CHILDHOOD DAYS – ESSENTIAL SKILLS (Part 9)

In this series of my life story, I would like to share a few more must-have skills of Kadayan kids of my time.

As mentioned several times in the previous series of this article, river is the food supply chain particularly for fish, prawns, crabs, etc. which is the main source of protein for everyone in my village especially growing up kids of my time. There were several ways as taught by our elders how to catch fresh water fish, prawns and crabs from nearby rivers. The most common and simple methods are as follows:-

1.Fishing lines

We did not have the luxury of expensive fishing rods to use during our childhood days. Our fishing rods were made of dried palm tree known as “sungsum”. “Sungsum” is a species of palm tree with lots of thorns covering its trunk. “Sungsum” fruits are edible and very sour in taste.


Our fishing lines were simple just by tying nylon fishing line at the end of the “sungsum” rod about 8 – 10 feet in length. At the other end of the line is the fishing hook, a small lead and a float. That is it; we are ready to go fishing.

Earth worms were our favourite bait. Beside that we used “dadak” as bait as well to catch smaller fish like bantang, putihan, and limbungau. “Dadak” is made from rice flour mixed with a little bit of prawn paste (balacan) and water. The smell from the prawn paste attracts the fish to the bait.

Cat fish (keli & haruan), putingkang, daun buluh, kaok and prawns (udang galah, cancudik and bangkutut) were attracted to earth worms rather than “dadak”. Other baits used were crickets, maggots (hambataa), and sometimes little grasshoppers. Fishing fresh water fish was usually done in late afternoon and it constituted as part of our daily routine except for during pigeons’ season where we spent most of our time trapping the birds in the nearby forest.

In most cases we did not catch much fish but the catch was enough for our dinner and the next day lunch.

2.Bubu




Bubu



Bubu is a fish trap made of bamboo and rattan where once the fish and prawns were inside the “bubu” they would not be able to escape. The fish, prawns and crabs were lured into the “bubu” by special baits. The favourite baits for prawns and crabs were medium burnt tapioca and rubber seeds. The baits also attracted some fish like bantang, putihan, limbungau, putingkang and daun buluh.

Cat fish (kali) were caught by special bait known as “pangalaban” fruits. “Pangalaban” tree is native to Borneo Island and can not be found in Peninsular Malaysia.

There are two types of “pangalaban” fruits. The ripe fruits are being distinguished by their pink and green colours. The green ripe “pangalaban” fruits are known as “tamuda” and the pink ones are simply called “pangalaban.” Both fruits are edible, succulent and very tasty. “Pangalaban” fruits must be “cooked” prior to consuming them. The fruits contain some kind of toxin commonly known as “pahang” in Kadayan dialect. Never consume “pangalaban” fruits direct from trees; no doubt they are very tempting due to their attractive colours. The toxin could be very lethal that caused numbness in the tongue and mouth area and later attacks the nervous system. The “tamuda” is known to be containing less toxin.





Cat Fish





“Pangalaban” fruits are prepared for consumption by pouring boiling water into the fruits inside a container (normally a small basin) and the hot water needed to be drained out after about 5 minutes. Common salt is then added and mixed with the fruits. To ensure that the salts are properly mixed with the fruits, the fruits are turned and tossed by the action known as “tampi”.

“Pangalaban” fruits taste very much like avocado. The “pangalaban” seeds are very much similar to that of avocado as well in terms of colour (brownish) and shape except “pangalaban” seeds are smaller in size. Caution: Never consume “pangalaban” seeds, the toxin concentration in the seeds are extremely high. Even birds, squirrels and monkeys refrain themselves from consuming the seeds.

Only ripe “pangalaban” fruits are used as baits inside the “bubu”. The fruits are effective as baits for cat fish where within a few minutes the “bubu” is put inside the water, the cat fish start to enter the trap to consume the bait. The fruits are considered “magical” as far as its usage to catch cat fish is concerned. Personally, I used to catch full load of cat fish inside the trap. More often than not, eels are also attracted to the “pangalaban” fruits where I used to catch a few eels together with the cat fish. The Kadayan community in my village, I would say, seldom / do not consume the eels although it is permissible to do so in Islam. The reason, I think is its shape which resembles the snake. Most of the eels caught by the trap were let go into the river only to be caught again next time. In Japan eels are considered as delicacy. There are several eel’s farms in Malaysia, particularly in the State of Pahang where matured eels are exported to Japan as well as for local consumption.






