PLANTING HILL PADDY AND CASH CROPS (Part 6)

Padi Bukit / Padi Huma





If you remember in my earlier article entitled WHERE DO THE KADAYANS STAND IN HARI GAWAI & TADAU KAAMATAN? dated October 5, 2007, I have narrated the work processes of planting hill paddy. To refresh our memory, depicted below are the known processes as I remember them: -

1. Nataki
2. Nyuuki
3. Maimba / Nabas
4. Nunu tabasan
5. Nugal
6. Maumput
7. Ngatam and Maladun

I also mentioned other things related to planting hill paddy such as basung, takiding, siawung, maladun, ngamping, duong, lasung, halu, batingkung, etc.

As a typical Kadayan village kid in the 50s, my experience in planting hill paddy is quite good. No doubt I was still at a tender age of 6 – 7 years old then, but as I mentioned earlier, due to the harsh and challenging environment we lived in, we were matured much earlier than expected.

Out of the seven work processes mentioned above, process #1 is the most “spiritual” in nature. I said so because I have the privilege to be acquainted with the person who was well-known for performing NATAKI, none other than my grand father (from my mother side, the one I mentioned in the other blog is from my father side) himself. My grand father died in Kg Naluyan, in our house at the age of 70+ years in late sixties. He was buried in Tanjung Hubi, Mesapol. My late mother and my late uncle were buried side by side with my grand father in the same “bakut”. My late uncle and my late mother were the only children of my late grand father. My late grand father’s name was Muhammad bin Ghafar and I’m very sure some of the elders in Labuan and in Lawas still remember him. He performed NATAKI in Labuan, Lawas and of course Sipitang. He was very mobile, same like my other grand father, where he spent most of his time performing NATAKI all over the places where his service are required.

For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the term NATAKI (sounds very Japanese but it's Kadayan), let me refresh your mind. Nataki is a ritual performed to keep away SUPERNATURAL BEINGS (Jin, iblis and shaitan) from the area intended to be used as paddy cultivation. NATAKI is conducted by a very special person (usually elderly person), highly knowledgeable and spiritually competent. Adherence to the code is of paramount importance to the Kadayans people then, otherwise things wouldn't go smooth as required.

Personally I have seen how my late grand father performed NATAKI. Normally it took the whole day to perform NATAKI depending on the area and of course the “numbers of SUPERNATURAL BEINGS to be shifted from the location.”



بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيم
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

Firman Allah SWT di dalam Surah Ar-Rahman Ayat 15 yang bermaksud
Dan Dia mencipta jin daripada api yang tiada asap (And the jinn did He create of smokeless fire) – Surah Ar-Rahman Ayat 15


Firman Allah SWT di dalam Surah Al-Araf Ayat 11 yang bermaksud,
Kami mencipta kamu, kemudian Kami membentuk kamu, kemudian Kami berkata kepada para malaikat, "Sujudlah kamu kepada Adam"; maka mereka sujud, kecuali Iblis; ia bukanlah daripada orang-orang yang sujud. (And We created you, then fashioned you, then told the angels: Fall ye prostrate before Adam! And they fell prostrate, all save Iblis, who was not of those who make prostration) – Surah Al-Araf Ayat 11

Firman Allah SWT di dalam Surah Al-Baqara Ayat 168 yang bermaksud,
Wahai manusia, makanlah apa yang di bumi, yang halal dan baik, dan janganlah mengikuti langkah-langkah syaitan; ia adalah musuh yang nyata bagi kamu. (O mankind! Eat of that which is lawful and wholesome in the earth, and follow not the footsteps of the devil. Lo! he is an open enemy for you) – Surah Al-Baqara Ayat 168

It is a tradition amongst the Kadayan community to perform NATAKI first before performing any other work processes on the land intended for paddy cultivation. The tradition is based on their belief that beings such as Jin, Iblis and Syaitan do exist as widely quoted in the holy quran. Some of the ayat referring to those beings are mentioned above.



It is not understood why the Kadayan people associate the jungle and forest as the residence of supernatural beings. Jin, Iblis and Syaitan do exist every where regardless of the jungle and forest. I would not delve into the issue; let the Kadayan experts on the topic conduct research and studies on the association of Jin, Iblis and Syaitan with the forest and jungle. I presume this again has something to do with the Kadayan people strong RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE.

