Modern Kuching hides shanty Sarawak

The lack of political will to channel Sarawak's wealth into building roads linking rural to urban areas is still an issue 57 years after independence.

COMMENT

Stanley Bye Kadam Kiai

Despite 57 years of independence, many areas in rural Sarawak are still without basic amenities, and infrastructural and communication facilities.

Even though many roads have been constructed, they are still not enough. Many communities still do not have road access and as a result, they are cut off from modernity and civilisation.

The people in Ulu Ai and Ulu Lemananak in Batang Ai, for example, are still regarded as living in remote areas even though the district it is in, Lubok Antu, is only about 240km from Kuching City, Malaysia’s third largest city and the largest urban centre in the state.

Despite its proximity to the city, the people in these regions still do not have road access, electricity and treated-water supply. It remains one of the poorest districts in the state.

Whenever roads are constructed in rural Sarawak, the quality is not up to standard. Many of these roads are in such a deplorable condition that Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was himself appalled by them.

Muhyiddin could not believe what he saw when he visited Limbang in December 2010. The Star report quoted him as saying:“It was like going into a rather under-developed Third World Country.”

Given that Malaysia is a newly industrialised country and one of the economic tigers of Asia, he thought the poor road conditions would give the country a bad impression among foreigners who come to visit the state.

Why was he ashamed? Why did he think that it will give a bad impression about the country?

Feeling ashamed or embarrassed carries certain element of guilt. Is the deputy prime minister feeling guilty because of the government’s failure to do things properly or adequately?

Is it because no money was given to improve the roads in Sarawak and that this reality is making the government uneasy?

Or did the government give Sarawak too little that nothing much could really be done? Or is it due to poor implementation and lack of adequate coordination and supervision during the implementation stage?

No political will

There are endless questions on Sarawak’s lack of roads for Muhyiddin.

The obvious signs of lack of development are the absent of access road, 24-hour electricity connection and treated-water supply.

The people depend on the government to provide them with these facilities.

During the ground-breaking ceremony of the first phase of Ulu Pandan road in Sebauh sub-district in Bintulu, State Infrastructure and Communication Minister Michael Manyin said the federal government had allocated RM27.8 million for its construction.

This means that a kilometre of the road would cost about RM1.597 million to construct.

As a lay person in this field, I understand that the cost of constructing one kilometre of road may vary from one location to another, depending on what types of roads are to be constructed, the soil condition in the location, and the year of construction as prices of materials, petrol and so on change all the time.

But let us use this figure as our guideline and point of reference. Let us say that Sarawak needs 5,000km of new roads to link rural communities to towns.

The whole project would cost about RM8 billion. This amount seems like a lot, but for a government in a resource-rich state, it is not that much.

What is needed here is political will to do it.

Political will is one of the assets of the everyday government, and like the issues surrounding the use of other government assets, it is about whether the government wants to deploy it or not.

Stanley Kidam is a senior lecturer with University Malaysia Sarawak. This an excerpt of his comment which first appeared on SarawakUpdate