This too shall pass

 LOOKING FORWARD AND UPWARD: There is no turning back

AFTER a six-hour road trip from Bintulu, a colleague and I reached Tegulang, the resettlement area for over 300 Penans from 89 families.

First to greet me was a young woman who graciously allowed me to use her washroom. It has a flush toilet and was clean and dry.

With forest and blue sky as backdrop, four modern longhouses and a kindergarten dot the Tegulang landscape. The compound at the resettlement area has just been planted with grass. And I believe in no time, the naked earth will be covered by a green lawn.

Some Penan children were busy with their own activities – either riding their bikes, kicking a ball or just running around. I snapped a picture and whatsapp’d it to my friend in Kuala Lumpur who responded almost instantaneously: Longhouse resort!

Exactly, to city folks, it’s like a resort.

The treated piped water, the electricity supply and the TV with basic programmes are all in place. Did I say I use whatsapp? Yes, the Internet connectivity is there too.

In fact, you can have Penan friends on Facebook and twitter away with them.

Tegulang seems an idyllic modern rural village where the best of both worlds meet – a place nestled amidst pristine greenery and equipped with modern facilities.

However, this resettlement area for Penans, displaced by the Murum Dam, is also home to a people struggling with culture shock.

By moving to Tegulang from their village Long Watt, the once normadic tribe were thrust into making a quantum leap from living (as hunters and gatherers) off the jungle where everything is free into a modern world where most of their necessities have to be bought.

Are they happy? From talking to them, it’s clear most of the 300 Penans who have moved to Tegulang a little less than a month ago, are still trying to come to terms with their new way of life.

The young may be able to adapt quickly but not the mothers and the aged. A kitchen with piped gas and stove, a living room with TV and sound system appear a tat too much for the Penan elders, who are used to living close to Nature, to absorb all at once.

Two young children, sitting confidently on the bench without showing any hint of shyness when approached by strangers, said (in good Bahasa Malaysia) they were now schooling, pointing to the school just next to their home.

Sweet 10-year-old Manila, wearing a fashionable dress and some costume jewellery, is looking forward to primary school when a new school is set up at their new home. Right now, the nearest school is a three-hour drive away.

Bidang Umu, 38, told my colleague: “We must adapt to the new lifestyle here because what we have been doing before such as hunting and fishing are no longer applicable here. From now on, we have to learn to till our land with cangkul and other farming tools.”

At another corner, I tried to strike up a conversation with a middle-aged woman with lobed ears. Partially aware of my presence and with a faraway look in her eyes, she murmured: “If the forest is not destroyed, then we can live even though our houses are small.”

Some 40 minutes drive from the resettlement area, tents, housing about 135 Penan protestors (60 men, 25 women and 50 children) were pitched on open land. We were rounded by a group of young Penans but they eventually allowed us to make a trip up to Murum Dam.

A Penan man with tattoo on his arm, said to me: “With this tattoo, you can enter.”

It was a heart-breaking scene at the blockage site – young mothers carrying naked sickly looking children and squatting in the tents under the hot sun. There was a pond by the side where they bathed, washed and probably drank from too.

I caught sight of two naked children (girls), one lying down and the other sitting up – obese, visibly sick and needed some medical care. They have been manning the blockade since September 21 with two four-wheel drive vehicles to move them around.

Protest group leader Ngang Buling of Long Singu is uncertain how long they will remain at the blockade.

“In fact, we are prepared to negotiate and put a stop to this impasse if they (the state government) are willing to listen to our grievances and meet our demands,” he said.

The demand: RM500,000 compensation per family; 30,000 ha for each village as their hunting and foraging ground, and free education.

With both sides having reservations of the other’s sincerity and fuelled by activists playing up the issue on the international stage, finding the right balance and achieving a harmonising agreement will not be as fast as the rising waters in the Murum Valley.

The clock is ticking away. Long Wat longhouse will soon be submerged with the impoundment of the dam since last Saturday and other longhouses will meet the same fate soon. There is definitely cause for worry with Penans still in their homes!

At this critical moment, and as our indigenous people, particularly the Penans, are challenged to abandon their jungle lifestyle and enter the mainstream of society to fit into the nation’s agenda of sustainable development and conservation, the least we can do is to extend a helping hand.

Former Deputy Chief Minister and Environment and Tourism Minister, the late Datuk Amar James Wong, narrated the predicament of the Penans with eloquence in his much recited poem:

O Penan – Jungle wanderers of the Tree

What would be the future hold for thee?

Perhaps to us you may appear deprived and poor

But can Civilisation offer anything better?

And yet could Society in good conscience

Especially now we are an independent Nation

Not lift a helping hand to our fellow brethren?

Instead allow him to subsist in Blowpipes

And clothed in Chawats

An anthropological curiosity of Nature and Art?

Alas, ultimately your fate is your own decision

Remain as you are – or cross the Rubicon.

For the 300 Penans of Tegulang, they have crossed the Rubicon and are ready to move on and blend into society with the help of the government. What remains unchanged is for both settled and nomadic Penans to cherish – the rainforest which is still the giver of life and the essence of their identity as a people.

How about us? Are we choosing to view the “other” Penan community or any other indigenous groups uncivilised and antiquated just to satisfy our anthropological curiosity?

Do we need a wise man to bring us a jade shrine with a golden ring inscribed with these words – This too shall pass – and the instruction – Look at the ring before you judge anything. Good or bad, Do this and peace will be with you always?

Change is inevitable, situations in life are temporary, everything is pointing to eternity – this too shall pass.