I did not have the opportunity to learn how to perform NATAKI from my late grand father, because I was still a small kid then. To me it was a great waste because none of my family members and even close relatives knows how to perform NATAKI. To me, the art of performing NATAKI is a noble deed, simply because it is something to do with lending hands to others who require them. My late grand father had been performing NATAKI for his entire life. It was his profession besides helping others through his knowledge of Kadayan traditional medicine. ”May Allah SWT bless his soul”


After performing NATAKI and the intended land for paddy cultivation is declared “safe”, all other work processes would follow suit. Planting hill paddy in actual sense was not difficult but very laborious. Clearing of forest and jungle were done bare handed by using machete, axe, baliung (a sort of cutting device), without the aid of machinery such as chain saws. Clearing of forest and jungle were not done alone by the owner, but it was done through the help of other village folks. The spirit of “togetherness” amongst the Kadayan people was so deeply embedded in their culture where all laborious tasks related to hill paddy cultivation were done through this system. This system was so effective where large area of land could be cleared within a short period of time by maybe 20 to 30 village folks.

Since this topic was discussed in my earlier article, it is not my intention to elaborate much further, suffice it is to mention here that as a typical Kadayan kid of my time, I had the opportunity to gain substantial knowledge on the hill paddy cultivation. Nevertheless I do not feel it complete, if I do not mention three most memorable things in my life about hill paddy cultivation which are “caangin, padi mangat and batat, hantimun, sikui and gandum”

It is again a tradition amongst the Kadayan community to plant cash crops such as BATAT (honey dew melon), hantimun (cucumber) and sikui (water melon) and corns / maize along side with the paddy. The crops were harvested together with the paddy and sometimes earlier.


“CAANGIN” (Kincir Angin) known as wind farm in English was a common sight in a Kadayan hill paddy cultivation. The blade of a CAANGIN is made of light wood which would be able to rotate fast upon wind blowing onto it. The blade was made in such away that it would rotate in a clockwise direction and producing sound that blends beautifully with nature. Other important components of CAANGIN are bamboo, wooden poles and dried palm leaves as tail to balance the CAANGIN. Even after more than 40 years had passed since I last heard the sound of CAANGIN, it is still fresh in my mind. It is too nostalgic a sound to be forgotten.







Sitting in a “JUNJUNG” facing the paddy field, feeling the warm breeze, listening to the sound of CAANGIN, watching flock of birds flying across the paddy field, smelling the aroma of PADI SADONG, listening to the music of the forest / jungle, having a meal of rice with salted fish wrapped with “UPIH” and ripe batat and sikui as desserts were the most memorable experience I ever had in my entire life. I wish I could turn back time.

To be continued ……….

DETENTION OF HINDRAF LEADERS UNDER INTERNAL SECURITY ACT (ISA)

From left, P.UTHAYAKUMAR, M. MANOHARAN, R. KENGADHARAN, V. GANABATIRAU and T. VASANTHAKUMAR.


Note : Due to the seriousness of Hindraf actions to our National Security, I publish the write-up in both blogs.

I am not a journalist neither a columnist nor a writer, I am just an ordinary person like many other Malaysians who appreciates our value system to operate normally without any disruption. Our value system is the most unique, rarely found in other parts of the world. We maintain peace, security and political stability through racial and religious tolerance amongst the multi religious, multi racial and multi ethnic society of Malaysian people. We upheld the value system since the inception of this blessed nation half a century ago. Every Malaysian people are taught to uphold the value system since the very day we have the taste of education. Our family institutions, TASKA, TABIKA, primary schools, secondary schools, colleges and universities teach and propagate the value system accordingly. Our education system is proven to be effective in creating time-tested Malaysian people unique value system none other than high level of tolerance in all aspects of our dealings. It is embedded as part of Malaysian people culture which is too costly to live without it.

Malaysian people from all walks of life understand the meaning of tolerance more than any body else in this universe. It is our culture to respect others and we expect others to reciprocate such respects. Managing a multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-ethnic country like Malaysia is not a simple task. All the previous Prime Ministers and the current Prime Minister share a unique leadership quality i.e. to continuously upholding the value system which is regarded as the main ingredient of our success story. As an ordinary citizen, I have the opportunity to live in all eras of the previous and current leaderships of our beloved Prime Ministers. Their legacies live on.