River Eels





In Kadayan tradition, eels are used as “salusuh” to facilitate easy child birth. Eels are kept inside a container called “tajau” and the water from the container is drunk by the expecting mother on daily basis particularly upon reaching the ninth month of pregnancy. The Kadayan people believe that the water from the “slippery” eels would make child birth easier.

3.Pasoo

“Pasoo” is the most practical way of catching larger fish such as “tuyan” and “pulihan”. There is a drawback of “pasoo”, which is, it catches only a single fish at one time. It is made of the thorny part of a rattan plant. The thorns of the rattan plant are curvy (upwards) in shape. The thorny plant is cut into pieces to be made into “pasoo”. The idea is to position the curvy thorns inwards the “pasoo” to facilitate the fish to go inside but are hindered by the thorns for backwards movement.

4.Tuba





Tuba Plant (Derris elliptica)





“Tuba” is a poison vine and is commonly grown by village folks around their houses. It is the roots of the “tuba” plant that are useful to the Kadayan people. The juice from the “tuba” roots is whitish in colour and very lethal, especially to the fish. The juice of the “tuba” roots contains some kind of toxin known as rotenone which is used by the Kadayan people to “weaken” the fish both for fresh and sea water fish.

The “tuba” roots are cut into pieces about a foot in length and its juice is extracted by pounding the roots with a wooden bat. The pounding action would soften the roots to facilitate the juice extraction by squeezing them.

In a Kadayan community, “manuba” (verb) can be a big affair and in most cases it turned out to be a “festival” involving all the village folks, men, women and children. “Manuba” is an annual affair involving rituals and some form of spiritual powers. The village head would nominate an experienced and spiritually competent person to lead the “manuba” ritual.



The spiritual leader with a few companions would conduct a site visit to the part of the river where the “manuba” is going to be performed. The basic requirement for “manuba” is to have at least one “limbauh” along the river to be included in the flow-path of the “tuba” juice. “Limbauh” is a Kadayan word for a deep section of the river where bigger fish reside. If there are other “limbauh” within the vicinity, then the spiritual leader would include them as well.

There were cases that I have known at least three “limbauh” were included by the spiritual leader in the “manuba” festival.

The “manuba” festival was held in the morning. The village folks would congregate at the site determined by the spiritual leader bringing with them the fishing gears such as “siut, pukat, baangai, sangkap and not to forget cooked rice wrapped in “upih” for their lunch.

Before the “manuba” ritual is performed by the spiritual leader, several layers of fish net were installed across the river near to the last “limbauh” (down stream). The fish net with larger space size would be installed nearer to the last “limbauh” followed by smaller space size net one after another. The idea is to catch the biggest fish first and letting the smaller ones to pass through only to be netted by the next net so on and so forth.

The spiritual leader would call and instruct everybody to congregate behind him and under no circumstances anyone should be in the river or at river banks in front of the spiritual leader (down stream) when the ritual is about to begin. When the spiritual leader is satisfied that everyone are behind him, then the “manuba” ritual begins. The spiritual leader would chant some spells / incantations and begins to squeeze the “tuba” roots. He would not require much “tuba” roots to cover a river distance of 1 – 2 kilometres. By the way, I forget to mention that “tuba” roots are counted by “bingkas”. One “bingkas” consisted about 3 – 5 pieces of cut “tuba” roots tied together depending on their sizes. In most cases the spiritual leader would require one or two “bingkas” for the initiation rituals.




River Wave or Benak in Sarawak River




The moment the spiritual leader completed the initiation ritual, everyone were asked to be quiet and there we saw the true power of the Kadayan spiritual leader. The water start to produce bubbles as if the river is boiling stretching across the river banks slowly moving down stream and to everyone’s astonishment the fish, large and small were jumping up and down from the water. What a spectacular sight! The spiritual leader would wash his hands to indicate that the initiation ritual is complete and then the frenzy of catching the semi-conscious fish began.

