The Borneo death march route, re-traced

"Below us I could see the river. During the war this was a serious torrent, and the weakened solders were forced to try and cross, many were too weak and were swept away to their deaths."

My guts churned, and I felt hollow. A glazed look sweeps across my face as my mind struggled to cope with things. I was truly shocked, not at all for the first time on this journey, but I figured I’d become more or less immune to the whole story by now, as I’d researched most of the horrific details over a long period of time.

We’d stopped off at a stall in a small, near anonymous village in the north of Sabah, Borneo. We were loosely following the routes of the horrific Sandakan death marches of the Second World War, and were in a spot that was used as an impromptu stop off during the marches, where thousands of prisoners of war were force-marched to their deaths.

I was told the story of a local man who had recently passed away, he was enforced as a cook to the Japanese captors, and told the tale of how he was once forced to cook two prisoners for the soldiers to eat. By this stage they were so malnourished that their was no flesh on the bones, so he was told to take out and cook the intestines, it just beggared belief, but it was true and documented along with so many other atrocities.

Our ride was around 250km and 3 days in all, along a mix of jungle jeep roads, palm plantation trails and some hard core. This was more or less along thee lines used in the marches, although many things have changed since then, so conditions are nowhere near as harsh today, and we also chose to skip the impenetrable jungle scrambles, which were near impassable with a bike, and also to skip some of the road sections where logging trucks make conditions treacherous.

The port of Sandakan, is situated on the north coast of Borneo, and was used heavily by the Japanese during the war, and was where they shipped in and initially held the POW's. All in all there were some 2600 POW’s shipped to Sandakan between 1942-43, mostly all Australians, and a fair amount of Brits. They had mostly been captured during the fall of Singapore, and others from the Philippines.

This made the town the obvious starting point for the route, and we literally rode out from the remains of the POW camp, where many were to meet their end.

Maybe you wonder why we did this ride? Well, it had not been followed by bike before, and had a real sense of purpose. There were just 6 survivors from the marches, all of who escaped to safety, and it was the worst atrocity ever in Australian military history, and one of the worse crimes of the war.

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Sarawak tourism promotions to continue despite airline disasters

KUCHING: The Visit Malaysia Year and Visit Sarawak Year 2014 campaigns will continue despite disasters involving three airlines in recent weeks.

Minister of Tourism Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg said the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released a statement that the recent air disasters have not brought down the level of confidence among air passengers around the globe.

“Air transportation is just another mode of transport. It is just like a car where accidents can happen anytime and anywhere. Yet we still drive around in our cars,” Abang Johari told reporters at his Aidilfitri open house on Monday.

He said it was very unfortunate for Malaysia Airlines to suffer from the downing of MH17 and the missing flight MH370 this year.

“After the downing of MH17, I am sure that the International Air Transport Association and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) will review the whole airline industry,” he said.

Abang Johari said IATA and ICAO should review the current flight paths of the airline industry and come up with a pre-warning system to avoid airlines from flying above areas deemed unsafe.

The Satok assemblyman said he had personally met with the immediate family members of MH17 victim Tambi Jiee, who was killed on board along with his wife Ariza Ghazalee, and their four children Alif, Afzal, Marsha and Afruz.

“They (family) are strong and patient during this hard time. They have also relayed their confidence that everything will be sorted out soon,” he added.

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Ba Kelalan ripe for fame and fortune in eco-tourism

BA KELALAN: The tourism potential in this heartland of the Lun Bawang is not fully tapped yet and Penghulu George Sigar Sultan believes that the future of the industry is bright indeed.

When met recently at his village in Long Ubau, which is about 9km from Buduk Nur where the BAT IV has been staying for the last five days, Sigar said for the tourism industry to reach its full potential, both the community and the government must be willing to work as partners.

“Since our environment is basically intact and unspoilt, we could easily market it as a green tourism product,” said Sigar.

He said one of the tourism products in the area, the homestay, has attracted at least 22 participants in the whole of Ba Kelalan area which is made up of nine villages.

“And as the centre of the Borneo Evangelical Mission (BEM) in Sarawak, the pilgrimage to the holy Mt Murut has become a special tourism product among the locals and foreigners,” said the former civil servant.