This blessed nation had experienced both easy and turbulent times where we have been tested in the most intense way during the Emergency era, May 13th and the economic crisis. The Malaysian success stories in overcoming major political, racial and economic crisis and tragedies is not by chance but are the results of cohesiveness between the Malaysian people and the government. The dynamics behind the cohesiveness is none other than our extraordinaire high level of TOLERANCE which is the essence of our value system.

Under the leadership of our Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, he reengineers good governance through the initiatives of Islam Hadhari, open management style, human capital development, efficient service delivery system and lastly but not the least is the integrity and transparency in all dealings and business conducts in the public and private sectors respectively. The initiatives are the driving force to escalate our nation’s status to the next level by year 2020. The government had provided the necessary tools to facilitate the realisation of Vision 2020. The way forward as I see it had been planned and strategised in the most tactful manner to avoid miss outs that may lead to the dissatisfaction of the beneficiary i.e. the Malaysian people.

In our journey to achieve the national goals we expect to encounter impediments as rightly put by an English proverb which says, "A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner." Everything is difficult before it becomes easy.

Since its inception, Malaysia had experienced tough challenges of subversive elements, racial tensions, economic crisis and extremism mentioned above. All the past Prime Ministers had proven their credibility and effectiveness in managing national crisis and tragedies where the testimonials are what Malaysia is today.

In the recent weeks the bustling and “business as usual” environment in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur were disrupted by the epitome of mass street protest by groups calling themselves BERSIH and later followed by Hindraf (Hindu Rights Action Force). The incidents were highly sensationalised by foreign media where representative from BERSIH and Hindraf were given substantial airtime to voice their so called grievances. Malaysian Government was under intense scrutiny by the foreign media purportedly for the discrepancies in the Election Commission registered voters list and failure to address racial disparities amongst the Malaysian people of Indian origins. Later Malaysian Government was blatantly accused of practicing ethnic cleansing or genocide to the Indian people in Malaysia.

The Royal Malaysian Police obtained court orders to refrain Hindraf from organising street mass protest but such orders were being ignored by Hindraf. Several Police personnel in the course of executing their duties were injured and Police vehicles were damaged by the unruly behaviour of Hindraf supporters. In the course of maintaining peace and order in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, many Hindraf supporters and its leaders were being detained by the Police and subsequently being charged in the court of law and some were released on bails. Despite the government efforts to use the court of law to address the Hindraf leaders and supporters wrong doings, Hindraf leaders were continuously pursuing their goals by going overseas to garner support. It was widely reported in local media that the Hindraf leaders were meeting terrorist organisation overseas for reasons only known to them.

Yesterday, December 13, 2007 five leaders of the Hindraf have been detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA), with police saying more could be picked up. The detained leaders are P. Uthayakumar, M. Manoharan, R. Kengadharan, V. Ganabatirau and K. Vasantha Kumar. Bukit Aman police officers picked them up between 12.30pm and 2.30pm yesterday.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said they were picked up under Section 8(1) of the ISA after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also Internal Security Minister, signed their detention order. Their detention is for two years.

The price for disrupting peace and stability in a multi religious, multi racial and multi ethnic country like Malaysia is exceeding far beyond the detention of Hindraf leaders under the Internal Security Act. Being part of Malaysian people Hindraf leaders and supporters who were born and breed in this country should know the consequences of their actions. The backlashes of their actions are far reaching and long lasting, transcending across Malaysian boundaries that will jeopardise FDI and tourism industry.

The decision by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also Internal Security Minister to sign the ISA detention order for the five Hindraf leaders is timely and in line with the Malaysian people aspiration to have peace, security and stability in this country. Let this be a lesson to other trouble makers that our value system is too precious and too esteem to be adulterated and compromised by corrupt minded people like Hindraf.

Well done Mr. Prime Minister, Sir!!!

Kindly visit http://itsurday.blogspot.com/ for an article entitled Is Internal Security Act (ISA) a Draconian Law?

A GOOD COMMAND OF ENGLISH (Part 5)

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Firman Allah SWT didalam Surah Al-Baqarah ayat 110 yang bermaksud.