The men were given the task to look after the fish nets down river and the women and children were enjoying catching fish at shallow water with their “siut” and “sangkap”. The fish were kept inside a “baangai” tied onto their backs.

The irony of the “manuba” ritual is that, logically speaking there is no way that a small amount of “tuba” juice would be effective to cover huge volume of water for a river distance of about 1 KM. The dilution process would take place almost immediately in a fast flowing river and not to mention the distance it has to cover! The dynamics behind the whole ritual is not the toxin from the “tuba” roots, but what is more important is the power of the spiritual leader.

Traditionally, the idea of “manuba” festival was not to poison and kill the fish. The idea is to “weaken” the fish to a semi-conscious state to facilitate easy catching. Very seldom we see dead and floating fish during “manuba” festival, but what we could see were fish reaching the surface grasping for oxygen in their semi-conscious state. The term used by the Kadayan people to describe the semi-conscious state is “hayong”. The fish in “hayong” state would resume consciousness after a few hours and would swim normally again, that is if they are lucky enough to escape the “siut” of the hungry village folks.

The memories of attending “manuba” festival with my parents would last forever. The “manuba” festival is A LOST TRADITION of the Kadayan people and the today generations of Kadayan people would not be able to experience such festival anymore due to the fact that the authority had banned the festival to safeguard the fish population and the prevention of several species of fresh water fish from extinction.

To be continued…….

CHILDHOOD DAYS – Essential Skills (Part 8)

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

"And eat of the things which Allâh has provided for you, lawful and good, and fear Allâh in Whom you believe". – Surah Al-Maeda Ayat 88

[Makanlah daripada apa yang Allah merezekikan kamu, yang halal dan baik; dan takutilah Allah, yang kepada-Nya kamu orang-orang mukmin.] – Surah Al-Maeda Ayat 88

In this series of my life story, I would like to share a few more must-have skills of Kadayan kids of my time.

Trapping birds and small animals

There were many types of birds and small animals in the nearby forest / secondary jungle of our village. We were taught by our elders which birds and small animals are edible and inedible according to our religion, Islam. The most common bird and small animal we used to catch were wild pigeon (buung punai) and mouse deer (palanduk). There were other edible birds such as “puagam” and wild chicken (hayam hutan) but they were too difficult to catch by small kids. Normally “puagam” and wild chickens were caught by elders and similarly larger animals like deer (payau) and antelope (kijang} were caught only by elders using sophisticated traps.

There were three methods commonly used by Kadayan people to catch wild pigeons (buung punai) namely jaat, malagau and pukat (fishing net). Before I go any further to describe each of the methods, I just would like to give a general overview of the bird called wild pigeon. Wild pigeon is native bird of Borneo Island and are found in Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and Kalimantan. As kids we were told that there were two types of pigeons namely “punai tanah” (ground pigeon) and “punai dahan” (literally translated as branch pigeon). Unlike “punai tanah”, “punai dahan” does not go to the ground to look for seeds and fruits but remains on tree tops most of the time.

The unique characteristic of the “punai tanah” is that despite the abundance of other fruits and nuts in the jungle, their favourite picks are still the sadaman fruits / seeds and interestingly the birds do not pick the fruits from trees but they come down to the ground looking for fruits and seeds.

The Kadayan people must have observed such unique habits of the wild pigeons and eventually devised methods to catch them by using “jaat” and “malagau”. Both methods are ground-based whereas the other method using the fishing net is air-borne.

Sadaman tree is found almost every where in the forest and secondary jungle. The trees do not grow very tall where the average height is around 20 – 30 feet at the most and the fruiting season is one or twice a year. The wild pigeons were in abundance during the fruiting seasons of the sadaman trees. The sadaman fruits are small, yellowish green in colour, covered with sticky resin like substance. Beside durian tree, sadaman tree is considered as an iconic tree amongst the Kadayan community due to its contribution to the food supply chain i.e. the much needed protein source from the wild pigeons.. The song entitled “daun sadaman” by Ibrahim Hj Diman is a tribute to the iconic tree and the readers can listen to the song provided in this blog.






