the
generators but they frequently fail to work for days or even weeks
before remedial action is taken.
When the generators are down, the
students just have to put up with living in pitch darkness at night and
drinking murky water during the day (as power is needed to treat and
purify drinking water in the school).
The most recent case was SMK
Katibas which suffered an almost power meltdown from April 24 to May 9.
It was after a 16-day lapse that power was finally restored. Not
surprisingly, the student population has since dwindled from 350 to just
over 20.
What was painfully ironic was that the responsibility
for repair did not lie with the contractor but the school authority
itself.
While SMK Katibas was engulfed in pitch darkess at night,
it was rumoured that a primary school in a more remote area was facing
the same problem. However, due to the lack of information, thesundaypost
was unable to locate the school.
Uproar among parents
Constant
electricity failure at SMK Katibas has created an uproar not only among
parents in Song but also those in other parts of the state after the
situation came to light.
Questions were raised about the company
which was given RM21 million to maintain the generators of all the 14
schools for a period of two years.
The authorities concerned were
urged to look into the matter to ensure failure to avert an avoidable
situation like SMK Katibas’ would not be repeated.
Another
education issue in Song is SK Nanga Musah, built in 1963. Due to
multiple factors such as soil erosion and unsafe building, the students
had to be relocated to SK Nanga Nyimoh 13 years ago.
Since then, parents of SK Musah students have been sending their children to SK Ng Nyimoh, an hour boat ride from Ng Musah.
Ng
Musah longhouse headman Philip Geliga said there are 10 longhouses in
the area and about 100 primary school children from there have been
studying at SK Ng Nyimoh.
From Philip’s longhouse alone, there are at least six children attending SK Ng Nyimoh.
“There
is no road connecting Ng Musah and SK Nyimoh. We can only send our
children to SK Nyimoh by boat and it is about an hour boat ride from Ng
Musah. It’s expensive for us to send our children there and pick them up
on weekends.Since a site has been identified and cleared for the
construction of SK Ng Musah, we hope the project can start as soon as
possible. Please don’t neglect us,” Philip pleaded.
(From right) TR Ingong Garai, TR Kujau Budon, Gasing Untam and TR Ebin Lagak.
Increasing disillusionment
From education, Philip moved on to politics. It is another subject that frustrates and angers the people when brought up.
Like
many of the locals, Philip is getting increasingly disillusioned that
even though Song has an elected representative for the past 35 years,
there seems to be no proper plan to develop the area.
He called for a stop to the practice of ‘pilih kasih’ (bias allocation).
“Funds
for minor rural projects (MRP) are given to 10 doors in a longhouse
while the other 10 doors are left out. This has created a lot suspicion
and animosity,” he claimed.
The predicament of Philip’s longhouse is shared by the headmen of the other longhouses.
TR
(tuai rumah) Ingong Garai, TR Kujau Budon, Gasing Untam and TR Ebin
Lagak all spoke of experiencing the same unfair treatment.
“We
just cannot understand why this is being done. Our longhouses are split
into two factions. There is jealousy, suspicion and distrust under the
same roof.And this is really bad for us,” Kujau said.
Though much nearer Sibu, Song is significantly less vibrant than Kapit and less developed as well.
It
is understandable that the townsfolk are feeling neglected and
unwanted. Resentment has been mounting as shown by the dwindling
majority for the elected representative in the area during the
election over the past decade. It is time for the authorities to step in
and look into the plight of Song and its people.