Dan lakukanlah solat, dan berikanlah zakat, dan apa sahaja kebaikan yang kamu mendahulukan untuk jiwa kamu, kamu akan mendapatinya di sisi Allah. Sesungguhnya Allah melihat apa yang kamu buat ....Surah Al-Baqarah ayat 110

Establish worship, and pay the poor-due; and whatever of good ye send before (you) for your souls, ye will find it with Allah. Lo! Allah is Seer of what ye do....Surah Al-Baqarah ayat 110




Al-Quran

In the previous write-ups, I have narrated the overview of my place of birth, my family back ground, economies of Kadayan / Kedayan people in my village and of course the most important skills that I have to acquire as a normal kampong boy of my time i.e. tapping rubber, swimming and diving.

In this part of my write-up, I would like to delve into other attributes that were considered as “must-have” and considered as the most important critical success factors amongst the Kadayan / Kedayan community in order to survive a harsh and challenging environment. Some of the skills were taught by our parents and the village elders as early as the age of 5years old. Depicted below are the most important attributes / skills to be acquired by Kadayan / Kedayan kids and youths of my time: -

1. Reciting of our holy Quran, praying and azan (calling for prayer)
2. Planting hill paddy; fruit trees, etc.
3. Climbing trees;
4. Small knowledge of medicinal herbs;
5. Self-defence (silat);
6. Trapping birds and small animals;
7. Catching fish, prawns and crabs (fresh and salt water);
8. Small knowledge on dos and don’ts while in the jungle and at sea;
9. Using and maintaining our most useful companion i.e. machete (parang);
10. Slaughtering of birds and small animals according to Islamic rite;
11. Knowledge on First Aid (usage of herbs to treat cuts, burns & other injuries, constipation, diarrhoea, tooth ace, common fever, snake bites, etc.);
12. What to do if lost in the jungle;
13. What to do if seeing things of paranormal in nature;
14. How to prepare / make wajit and kalupis.

Amongst other things, the Kadayan / Kedayan people are also well known for their “expertise” in traditional medicinal herbs. You can ask any Kadayan / Kedayan kids then, “What’s the cure for diarrhoea (bagah)?” or “How do you stop blood flowing out from small cuts?” I can bet you; every kids of my time know the answer. The herb used to treat the former is guava leave (daun biabas) or “timbaan” shoots (pucuk timbaan). The later is effectively treated by “kuduk-kuduk” leaves. Trust me, if you are caught in an emergency situation just like above, please do not hesitate to use the herbs to treat your case. Believe me, it works and has no side effects!!! Provided of course you know how to identify the plants, otherwise you will end up chewing other shoots and young leaves which may be toxic or even lethal. Just be careful.

LEARNING HOW TO RECITE / READ AL-QURAN, PERFORMING PRAYER AND AZAN (CALLING FOR PRAYER)

In late 50s and early 60s most parents in our village began to realise, the importance of religious teachings and practices to be given to their children. That included my parents of course. As early as the age of 5, we were taught how to read and memorise by heart the Arabic alphabet and subsequently proceed to the next level, one after another as stated in the “alip-alip” or “muqadam”. Alip-alip amongst other, contains all the surah of the 30th juzu’ of the Holy Quran or commonly known as Juzu’ ‘Amma. Firstly every one of us must memorised surah Al-Fatihah, failure to do so will result in canning (kana hacut). Only later for instance, we started from Juzu 'amma with surah 114 (An-Naas) and then we gradually increase to surah 113 (Al-Falaq), 112 (Al-Ikhlas), 111 (Al-Masad), etc.

There were two very important aspects of reciting Al-Quran as taught by my late father i.e. ability to recite with the correct pronunciation (tajweed) and ability to memorise the surah in full. Only later did I realise that how important it was to be able to memorise the surah Al-Fatihah and other surah in Juzu’ ‘Amma, because I have to recite that during prayer. My late father taught me how to pray when I was six years of age. Learning how to pray without the basic knowledge of reciting Al-Quran was almost impossible. Every verse in our prayer is compulsory / mandatory to be recited in Al-Quran language i.e. Arabic.

The Quran teaching method adopted by our elders in my time has a significant setback. No doubt we were so fluent in reciting Al-Quran verses, but we were not taught the meaning and translation of the verses. That was the major setback. When I was in England, I met several Arabs from Sudan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia etc, where finally we became very good friends. They used to come to my apartment for lunch or dinner with their families to have a taste of Malaysian cuisine. My wife is a very good cook.

