HELLO ...

A long tme that I had not been here for a simple reason....I forget my eemail and password.
Hope to be active from now.

Welcome

To All Honoured Visitors

Thank you very much for visiting and while here I am also inviting all to visit http://borneoinsider.com

TENOM ROAD ONLY FOR CAMEL TROPHY

An accident along jungle track connecting several villages in rural Sabah has enraged villagers forced to trek for hours through mud and then cross a treacherous bridge to get to town
TENOM: It’s hard to comprehend that 50 years on, a jungle track that is almost impossible to pass in the rainy season, remains the main route connecting a group of villages in Kemabong in Tenom district. (This post is from http://borneoinsider.com)
For as long as they can remember villagers have been uncomplainingly using this dirt track to get in and of the area, taking their children to school, going to the hospital or simply stocking up on essential items available in Tenom.
Back in 1985, amid great excitement, a gravel road leading to the villages of Sumumbu and Kapulu was built by a logging company in 1985. After the logs were extracted, no further development was forthcoming.
A crude and narrow log bridge, a few thin logs placed over a deep gully in ‘Camel Trophy’ style, the famous off-road competition, is the only way for vehicles to cross and the villagers, all mostly traditional farmers use the route daily to send their produce to Tenom.
Teachers at the two schools and students from the surrounding villages come close to getting a mud bath on rainy day and have to endure clouds of dust when the weather turns drier on their trips to and from school.
During the rainy season, the road is a nearly impassable quagmire of deep mud and makes the usually hour-long trip to Tenom town four hours of hell.
The horrendous condition was exposed when a villager complained that that residents in the area were facing problems getting to or out of the area after a four-wheel-drive vehicle tumbled off the bridge and into the gully badly injuring the driver and passenger.
The accident on Feb 3 almost claimed the life of a 40-year-old teacher and his 10 year old son when they tried to cross the log-bridge.
The affected villagers have had enough and have demanded the government step in.
Lukap Ukui, 53, the chairman of the Sumumbu Umno branch, has been at the receiving end for ignoring their plight until now. But he says he is as disappointed that their many appeals to the government to upgrade their road had fallen on deaf ears.
Ukui wants the state Barisan Nasional government to act swiftly, but fears that their wishes may not be answered any time soon.
One of the problems is that the Sabah Forest Industries and Sabah Forestry Department, both state government’s agencies have refused to permit any effort to upgrade the road as it crosses the Rundum Forest Reserve.
With lack of enforcement, there are fears that illegal logging and poaching would become easier for many who are now only deterred by the poor travel conditions.
Residents of Kg Kolorok, another village in the district, are also complaining that their 60km road has never seen a `good day’ since its construction in the 1980s. It is impossible for vehicles to use the road during the rainy season.
Just last month farmer, Andingos Ukun, 28, took about four hours to make the crossing on his motorcycle when he had to send his infant son to the Tenom Hospital for treatment.
He said he spent most of the time pushing his motorcycle through sometimes knee-deep mud while his wife who was wife cradling their crying child in a homemade sling wrapped around her shoulders carefully picked her way through the mud.
“This is our life here … no one cares. We are not asking for the sky. We only want basic things like roads like any other village in the state. Why is no one listening?” Ukun asked. – AM

‘We’re united,’ says KDM lawyer

By Joseph Bingkasan in  Freemalaysiatoday

| October 22, 2012

There is no disunity among the KadazanDusuns but what exists are Barisan Nasional leaders who want to divide and rule.

