AT AROUND 10am each day, tour groups will pass by souvenir stalls at the handicraft centre in Mulu’s Batu Bungan, where they will then be taken by a local Penan guide to visit the famous caves in Mulu National Park, Sarawak.

This is the moment souvenir stall operators have been waiting for, especially in the peak tourist season between June and September.

Many local Mulu natives, including the Berawan and Tering, rely on tourist money to survive.

“This is my family’s only source of income,” said Musi Jeluman at the handicraft centre, where more than 20 operators sell souvenirs.

The 73-year-old’s blowpipes have not been selling very well, but he gets paid RM1 for each dart when he allows tourists use his blowpipes for target shooting.

“Sometimes I get up to RM100 a month but it’s not enough to feed my family,” the father of six said.

He also said the price of necessities and labour in the interior had gone up, adding to the burden of natives living there.

Families in the interior, like the 80 households in Kampung Batu Bungan, spend a lot on petrol to power their electricity generators.

Fuel is expensive because the only way to transport it is by river. Longboats will have to travel through the rapids to go to Marudi, which is 80km down the Baram river.

Even though federal government subsidies petrol – RM2.08 for RON95 and RM2.18 for diesel – home stay operator Glenn Baya said petrol costs about RM4 per litre for those living in Sarawak’s interior when there is flood or drought.

“If the water is shallow during drought, the big boats can’t travel to transport petrol. So the price will shoot up to RM850 per barrel.

“When there is a flood, the river becomes dangerous. Earlier this year during the rainy season, the price was RM700 per barrel,” he said.

Baya normally spends RM540 a month, inclusive of the transportation cost, to buy 220 litres of petrol for his home stay business. He only runs the generator for guests at his homestay for six hours a day, and envies the larger hotels in the Mulu area.

“The hotels can get electricity from Sarawak Energy, but not us. Why not?” Baya asked.

He also said subsidised petrol was meaningless to him, even though he was eligible to buy his usual amount for RM436.

“The seller only cares about profit. We have to work to death just to pay for fuel.”

No enforcement

A Long Iman village leader, Resen Yu, believes the problem lies in the fact that there is no one to enforce price subsidies in these interior parts.

“Enforcement officials carry out price checks in the cities, but here in the interior, no one does it.

“Sugar is RM5/kg. A 2kg bottle of cooking oil is RM14. I don’t understand it. This is still Malaysia, isn’t it?” he said, referring to the interior.

His village is the closest to Mulu, 10km away. There is also no other way to get there, other than taking a boat ride that will cost at least RM150.

This also means getting necessities are a challenge for the interior communities, not to mention costly.

Some Long Iman villagers build their own boats to travel to Marudi, the gateway town on the river to the Mulu national park.

It’s better to own a boat than to charter one, which could cost RM800, Resen said.

Even so, the petrol cost is high because a two-day round trip to Marudi will burn one barrel of fuel.

Resen said interior communities had to pay much higher costs for necessities, compared to other Malaysians.

“Red bricks cost RM500 per tonne here. In Marudi, they only cost RM100 to RM180 per tonne.

“There are subsidies, but only in name. The prices are still high,” he said.

However, Long Iman folk could be considered luckier than others, as they can plant hill rice to feed their families all year round, Resen added.

He just harvested 30 sacks of rice this season and is waiting to tap rubber from the trees he planted four years ago.

Broken down schools

Former headmaster Joseph Lingan Kana, 66, said the main things he hoped for were more improved facilities for students in the interior, so they could also perform to a higher standard.

With better books and basic amenities, Joseph believes children in interior communities can improve.

“Despite lacking even the most basic amenities, we are still pressured to perform like other schools.

“There are schools (in the interior) with zero achievements. They record 100% failure. This is not uncommon,” said Joseph who has been headmaster at six different schools in the interior.

These schools operate without running tap water. Water is drawn from the river and sometimes it is contaminated upstream.

Schools use generators but when they break down the teachers are at a loss.

“We also hope we can get free workbooks for all subjects, so the kids won’t fall behind. If we ask parents to buy the books, where will they go to buy them?”

Joseph said it will take a long time for the Pakatan Harapan government to make good on its pledge to upgrade rural schools.

“I understand the constraints faced by the government and that it is impossible for change to happen in a year, but all this have been very unfair to us.

“I don’t care what the politicians say. I just want to see results.”

New road will not address concerns

At Batu Bungan, where Penan guides wait to take tourists to the caves, the situation is even more pressing.

The Penans only have tourism to rely on because their food sources from the forest are diminishing, due to land clearing for a palm oil plantation just outside the Mulu National Park boundaries.

The community can no longer farm, hunt or forage in the jungle in their area, which is affected by the 4,000 ha plantation.

Worried about their livelihoods, the community is against the plantation, even though the company has promised to build a road linking Mulu and Marudi, which should make it easier for the locals to get petrol and necessities from the town.

However, it would mean the Penan people have to spend more when food from the forest used to be free, and it doesn’t answer the question as to what the Penan are to do to supplement their meagre earnings from tourism. – June 4, 2019.