They used to ask me a lot of questions about Islam and our holy quran and how Islamic studies are taught in Malaysia. One day my friend from Iraq by the name of Ali Sabah-Nouri asked me to recite the verses from al-quran. So as usual I performed ablution (berwuduk) and I took the al-quran and recited part of surah Al-Baqarah. He was astonished to hear my way of reciting Al-Quran. Actually I am quite good in reciting Al-Quran in “taranum” style because one of my ustadzs who taught me how to recite Al-Quran in “taranum” way was Ust. Maarif, the former Qari representing Sabah in our National Musabaqah Al-Quran Championship in early 70s. I am also deeply indebted to a few ustadzs from Semenanjung like Ust. Sulaiman Ramlan, Ust. Jamaludin, Ust. Ishak and of course my Sabahan Ust. Maarif who had devoted their time to teach me in person how to recite Al-Quran in taranum style and good tajweed. May Allah SWT judge them accordingly for the good deeds they have done in spreading and propagating the words of Islam. I was so fortunate to be given a personal coaching by Ust. Maarif at that time due to the fact that I was chosen to perform Al-Quran recitation in front of hundreds may be thousands of people during district level Maulidur Rasul Celebration in Sipitang.



Brunswick Square, Hove, East Sussex - Old Victorian Apartments where my family used to live for 3 years while studying in England.

By the way, back to my story in England, my Arab friend Ali Sabah-Nouri was so amazed to hearing my recitation of Surah Al-Baqarah in taranum way. He told me he never heard anybody in his country reciting Al-Quran in the way I just did. You see, the Kadayan / Kedayan people are so special in many ways, even the Arab appreciated his way of reciting Al-Quran. But there is one BUT……when he asked me “Do you speak Arabic? That was one tough simple question to answer. I answered him “NO”. “But how come you are so fluent in reciting Al-Quran yet you don’t speak Arabic?” So I have difficult time explaining to him our Quran teaching methodology in Malaysia. As a matter of fact, I learned a little Arabic when I was studying in a religious school in Sipitang. Ust Sulaiman taught us Arabic Language subject. I still can speak a few words in Arabic and now I begin to watch ART Channel and Al-Jazeera Channel/Arabic to slowly learn the language. I would like to caution the readers that not all the programs in ART TV used standard Arabic language. Programs from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco are spoken in standard Arabic but program from Lebanon especially the TOP 10 Chart and other entertainment programs are not in standard Arabic. It is Arabic but intense in Lebanese dialects and accents.

During my time, children with exceptionally good vocal were often asked to perform AZAN (call for prayer, spelled as ATHAN by Arabic speaking countries) in our surau, especially during Maghrib and Isya’ prayer time. I was so fortunate and very grateful to Allah SWT for conferring me with good vocal to recite Al-Quran and to perform azan (athan) during my childhood days. That was great many years ago, now as I grew older things had changed a lot especially the vocal, not for the better but for the worst.

To be continued…….
Badudun tah jua aah http://itsurday.blogspot.com/ New article is availabe for your reading pleasure. Thanks.

A GOOD COMMAND OF ENGLISH (Part 4)

Pre-school Era

This is a very interesting topic to venture. In late 50s and early 60s the word “pre-school” did not exist in my vocabulary. Nowadays our children have the taste of pre-school education as early as 2 years of age where they are being sent to TASKA (Taman Asuhan Kanak-Kanak) and / or TABIKA (Taman Bimbingan Kanak-Kanak). TASKA is designed to cater children at the age of 2 – 4 years old whereas TABIKA is to cater children at the age of 4 – 6 years old. The parents have several options which TASKA or TABIKA to send their children to. There are English, Bahasa Malaysia and Islamic pre-school centres.

My pre-school education was simple and straight forward, no TASKA neither TABIKA, just a RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE. This may sound awkward to some people, but that’s the reality of life which forms part of my life story. Living in a remote Kadayan village surrounded by forest and jungle with no modern facilities such as piped water, electricity, telephone, road, etc; what more do you expect? The closest thing in my life was nature i.e. the forest, jungle and rivers. Nature taught me the meaning of life, to be matured earlier than expected in order to survive the harsh and challenging environment.

