An accident along jungle track connecting several villages in rural Sabah has enraged villagers forced to trek for hours through mud and then cross a treacherous bridge to get to town:
http://borneoinsider.com

TENOM: It’s hard to comprehend that 50 years on, a jungle track that is almost impossible to pass in the rainy season, remains the main route connecting a group of villages in Kemabong in Tenom district.
For as long as they can remember villagers have been uncomplainingly using this dirt track to get in and of the area, taking their children to school, going to the hospital or simply stocking up on essential items available in Tenom.
Back in 1985, amid great excitement, a gravel road leading to the villages of Sumumbu and Kapulu was built by a logging company in 1985. After the logs were extracted, no further development was forthcoming.
A crude and narrow log bridge, a few thin logs placed over a deep gully in ‘Camel Trophy’ style, the famous off-road competition, is the only way for vehicles to cross and the villagers, all mostly traditional farmers use the route daily to send their produce to Tenom.
Teachers at the two schools and students from the surrounding villages come close to getting a mud bath on rainy day and have to endure clouds of dust when the weather turns drier on their trips to and from school.
During the rainy season, the road is a nearly impassable quagmire of deep mud and makes the usually hour-long trip to Tenom town four hours of hell.
The horrendous condition was exposed when a villager complained that that residents in the area were facing problems getting to or out of the area after a four-wheel-drive vehicle tumbled off the bridge and into the gully badly injuring the driver and passenger.
The accident on Feb 3 almost claimed the life of a 40-year-old teacher and his 10 year old son when they tried to cross the log-bridge.
The affected villagers have had enough and have demanded the government step in.
Lukap Ukui, 53, the chairman of the Sumumbu Umno branch, has been at the receiving end for ignoring their plight until now. But he says he is as disappointed that their many appeals to the government to upgrade their road had fallen on deaf ears.
Ukui wants the state Barisan Nasional government to act swiftly, but fears that their wishes may not be answered any time soon.
One of the problems is that the Sabah Forest Industries and Sabah Forestry Department, both state government’s agencies have refused to permit any effort to upgrade the road as it crosses the Rundum Forest Reserve.
With lack of enforcement, there are fears that illegal logging and poaching would become easier for many who are now only deterred by the poor travel conditions.
Residents of Kg Kolorok, another village in the district, are also complaining that their 60km road has never seen a `good day’ since its construction in the 1980s. It is impossible for vehicles to use the road during the rainy season.
Just last month farmer, Andingos Ukun, 28, took about four hours to make the crossing on his motorcycle when he had to send his infant son to the Tenom Hospital for treatment.
He said he spent most of the time pushing his motorcycle through sometimes knee-deep mud while his wife who was wife cradling their crying child in a homemade sling wrapped around her shoulders carefully picked her way through the mud.
“This is our life here … no one cares. We are not asking for the sky. We only want basic things like roads like any other village in the state. Why is no one listening?” Ukun asked. – AM

Anwar shadows Najib to drum change for Sabah

By Luke Rintod HERE

| October 10, 2012

          

Umno and BN leaders know that there is little love lost in Sabah for the ruling coalition as people continue to feel the effects of higher prices.

 

KOTA KINABALU: Wherever Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak goes, the silhouette of a senior Pakatan Rakyat leader is never too far away from him and the same will happen when he visits Sabah this weekend.

 

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is due in Sabah this Friday on a weekend visit a day ahead of a two-day visit by the premier who will be in the state to shore up support for his Barisan Nasional coalition.

 

However, while the state administration has announced Najib’s itinerary in Penampang, Kundasang and Kudat, Anwar’s visit is lower-profile.

 

According to PKR vice president Tian Chua, he will accompany Anwar this Friday to visit the interior Sabah parliamentary districts of Keningau, Tenom and Pensiangan.

 

“Anwar and I are coming this Friday to Tenom, Pensiangan and Keningau to rally support for the party,” he texted in reply to a FMT query on whether opposition leaders would be in Sabah at the same time as Najib as has been the practice.

 

According to local PKR leaders, Anwar will reiterate Pakatan’s pledges to Sabah it made in its shadow budget for 2013 if it wins the coming general election.

 

“They are expected to mount assaults against the Umno regime and the leadership of Musa Aman as Sabah’s Chief Minister,” said a PKR leader here.

 

The opposition party leaders are also expected to drag Umno’s strongest ally in the Sabah BN government, Parti Bersatu Sabah, into the conflict.

 

“It will definitely be along those lines. We will expose more wrong-doings and yes PBS leaders including (Joseph) Pairin will be dragged in as accomplices and accessories to all the abuse of power and public funds by virtue of their support for Umno,” said another PKR leader.

 

Najib is on his fifth visit to Sabah this year. His previous visits to the state also corresponded with that of Pakatan leaders Lim Kit Siang of DAP and Awang Hadi of PAS.

 

BN leaders worried
While Najib has publicly declared that he is confident BN would retain power in Sabah and showed this by ignoring the state to a large extent in his recent 2013 Budget, BN leaders here are privately concerned with the growing dissatisfaction by Sabahans about the low level of development of their state.

 

The indications that opposition is gaining growing support in the BN’s ‘fixed deposit’ state is reflected in Najib’s repeated visits to Sabah where 25 parliamentary seats are up for grabs in the looming elections.

 

Local and national leaders have also grown more sensitive to allegations of corruption and arrogance as the countdown to the elections that must be called by April next year begins.

Anwar and his Pakatan coalition on the other hand have announced sweeteners for the state to ditch the ruling coalition as they have done in the past.

 

Umno and BN leaders know that there is little love lost in Sabah for the ruling coalition as people continue to feel the effects of having to pay more for food and basic items as the government cuts back on subsidies in response to a slowing global economy.

 

Pakatan has promised to increase of oil royalty payment to the poverty-stricken state from 5% to 20% if it forms the federal government and is something Sabahans have been demanding for decades after state leaders inexplicably surrendered the state’s resources.

Meanwhile, it is rumoured that scores of Sabah leaders including another corporate leader, would announce their entry into PKR during Anwar’s visit.

 

Top of the list is Dr Richard Gunting, a Murut leader, who was the general manager of state-owned Koperasi Pembangunan Desa (KPD).

 

According to insiders, Gunting is a potential PKR candidate for the Tenom seat.