Wild pigeon (buung punai)






Jaat

Jaat is a simple, yet effective trap to catch wild pigeons. The “jaat’ is constructed by using a strong thread, a stick / stem of a young tree (the size of adult male middle finger) of hard wood type as “bingkasan” and tiny tree branches as a holder of the thread tied from the “bingkasan”. The stick / stem of the young tree is pinned to the earth perpendicular to the ground level. The thread is tied at the top end of the stick / stem in which the other end of the thread is the adjustable knot or technically known as Adjustable Grip Hitch adjusted to about 2 feet in circumference. A tiny straight stem / branch of about one and a half inches in length is tied before the simple knot that would be fixed to the trap mechanism where the pigeon is expected to step onto it. When the pigeon steps on the trap, the “bingkasan” would be released immediately at high speed and snap the pigeon’s leg via the adjustable knot. Eureka!!! I just caught a pigeon.

Before “jaat” is installed, the ground under the sadaman tree is cleared of dried leaves, rotten tree trunks and small tree branches. The sadaman fruits are collected to be spread onto the cleared ground later as baits for the pigeons. Of course it is not sufficient to install only one “jaat”. On average we installed about 50 – 60 jaat that would guarantee good catch. Usually we came back to visit the jaat twice a day to harvest the catch and to do maintenance jobs like putting back the jaat to its normal position, clearing leaves and small branches and collecting sadaman fruits as baits.


The pigeon caught by the jaat is carefully untied from the trap to avoid dismembering its feathers from the body. Pigeon’s feathers unlike chickens are very soft and can be easily dismembered from its body. The pigeons are then carefully put inside a porous gunny sack for safe keeping. The gunny sack needs to be porous to prevent the pigeons from suffocation. The darkness inside the gunny sack keeps the pigeons calm. During the peak season, the average caught per day is around 20 – 30 birds. These birds are kept inside a special cage or rather a bird’s house and are fed with maize and sometime rice to be fattened before they are being slaughtered for consumption. When I was a small kid, I used to keep about 200 – 300 birds in a single bird’s cage. Such amount would be able to supply my family with enough protein for at least 3 – 4 months.

The birds are slaughtered according to Islamic rite, prepared and cooked. The pigeon’s can be cooked in variety of ways for example cook in curry, soup, deep fried, grilled and any way you like to suit your taste. The pigeon meat is very sweet and tasty.

Malagau

Literally speaking “malagau” means calling. It is derived from the word “lagau” (verb) and when applied to wild pigeons it means calling the birds. “Lagau” in Kadayan dialect is normally directed to human beings and a few “tame / domesticated” animals such as cats and chickens but seldom used to call wild birds and animals. So there is a catch here, malagau is not just imitating the chirping and singing of the wild pigeons to make them come to the caller, but it involves spiritual element here. Under normal circumstances, no matter how hard you try to imitate the chirping and singing of the wild pigeons, the birds would never come to you. I have tried this myself, where at the end of the day, not single birds came close to my location, not even a sign of them around me. As I have mentioned in http://itsurday.blogspot.com/ the spiritual and supernatural power are manifested in almost every aspect of Kadayan livelihood.

When I was a small kid, there were not many people in our village having the skill of malagau, may be just three or four people but there were elderly persons and all of them had passed away already. I used to follow and watch an elderly Kadayan man performing malagau when I was 10 or 11 years old. This is how it was done. A small hut is built or not even a hut, just a shack made of tree branches and leaves as hiding place for the caller. In Kadayan dialect we call the shack as “baumbun”. The most important device in performing malagau is a device called “suling” (flute). “Suling” is a musical instrument made from bamboo and strictly speaking, the sound of “suling” does not really mimic the chirping and singing of the wild pigeon. The other device used in "malagau" is a long stick attached with a simple knot thread at its end to catch the pigeon on its neck. The bird’s “landing area” is called “galanggang”, a small space in front of the shack cleared of dried leaves, tree branches and other objects that would hamper the process of catching the birds.