I acquired the skill of swimming at the age of 5 – 6 years old. I can still remember very well, the first time I learnt how to swim. Some of the readers may or may not believe that I used “kutin gatah” as a buoy to support me afloat at the early days of my self-taught swimming lesson. I am sure the readers of my generation who were hailed from Mesapol understand very well what “kutin gatah” is. “Kutin gatah” is made from large cooking oil or kerosene container. Biscuit containers are not suitable for making “kutin gatah” because they have large round openings at the top centre, whereas the cooking oil or kerosene containers have small opening at the top corner which makes it very suitable for making “kutin gatah”. The containers were either obtained for free from shopkeepers or bought at a nominal price. To make “kutin gatah”, the container has to be cut into half, where the sharp edges are evenly folded outward for safety reason. One container can make two “kutin gatah”.

Why do we call them “kutin gatah”? Well that is a good question. For the benefit of those who are not familiar of what I am talking about, it is called “kutin gatah” because it is used to place filtered latex ready for coagulation. “Kutin gatah” with its rectangular shape, plays a very important role in the process of turning fresh latex into rubber sheets.

For the benefit of the readers who are not familiar with the process, let me take you through the passage of time, way back into the late 50s, my pre-school era when I was taught how to tap rubber and all the work processes related to it. The work processes are as follows: -

1. Fresh latex is collected from individual rubber tree by a process called “mbangkit”. “Mbangkit” simply means collecting the cups from individual tree which contains latex and pour the content into a large bucket or other suitable container;

2. The latex is then taken to a place called “inggin gatah”. “Inggin gatah” is derived from English words “rubber engine”, which is self-explanatory.

3. At “inggin gatah” the fresh latex is filtered by using “tapisan gatah” and subsequently poured into “kutin gatah” normally at half-full;

4. A right proportion of diluted HCL (Hydrochloric acid) is added into the fresh latex inside the “kutin gatah”. HCL is used to coagulate the latex;

5. The latex must be well stirred to ensure the HCL is evenly mixed with the latex. The stirring device is made from wood which looks similar to a wooden spatula used in our kitchen, only slightly larger. In Kadayan we called it “pahuaa gatah”;

6. It takes only a little while before the latex coagulates normally about 10 – 15 minutes or may be less. The coagulated latex must not be left any longer; otherwise the process of flattening it would be difficult. Flattening the coagulated latex is done by hands which is known as “pieek” in Kadayan dialect. This process is important to facilitate the next process i.e. turning it into rubber sheets by machining using “inggin gatah”;



7. There are two types of “inggin gatah” commonly known as “inggin alus” and inggin kasaa” or sometimes called “inggin bunga”. The functions of the two machines are mainly to smoothen and further flatten the harden latex into nicely shaped rectangular sheets, whereas “inggin bunga” is used to create patterns, thus making the rubber sheets more thinner for easy drying;

8. The rubber sheets are hung on a wooden pole or bamboo pole known as “panjamuan gatah” in an open space for drying. The raw rubber sheets, which are white in colour, contain a lot of acidic (HCL) water and that is why the drying process is so important to drain the water out from the raw rubber sheets;


9. The drying process would take a couple of days during shinny day, otherwise it will require a longer time during rainy season;

Where was I? Too much digress aaa…(purposely done), anywhere actually I was talking about using “kutin gatah” as a floatation device used in self-taught swimming lesson. Believe it or not, that was how I acquired the skill of swimming, crude yet effective. I did not have the luxury of a swimming tutor to teach me how to swim in a nice swimming pool with fancy life jacket and what not; I learnt to swim in a deep and fast flowing river. It took less than a fortnight for an average kampong boy like me, to learn how to swim. Prior to that every kampong boys at the age of 6 – 7 years old must know how to remain under water for a couple of minutes or so by holding on to something like a wooden pole for example.

The art of diving and remaining under water for some time is crucial before anyone can learn how to swim. I do not know if this is the right technique or otherwise in a proper swimming lesson, at less it worked for me and other kampong boys just fine. The logic is simple, if you learn how to swim without knowing the skill to remain under water, the risk is that you will get drown easily while swimming. We were taught by the elders to recite verses from Al-Quran while remaining under water to exercise our lungs. The other reason for the elders asking us to recite verses from Al-Quran while under water is to improve our vocal and vocal control while reciting Al-Quran.

