Good servants, bad masters

WHEN it is hot and humid, my thoughts are with the people in a longhouse, somewhere in Sarawak.

A phobia of sorts acquired sometime in the past.

Once, I flew in a helicopter from Kuching to Kapit. I saw dots of structures down below, some long, some short. Not knowing what materials of which they were made, but the roof, blistering under the mid afternoon sun, was looking tinder dry.

No sight of any road, seen from the above, for the Fire and Rescue (Bomba) trucks to use in order to rush rescue any building there on fire.

Any building in trouble in such a location would be doomed.

A community wiped out

An inferno gutting a longhouse leaves not one but many families homeless, traumatised and miserable for the rest of their lives. Most of the family properties, acquired over many years of hard work, go up in smoke in a matter of minutes in front of the very eyes of the owners!

The gun, the furniture, the land title, birth certificates and other important personal documents, even the cash, the balance of expenditure spent on the Panadol at the bazaar the previous day, stashed under the pillow – are all gone!

A whole community is being decimated, and instant poverty sets in.

Start life anew, did you say? Yes, it is possible; easier said than done, though. Ask the victims, as I have done.

It is the trauma of having lost one’s property and, worse, in a case of death of a relative in that fire, that will last for a long time.

Frequencies of fires

The problem is so serious that a prominent social scientist, Datuk Prof Dr Jayum Jawan, has called it ‘a crisis’ (The Borneo Post – Sept 28, 2024).

He calls upon the Dayak leaders in government and the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to find a solution to that crisis.

In my collection of newspaper cuttings, one contains news about 14 longhouse fires within the first eight months of 2018.

If that was not a crisis, I don’t know what was, then.

Causes of fires

I hope that Prof Jayum’s suggestion would be considered favourably by the people who are in authority to do something about the problem.

I hope to see that some new plan of action initiated by the relevant government agency would follow as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, I would suggest, if I may, that a proper study be made by an institution of higher learning to get to the bottom of the crisis: the common causes of those fires.

I am sure the Bomba has the necessary statistics including information given by the victims.

Armed with the facts and figures, certain authorities – say the Housing Commission, the Majlis Adat Istiadat (State Native Customs Council) or the State Secretariat – may like to call for a meeting of those concerned with the acceleration of the crisis.

Or else, the government may lend support to a NGO like the Dayak Cultural Foundation (DCF) to organise a discussion forum, meant to eventually recommend a plan of action for the prevention of the longhouse fires.

It is high time for serious action, not endless talk!

Within the past 14 years, I have written three columns about the seriousness of the problem, recommending to the government to ban the construction of new (repeat… new!) longhouses with the fiat or condition, and for a government’s policy to finance the construction of new single houses in a settlement, as a substitute.

A change for the better for the longhouse dwellers, I honestly thought.

Moving out of the longhouse into a single house in a well-planned settlement, if such settlement would be provided with the basic facilities, would make a difference to the current conditions of the longhouse dwellers.

In a well- planned settlement scheme, there would be built a good internal road system, regular supplies of clean water and electricity, well-managed healthcare facilities, educational facilities (preschool or kindergarten), cultural and religious centres, and also a plot of land for the vegetables for each household, and a place reserved for the chickens or pigs.

Fully aware of the problem, and wanting to get to the bottom of it, Premier of Sarawak Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg announced: “Sarawak has a standardised design for the construction of a new longhouse that includes the installation of a fire wall too, but this has to be made mandatory’ (thesundaypost – Dec 16, 2018).

The government was also mulling over an amendment to the Building Ordinance 1994, to regulate the implementation, development, and construction of any extension to any building.

I don’t know if this amendment has been done in terms of regulating the construction of a new longhouse everywhere in Sarawak.

Application of a regulation is one thing, the attitude of the people who advocate for the preservation of the traditional style of living is another.

The government can do so much, but the people themselves must be the ones to decide what the best alternative would be in terms of housing for themselves and their offspring in the long term.

I wish someone in authority would initiate a meeting of the advocates for the longhouse living.

They are the ones to be convinced that the tradition of communal living would have to go, gradually, in favour of some other forms of housing.

Change in attitude

Meanwhile, I would suggest that a study be made by the sociologists on why the advocates of longhouse living insist on the building of new longhouses. That done, the tackle the other factors: funding and other requirements.

The long and the short of it is that the job of preventing fires to the longhouse is the attitude of the people who persist in sticking to the tradition that has been discarded by many Dayaks.

The government seems to be in a dilemma in this respect; they respect the sentiment of the advocates for fear of treading on something politically incorrect.

That is how difficult it is to change when vested interests have a role in influencing decision-makers to please everybody.

In the end, it would please nobody.

Housing loans

The longhouse people who want to build their houses on land, which is not under title, need the money.

Where do they go to? To the government, which lets its agency, the Housing Commission, deal with it.

Politically correct.

What happens to loan repayment is another matter, for the next crop of politicians to deal with passing the buck.

And the longhouse fires will continue in force full, beginning with a spark in the kitchen to an inferno, or from the mains board full of tangled electrical wires like the spaghetti left by the fly- by-night electricians not registered with the power authority we used to call Sesco.

Other vested interests

‘The tour operator and the politician’.

I have talked to some tour operators; they told me that the longhouse tour was offered to the visitors as the main attraction of the itinerary.

So the tourism industry would like to keep the longhouses as long as possible.

The politician must serve or be seen to serve the interests of his or her constituents, and to be able obtain a loan for the expenditure to build a room in the longhouse, would feel good.

* The opinions expressed in this article are the columnist’s own and do not reflect the view of the newspaper.