He also opined that as the centre of ‘Formadat’ (‘Forum Masyarakat Adat Dataran Tinggi Borneo’ or ‘Alliance of the indigenous peoples of the Borneo highlands’), Ba Kelalan and Bario in Sarawak and Lun Bawan in Kalimantan, has created a niche market by promoting the green environment to the international community.

“We want to preserve our forest so that we will continue to be the lungs of Sarawak and Borneo. With that in mind, I am sure we can tap its tourism potential as much as we could without destroying them,” said Sigar who is also Formadat chairman.

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Restaging a local arts extravaganza in Kuching

SPECTACULAR! Delightful! Magical and of a professionally high standard.

These words are among the audience’s descriptions of the Life in the Jungle ballet production this past January.

In response to popular request, this local arts extravaganza will be restaged in Kuching this August.

The multi-faceted production, involving more than 150 local youth performers from LayNa Ballet Academy, Institute of Teacher Education Batu Lintang Campus and the Sarawak State Symphonic Orchestra (SONS), made its three-night debut in January at the former Legislative State Assembly building in Petra Jaya.

The proceeds of RM65,000 raised from individual and corporate sponsorships, as well as ticket and souvenir sales, were donated to Sarawak Kidney Association, Community Based Rehabilitation Centre and Kuching Society for the Urban Poor.

This restage will feature differences from the January production. Besides benefiting a different group of local charities – the Lions’ Club Cornea Transplant project, Meeting Needs and the Sarawak Kidney Association – the restage offers a better audience experience.

“One of our biggest challenges has been to improve the audience experience in a cost-effective way” said Megan Chalmers in addressing the difficulties of viewing the stage from the back parts of the performance venue.

“We are, thus, going to raise the audience up on platforms hired for the event to improve their view of the show.”

The performers, ranging from ballet dancers, vocalists and narrators to instrumentalists and cultural dancers, after having spent countless hours rehearsing for the January show, are now eager to reunite in bringing alive this Iban legend for Kuching audiences once again.

Background

The ballet is based on the works of Heidi Munan and Julia Chong for an operetta of the same name, staged 30 years ago in Kuching.

In 1984, vocalists from the Polyhymnia Choral Society told the story through Munan’s witty libretto put to Chong’s music with live musical accompaniment, provided by Marcus Leong’s orchestra.

In January, in memory of the 30th anniversary of Chong’s passing, 100 ballet dancers portrayed the Iban legend of the Pong Kapong bird through Chan Lay Na’s choreography, aided by a 30-member choir under the direction of Chong’s daughter, Pek Lin, together with a full symphonic orchestra conducted by Leong’s son, Victor.

Anthony Wong provided the orchestral arrangement of Chong’s music and made it complete for the ballet with additions of his own compositions, working closely with the three directors.

Two narrators strung together the three acts of the ballet with their lines based on Munan’s script while more of their ITE Batu Lintang colleagues grounded the audience in a Borneoan experience through their roles as cultural dancers, actors and instrumentalists.

The costume and set designs, headed by Chalmers, further enabled the performers onstage to internalise their roles as inhabitants of our local rainforests.

Following the January production, the committee received numerous exaltations from members of the audience.

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Sarawak records slight increase in tourist arrivals

KUCHING: Sarawak recorded a slight increase in the number of tourists arrivals in the first four months of this year compared to the same period last year.

Assistant Minister of Tourism Datuk Talib Zulpilip announced this during a press conference at Kuching International Airport yesterday.

“There is an overall increase of 7.59 per cent of tourists coming to Sarawak from January to April 2014 compared to the same period of time last year,” he said.

“A total of 1.5 million tourists visited Sarawak this year from January to April. We are confident that the number of tourists will increase as the economy’s environment is still fine.”

He said the number of foreign tourists increased by 2.3 per cent while domestic tourists rose by 17 per cent in the same period.

Talib said the state is optimistic the tourism industry will continue to grow based on current trends.

Meanwhile, he said close cooperation between the state government and MASwings has helped with Sarawak’s tourism development.

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