Acquiring swimming and diving skills are of paramount important to all the kampong boys then. It is common to see young boys at the age of 6 – 7 years old are able to swim and dive freely. We were so grateful to Allah SWT, that as far as I could remember we did not have any death cases caused by drowning in our village, even during flood season. The other factor contributing to such a good safety record was that we always abide to what our parents told us to do and not to do. We never dispute and disobey the words of our parents and elders.

to be continued.....

A GOOD COMMAND OF ENGLISH (Part 3)

Tapping a rubber tree





General Overview of My Kampung and My Family Background

I just would like to begin my analysis of the above subject matter by walking down memory lane of my childhood days in a typical Kadayan village. I was born in a small village known as Kampung Babangkung in Mesapol. Mesapol in the 50s was a small town (now slightly better)with only 2 rows of shop houses, a wet market, a cinema, a small capacity Strowger step-by-step telephone exchange with a VHF / UHF radio transmitter/receiver (80- 100 foot mast), police station, a government primary school and a Chung Hwa Primary School, a surau (but our village folks called the surau as Masjid Mesapol)and a gravel road linking Pekan Mesapol with Pekan Sipitang. The old Masjid Mesapol is situated in a different location from the existing mosque. The road linking Kg Naluyan with Pekan Mesapol was not ready until 1963. Prior to 1963, Kg Naluyan was linked with Pekan Mesapol only by foot-path. I have to endure the agony of walking about 10 KM everyday to and from school along the foot-path covered high up with heavy foliage of secondary jungle and orchard trees, BARE-FOOTED! Just imagine that!

Kg Babangkung is about 2 kilometers from Pekan Mesapol. According to my late mother, our wooden house in Kg Babangkung was burnt down to ashes when I was merely a year old. The location of our house in Kg Babangkung was shown to me by my late mother when I was about 6 or 7 years of age. The burnt pillars and traces of burnt wooden structure were still visible when I visited the location in late 50s. There were several houses within the vicinity and one of them was quite a big typical Kadayan house owned by the late Nenek Tangkim and Nenek Piut. I have the opportunity to listen to both elderly couples telling me the story of how our house was burnt. It was indeed a sad, sad story. I still remember very well, my late mother shed her tears when visiting the site of our burnt house despite the passage of time exceeding 6 years. It was a tough life then, no Yang Berhormat to turn to, no Jabatan Kebajikan to provide the assistance needed, no TV3 to highlight the plight of my family then, alone and only alone. Only now I realised how my late mother was so hurt by the incident to the extent she was unable to hide the unbearable pain inside her heart. I was so touched and this is for you mom -“Mom, you were the best ever gift given to me by Allah SWT, may Allah bless your soul”

After the incident in Kg Babangkung, my family moved to another kampung known as Kg Naluyan which is about 5 - 6 kilometers from Pekan Mesapol. There, in kg Naluyan, my late father acquired 3 plots of agriculture land to be planted with rubber trees as instructed by the government then. The government provided the village folks, including my father with high grade rubber seedlings which is widely known as “gatah kawin”. “Gatah Kawin” is a hybrid species obtained by bud grafting a normal rubber plant with high grade rubber plant, thus producing “gatah kawin”. All these bud grafting processes were done by trained technicians at the Agriculture Department. The rubber seedlings or commonly known as “bibit gatah” amongst the village folks, were provided by the Agriculture Department to the land owners to be planted in their respective plots of land. Besides providing the rubber seedlings, the Agriculture Department also provided the rubber planters with fertilizer and technical advice.

The scientific name for natural rubber tree is Hevea Brasiliensis. For the younger generation of Kadayan who may or may not know the history of rubber trees, let me refresh your memory with a little bit of history: -

In 1876, Sir Henry Wickham, at the request of the India Office, collected and shipped from Brazil 70,000 seeds from the wild rubber tree. These were rushed to Kew Gardens in London and planted in specially prepared hot-houses. The small number, which survived, were taken in 1877 to Ceylon and later to Malaysia and other countries of South-east Asia.

As mentioned above, natural rubber trees were not native of this country but were brought to this part of the world from Brazil by the British, thus its scientific name bears the word brasil as in Hevea Brasiliensis.