KOTA KINABALU: Darell Leiking, a young Kadazandusun lawyer from Penampang, believes his community can be a force to be reckoned with in the coming general elections and an indication of this is coming from Barisan Nasional leaders who are worried the tide has turned against them ahead of the 13th general election.
“We are not disunited racially or religiously. We are united. Tagging the community as disunited because they do not see eye to eye in political ideology is a false notion,” said the man who wants to take his community in a new political direction.
The PKR national deputy secretary-general and supreme council member is among leaders in Sabah heading the Pakatan Rakyat coalition challenge against the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition in Penampang in the impending general election.
Penampang is considered part of the heartland of the Kadazandusuns and wresting the seat from the BN would be a body blow for the ruling coalition.
Addressing concerns that his community is split into too many factions, he said the blame can be placed at the door of a few political leaders who were once united under a common political banner but went their separate ways to stay in power.
In a chance meeting at a coffee shop last week, the 41-year-old UK-trained lawyer confided that his community is in fact as united as it was in the past about championing Sabah’s rights as a partner in the formation of Malaysia and not just one of the 13 states in the federation as it is now.
Touted as a possible PKR candidate for the Penampang MP seat, he said he is not concerned about who is finally selected by the coalition.
“PKR is hopeful to represent Pakatan Rakyat for Penampang. However, my personal position is that my division and I will support any candidate from any of our (Pakatan) partners should PKR not be given this seat,” he said .
Whoever is chosen will up against a formidable foe in the form of current Penampang MP is Federal Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Bernard Dompok, who is the president of the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko).

Political leaders to blame
Leiking does not see this as a big hurdle even though Pakatan is tapping the same Kadazandusuns who voted in favour of the BN in the last election.
His argument is that most of the ruling coalition and their party members today were once united under a single political banner (Parti Bersatu Sabah) to fight for Sabah’s rights.
He said though PBS leader Joseph Pairin Kitingan and his former colleagues in the party like Joseph Kurup and Dompok are now presidents of different political parties and have split the Kadazandusun vote, they cannot say the community is solidly behind them.
He accused the entrenched crop of political leaders as being out of touch with the community.
Leiking said Kadazandusun leaders must take full responsibility for the community’s political displacement and weaker position as they had ignored the spirit of 1985 that united the people of Sabah purely to prolong their political life.
“Their two-dozen or so years as elected representatives is just a wee bit too long for us. It’s a political fact,” he said of the claimed burgeoning support for the opposition.
“Imagine 27 years of political decisions being made for us and little to show how we’ve benefitted.
“Some of these politicians are now blaming us for being divided but these same leaders have even had the audacity to redefine the Kadazandusuns by religion.
“We are Kadazans and Dusuns regardless of our beliefs and this we should all defend so that we shall never be displaced. We must embrace that our race is unique with many faiths and with a special place as natives of Sabah.
“No religion should ever divide our race,” he said.
Sabahans now bolder
The problem, he said, was the mutual respect that was always present in Sabah was slowly being eroded by the failure of politicians who were either ignorant or afraid to challenge one-sided policies that had taken a toll on the social makeup of the state.
“We should take responsibility to seek help and find solutions to those issues. It is reciprocal and I believe when we do this, the mutual respect will be reasserted,” he said.
Leiking also noted that Sabahans were also no longer afraid to shout out their disappointment over the failure to fulfil promises pledged during the formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.
He said, people had forgotten that while Sabahans have changed the state government several times, the federal government had remained the same and this had handicapped them since the formation of Malaysia.
“The prime minister may have changed but the regime remains the same. Our Sabah government may have changed on four occasions but the political leaders and players remain the same,” he noted.
Pakatan, he said, has given voters an opportunity for change at the very top.
“This is why it is obvious and we must take part … we cannot miss this opportunity in the general elections.
“What we need now is to have that same desire for change but the only difference is, there is now a national party that we can converge this force of change so that we will honour that desire that we have been deprived off for so long.”
Leiking disagreed with the idea that only a ‘local based party’ or ‘parti tempatan’ was the best choice to lead Sabah.
“Myself and many others from Sabah are members of PKR or DAP or PAS (Pakatan’s component parties). It would be insulting to say that being in a national-based party, one would be any less a Sabahan. I am in PKR and I am a Sabahan.
“As a national leader in the party, I also make decisions on the party matters concerning a member or division in Johor, Malacca, Selangor and other states. That is progress in this partnership.”

Welcome,

Please visit http://akimomogun.blogspot.com