Fresh wild pigeon meat




An initiation ritual is done by the caller before the calling process is done. The ritual involves chanting of magical spells coupled with other physical things that last for a few minutes. When that is done the caller sits back inside the shack and starts to play his “suling”. It is hard to believe that all of a sudden the wild pigeons start to arrive, first the birds are perching on the tree branches and later they come down to the “galanggang” surrendering their necks to the caller to be caught and later ended up in a cooking pot.

Not every time the caller is lucky, there were occasions as told by the village elders where the sound of the caller’s “suling” attracted supernatural beings instead of the wild pigeons. We were told that the supernatural beings came in an impressive style by creating vortex of whirlwind / small scale twister around the vicinity where small trees were being uprooted and tree branches fell down due to the power of the whirlwind. The Kadayan elders who were skilful in performing “malagau” expected such predicament and their counter-measures were so effective that the whirlwind would stop immediately and within seconds everything would come back to normalcy.

“Malagau” is considered by Kadayan people as the most effective way of catching wild pigeons in large quantity. On a lucky day, a caller may catch a couple of hundreds birds and when they reach the figure, they’ll call it a day.

Fishing net

Kadayan people are very innovative in devising methods to catch birds, fish and wild animals. Fishing net, as the name suggests is used to catch fish in the river or at sea, but the Kadayan people used them to catch wild pigeons as well. The principle is the same, where in rivers and sea the target are fish whereas on air the target are birds such as wild pigeons.

The modus operandi (MO) of catching wild pigeons using this method is simple. The requirements are two very long wooden or bamboo poles and a stretch of fishing net of the right net space size attached to the poles. The net space size can be half an inch, one inch, so on and so forth. If the net space size is larger than the bird’s size, then the birds would be able to pass through.

In the evening, as darkness approaches, so are the wild pigeons rushing for home to their favourite trees. It is not difficult to exactly pin point the flight path taken by the birds because being birds they always follow the same route everyday. When the flight paths are identified, what is left is to erect the fishing net across the path and just wait.

The fishing net is made of clear, colourless nylon called “tangsi”. As darkness approaches, the birds’ eyesight would be very poor where the fishing nets are virtually invisible to the birds. Upon the arrival at the fishing nets, that would be the end of their flying session. Next would be the cooking pots.





Buung Taipas in the wild






Mundul Taipas

“Taipas” is a beautiful, small, green tropical bird of parrot family with red and blue patch under its neck and on its head respectively. “Taipas” is inedible, but they are caught as pets due to its natural beauty. In the 50s and 60s, almost every Kadayan households kept the birds as pet. “Taipas” are easy to maintain where their favourite food are ripe banana, papaya, sugar cane and surprisingly you wouldn’t like to hear this, its rice “mouth-digested” soften with lots and lots of saliva. The “taipas” loves it. Never feed the ‘taipas” with anything that contains salt. The birds will die in a matter of hours if they are being fed with salty food.

“Mundul taipas” is synonym to the Kadayan community in Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei Darussalam. My definition of “Mundul Taipas” is to catch birds called “taipas” by using similar bird placed inside a cage as the calling bird to attract the wild “taipas”, coupled with sticky glue like substance spread over a long stick placed on tree branches where the oncoming wild “taipas” would likely to perch.

There are a few rules to be observed when performing “mundul taipas”. Firstly, the knowledge of climbing trees. The wild “taipas” would never come to the ground or any height near to it. We have to climb until the tree tops to place the cage of the calling “taipas” and of course a stick with the glue spread all over it. Secondly the calling bird must possess special ability to chirp and sing that would attract other wild “taipas”. If you don’t have the climbing skill, don’t even think about “mundul taipas’.





Buung Taipas in a Cage




The glue like substance is actually derived from resin / latex of a “timbaan” tree. Timbaan tree can easily be found in the forest / secondary jungle of the Borneo Island. The resin / latex are collected and exposed to open air to coagulate. No hydrochloric acid (HCL) is required for coagulation. The glue is stored inside a small can (sardine or condensed milk can) and taken out as and when its usage is required.