“Gatah kawin” had two distinctive advantages over the normal “gatah kampung”. Firstly the time taken to reach maturity stage i.e. a point where village folks can start tapping the rubber is about 5 - 6 years and secondly it produces more latex. For my father and other rubber planters in our kampung then, that was a real breakthrough. The village folks could see the potential of “gatah kawin” and how it can improve their livelihood.

The Kadayan people in my kampung were associated with three major economic activities i.e. tapping rubber, planting hill paddy and planting cash and long term crops. Rubber trees are tapped to produce latex (gatah), processed into sheets, dried and sold for money. Planting hill paddy provided the village folks with uninterrupted supply of rice which is our staple food. The fertile land and rivers were the main source of food supply chain. The village folks planted cash and long term crops to supplement their daily needs of fruits, vegetables and grains and the river provided them with much needed protein source i.e. fish and fresh water prawns. The other source of protein in their diet was derived from kampung chicken. The Kedayan people were well known for their skills in rearing kampung chicken and fighting cocks. Overtime, the Kedayan people had mastered the ability to treat and prevent chicken diseases effectively with natural herbs.

The cash and long term crops provided the village folks with mean of sustaining their food supply chain. The cash crops comprising mainly of grains, roots and vegetables such as corn / maize, banana, groundnuts, chillies, green peas, tapioca, yams, long beans, brinjals, lady's fingers, cucumbers, angled loofah (petola), water melons, honey dew (batat), etc. are the most common ones. On the other hand, long term crops comprising mainly of seasonal fruit trees such as duyan, taap, tibadak, ambutan, mambangan, mampalam, manggis, maitam, tampoi, santul, langsat, ambai, kambayau are the most common fruit trees associated with the Kadayan community. These fruit trees guaranteed the village folks with good returns during the fruiting season especially the durians, langsat, kambayau and the rambutans. It is important to note that not every village folks owned their own orchard; only those with sufficient land area were able to plant fruit trees on a small and medium scale. On the other hand, it is a tradition for the Kadayan people to plant fruit trees around their houses such as rambutans, guava, jack fruit (nangka) and of course banana trees. The fruit trees, besides giving them food source, also provide good shelter for their house against the hot tropical climate.

The village folk’s economy was generated mainly from rubber and fresh fruits & vegetables. The proceeds they obtained from selling dried rubber sheets, fresh fruits and vegetables were used to buy basic necessities and provisions such as clothing, sugar, salt, coffee, tea, salted fish and occasionally fresh sea water fish. Most village folks did not buy rice, due to the fact that they have enough supply of rice all year round. The Kedayan people keep their paddy inside the “duong” and take the paddy out as per their requirement from time to time to be dried in the sun on “mangkuang” mats and subsequently pound the paddy using “halu & lasong” to separate the grains from its husks.

Life in the fifties and sixties were far from easy. My parents had to raise 6 children through unimaginable hard work of tapping rubber , planting hill paddy and at the same time maintaining the orchard and short term crops. Rubber prices were not stable then, it ranges between 20 cents to 30 cents per kati in early sixties. Just imagine to earn 10 ringgit per day then you have to have 30 – 50 kati of rubber sheets. To achieve 50 kati of rubber by one person per day was almost unachievable task. The average weight of rubber sheets a person can get per day was between 10 – 15 kati which is equivalent to an income of 2 ringgit and 4.50 ringgit per day. Average monthly income of an average Kadayan family was around 60 ringgit to 150 ringgit per month, that is if they were tapping rubber from their own rubber plantations. In most cases, the village folks did not have their own rubber trees to tap but depending on other people rubber trees through a system known as “pajak” or “napan”. Both systems were referring to a profit sharing concept and their only difference is the former refers to a long term contract whereas the later refers to a daily contract. In this case the monthly income would be very much less may be in the range of 50 ringgit to 100 ringgit.

The contract mentioned here is not a written contract but a verbal one. Kadayan community was and still is a closely knitted society where “trust” is the bonding force between them. So, whatever verbal agreement they have committed between themselves, both parties will abide that for a long, long time unless verbally terminated by either party.

My upbringing and childhood days were very much influenced by the environment in a typical Kadayan kampung, where rubber tapping, planting hill paddy, planting cash and long term crops and catching fresh water fish and prawns & occasionally “nyuluh di pasiee” were part of my circle of influence.

To be continued ....