When wild “taipas” is caught in a sticky situation, they are unable to escape until they are being taken out from their misery by someone. As cruel as it sounds but the birds actually are very safe and quite comfortable after the feathers and legs are massaged with coconut oil. It only takes one or two hours before the birds could fly normally again after they are being caught. The birds are kept inside a special cage ready to be sold or given as gift.

To be continued…….

SELAMAT MENYAMBUT MA'AL HIJRAH 1429 H

Assalamu'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

Besempena dengan Maal Hijrah yang akan kita sambut esok, saya dan seluruh ahli keluarga ingin mengucapkan Selamat Menyambut Maal Hijrah 1429 H. Semoga di tahun baru ini kita akan dimurahkan rezeki dan sentiasa mendapat rahmat dan hidayah dari Allah SWT.

Jutaan terima kasih saya ucapkan kepada pengunjung-pengunjung yang budiman yang selama ini telah menyokong kemunculan blog ini.

Salam hormat. Terima kasih.

CHILDHOOD DAYS - Essential Skills (Part 7)

As agreed by most people, childhood days were the most memorable days of our life. I gained most of the survival skills when I was at the age of 6 – 12 years old and surprisingly those skills constitutes the bigger part of my circle of influence. As I’ve mentioned earlier, my life story is the most extreme case where our family living standard was just at the lowest level of Maslow Hierarchy of Needs. For those of us who are not quite familiar with Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, let me refresh you what it is all about.




Maslow Hierarchy of Needs (Click to enlarge)






Physiological Needs

These are biological needs. They consist of needs for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person's search for satisfaction.

Safety Needs

When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviours, the needs for security can become active. Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting). Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.

Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness

When the needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.

Needs for Esteem

When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world. When these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.

Needs for Self-Actualization

When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the person is restless about. It is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization.

As you can see, when I mentioned that our living condition was at the lowest level of Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, that was it, just food, clothing, water and shelter. When you are in that condition, it is suffice to mention here that survival is the key factor. In order for the kids of my generation to survive, we were compelled to acquire skills to live in a harsh and challenging environment. The most important skill of all is to sustain the food supply chain i.e. planting hill paddy and cash crops. Any disruption to the food supply chain would result in famine and diseases caused by malnutrition and poor healthcare.

Malnutrition was notable amongst the kids of my generation including myself, where we did not have enough supply of protein, vitamins and minerals. Our staple food is rice, which is very rich in carbohydrate but our daily diet lacked in much needed protein for our healthy growth. We did not have the luxury of consuming meat (beef, venison, chicken) regularly, may be once or twice a year during wedding ceremonies or annual feast. Our main supply of protein came from the river and occasionally the sea. Fresh water fish, prawns and crabs were caught by fishing lines, traps, nets and fish poison (extract from "tuba" plant)which will be discussed in detail later. We never caught fresh water fish in large quantity due to the storage problem. The only way to preserve the fish was by salting and drying them, thus we have salted fish which can be stored for longer duration.




Pulihan fish in captivity





If we ever caught large quantity of fish such as through fish poisoning (tuba), the other method of preservation engaged by the village folks was by smoking, thus we have smoked “tuyan” or smoked “pulihan” NOT smoked salmon. We do not have salmon in tropical rivers. "Tuyan" and "pulihan" are much sought fresh water fish even to this days. The fish tastes good, very fatty with plenty of tiny bones which makes it difficult to consume. Kindly note that fish poisoning by using tuba plant extract is not practice anymore by Kadayan people in our village. It has been abandoned since the seventies due to the fact that the tuba plant extract is quite lethal where small fish were poisoned and killed which eventually reduces the fish population in the rivers. Fresh water fish now are caught by using fishing lines, nets and fish traps.

Kids of my generation were compelled to acquire various skills, not by our parents but by the environment we lived in. Some of the skills are as follows: -

Climbing trees

Climbing tress was a must have skill. Some girls of my generation were better climbers than boys. Our “boyhood” was challenged severely by the predicament, where those boys who did not know how to climb would be teased day in day out by other boys and the girls too. What a shame!


The skill of climbing is widely used to pluck fruits such as “rambutans, pulasan (maitam), mangoes, mangosteen, sour fruits (asam kandis and asam aur), betel nuts, coconuts and of course not to forget for trapping of birds known as “mundul taipas”. Taipas is a beautiful, small, green tropical bird of parrot family with red patch under its neck.

As I have mentioned in my earlier articles, the Kadayan village or settlements were mostly located near rivers. As usual, small rivers (may be streams) were covered by strong jutting tree branches which we used as a jumping platform into the river. Kids who were unable to climb would definitely miss all the funs and excitements of jumping from tree branches into the river. It was a great fun actually.



Small knowledge of herbs with medicinal value

Amongst the indigenous people of Borneo, Kadayan people are well known for their knowledge on medicinal herbs. The trade has been passed from generation to generation by their elders and kids of my generation were taught basic knowledge of medicinal herbs but on a smaller scale. As mentioned earlier in my other article 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.

Besides knowing various medicinal herbs we were also taught basic spells to use together with the medicinal herbs.


Self-defence (silat)

Martial arts were taught by elders as early as the age of 7, where we learned basic steps of self-defence. It is typical to see martial arts courts in Kadayan villages in the 50s and 60s. The main purpose of self-defence was to train ourselves in observing strict self-discipline and creating sense of alertness for any unsuspected trouble coming to our village.





Bailey Bridge or Jambatan Basi as called by the Kadayan people





The worst security threat to the Kadayan community particularly in the forties and fifties was the HEAD HUNTERS (Panggait). The stories of head hunters were told by Kadayan elders from generation to generation but kids of my time only heard the rumours that head hunters were terrorising our village. As far as I can remember, rumours about head hunters were rife when new bridges (Bailey bridge) were to be built by the British. We were told that two decapitated human heads (kalambigi commonly known in Kadayan dialect) were required to be buried at both ends of the bridge to strengthen and resist the raging force of nature i.e. flood. This belief was so strong amongst the Kadayan community and whenever such rumours persisted the village would be put under full alert (code RED). All the children, women and elderly people were either confined at home or if there were necessities to move around they must be in group accompanied by elders.

Such security threat compelled the Kadayan community to defend themselves by several methods where one of them was to equip the community with martial arts as self-defence. The other method commonly practiced by the Kadayan people was to use some form of spiritual powers known as “guis” to prevent strangers from entering the village. Guis is the invincible fence to deter intruders from tress-passing. It is the first line of defence under the direct Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence (C3I)of the village head. Usually the village head would communicate with the "spiritual master" to prepare the necessery arrangements after obtaining sufficient intelligence information from the village folks or from other sources with regards to the security threats affecting the village. The security protection in a Kadayan village is a smaller scale of C3I or C4I in the military and law enforcement agencies.

In the Olden Days Kadayan environment the first line of defence should be formidable. If there was any breach of security in which intruders managed to penetrate the defence system, the "spritual master" would be replaced or asked to sharpen his power by going for isolation / seclusion for a period of 40 days in a "wasai" to undergo a process known as "bataak" in Kadayan dialect. This process is necessery to maintain and safeguarding the dignity of the affected village. When the news reached other Kadayan villages about the flaws in the village defence system, the village head and folks would suffer tremndous pressure particularly when they were being offered assistance from other villages. Accepting help meant conceding defeat, which was a taboo in Olden Days Kadayan culture.

Such security protection was of vital importance in a life or death environment. The Kadayan people would gave their lives to protect their families & their community and should the intruders successfully penetrated the defence system, they will fight with all their might until to the last drop of their blood. The readers would be able to read more on this subject matter at Reaping the Benefits (http://itsurday.blogspot.com/) entitled Olden Days Kadayan.

I was able to witness the effectiveness of "guis" power where two strangers / intruders were caught red handed, unable to move (temporarily paralysed / disabled) in the vicinity of our village. I did not know for sure if the strangers / intruders were the head hunters but rumours were spreading like wild fire that they were head hunters looking for two victims to be used in bridge building. The two persons caught were from a well known indigenous people of Borneo famous for their head hunting practices. This incident happened in the late fifties.

To be continued…….

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 ....