4×4 vehicles on roadside parking lot signifies growth of Beluru, created by oil palm cultivation.
JUST before one drives into Beluru, an idyllic town along the Bakong River, there is a modern longhouse on the right with a western name — Rumah Morgan — so called after its headman, Tuai Rumah Morgan.
It’s an Iban settlement which started between the 1920’s and the Second World War, according to one of its oldest residents.
The close-knit traditional longhouse is divided into three sections – A, B and C – or three units. It’s actually a settlement made up of three separate longhouses.
Not many longhouses today have so many sections. Usually, they break up into groups under their own choice of headmen over some disagreements, even resulting in not having an official headman at all. Sometimes, a longhouse that has been broken into two, has two headmen.
Harvested fresh fruit bunches are transported in a four-wheel drive vehicle to the mills.
Almost all recognised headmen earn a small salary from the Local Government Ministry. Traditionally, the closest relatives of the headmen will occupy the units nearest theirs in the middle of the longhouse.
Rimau, a Block C dweller, told thesundaypost his grandfather came to help the longhouse folks as a shaman. In those days, the Ibans did not understand western science nor were western doctor services provided by the then government.
Rural medical services only reached Marudi and Miri during the Brooke era. At that time, the shaman also brought his followers to Beluru in Miri Division.
The ramshackle dwelling place of smallholder Rimau. He and his wife, Annie, are saving up to build their ‘bilik’ in Rumah Morgan.
No land inheritance
Rimau has no land inheritance. Perhaps, one day when he has enough money, he will buy some land from people who know him. He thought of applying for land but has had no luck so far.
His wife, Annie, has a small plot of land, inherited from her grandmother, and the couple are using it to plant oil palms.
Annie is a warm-hearted housewife who quickly took out a pot of hot tea for us when we called on her. We all sat on the floor and had a great conversation going.
Like all longhouse folks, the couple are very welcoming, honest and sincere. They told us about their plight – the lack of water and the livelihood ups and downs they have been facing all these years.
Rimau is aware that as more and more people come to the area, land will become scarce. Furthermore, because the riverbanks are low and subjected to floods, land for planting padi is limited.
Like the others, he has to supplement his income by collecting jungle produce, fishing and working for timber and quarry companies. Nowadays, those who have land are doing well growing oil palms.
Rimau and Annie are happy to receive guests at their humble home.
Water problem
Rimau told thesundaypost: “Our biggest problem is water supply. We still have to depend on the rain. The government has helped us to save rainwater properly. As you can see, the ‘water savers’ in front of our longhouses are good models.”
He said the river water was not safe for drinking, adding that this could be due to the industrial, quarrying and logging activities as well as oil palm estates and human settlements in the area.
He is hopeful the government will pipe in water soon as the longhouse is close (less than five minutes) to Beluru which has piped water.
Early education
Although education was available in Marudi and Miri 50 years ago, few people sent their children to school by boat or on foot.
It can be said education was poorly managed at the time. Even after Malaysia, most children reluctantly attended schools beyond Beluru for reasons best known to themselves and their families.
Although more primary schools were put up in the area some 30 years ago, it was still hard for the children to go to school. Not many reached university level. But now, with a secondary school next to the longhouse, many are able to attain and go beyond secondary education.
Re-developing
Rumah Morgan is ‘re-developing’.
From old structural designs, the longhouse dwellers have moved on to new wooden and concrete building blueprints.
Blocks A and B have been completed over the past few years. Block C is under construction and Rimau and Annie are in this block.
The couple have to save money to complete their ‘bilik’ (rooms). The kitchen is ready – it’s the usual way for longhouse folks to build their rooms – starting with the cooking area.
They build from the back of the longhouse. Once the kitchen is ready, they will usually move all their essentials into it and live there until the whole structure is completed.
Meanwhile, they will continue entertaining guests at their old place. It will take them three or maybe even five years to complete their new home – without government subsidies or an oil palm windfall.
Workers shortage
This is another problem for many of the longhouse smallholders but not necessarily from Rumah Morgan.
Those with more land will require more help but even if they have the money to hire foreign workers, there will still be problems because many don’t have land titles.
This is especially true of those working on NCR land further from Beluru. Presently, most of the smallholders depend on gotong royong to circumvent the situation.
But as they grow older, it could get harder for them to produce good harvests. Harvesting is tough and requires strong bodies to handle the cutters which are heavy even for middle-aged people.
A good stretch of tar-sealed road leading to Beluru.
Lack of transport
For transport, the smallholders depend on their friends who charge them a fee. This is one of the most difficult problems they are facing.
Up till now, Rimau and Annie have not saved enough to buy a vehicle and are depending on neighbours to help transport their harvests every three weeks to the mills or ramps.
During flooding, they cannot do anything but wait for the water to subside. Their area has been flooded quite frequently over the past 10 or 20 years, destroying a lot of small holdings. Many of the submerged seedlings died, causing the small planters to lose a bundle.
Jack, Rimau’s smallholder neighbour and friend, lamented the present high prices of fertilisers and pesticides.
Jack, who also works as a driver and owns a Hilux, said if prices of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) at mills and ramps are below RM400, it would be very hard on the smallholders.
He called on the government and the agencies concerned to help the small planters, suggesting there should be a lowest FFB ceiling of between RM450 and RM500.
“With the price of everything going up, we will find it hard to support the agricultural sector. Selling our land would mean suicide.”
A traditional Iban sun hat with a plastic cover which is useful for oil palm smallholders.
People’s bank
He also said it was time for some of the smallholders to replant after a lapse of 20 years or so.
“If we can earn slightly over RM1,000 every three weeks, we can save up a bit to buy seedlings which are now very costly.
“There should be a kind of people’s bank to help farmers with no land titles. Government subsidies are not easily available. If we have access to some capital, it would provide some relief and farmers could start to value themselves more and enjoy their land rights.”
The smallholders need cash for everything they buy. No banks will give them loans without any land titles as collaterals.
According to Jack, the mills and ramps or collection centres are very particular about the fresh fruit bunches they receive.
The grading is stringent and smallholders have to strictly observe the rules and regulations. Sometimes, they come away disappointed with the small returns from their products.
FFB thieves
Fabian (name has been changed) said oil palm planters had to be protected from prowling thieves.
“Security at most smallholdings is lacking because the owners tend to come around only once in three weeks or slightly more often, especially if they are gentlemen farmers from Miri or Bintulu.
“Now, smallholders have to produce their original MPOB licences and logbooks before they can sell their fruits at mills or collection centres or they will be accused of stealing the fruits, especially if they have more bunches than expected. But thieves have their own ways of selling FBB without getting caught.”
Fabian suggested the police make their rounds more often at mills and other outskirts areas such as Beluru.
He said in the past, people were very respectful of other property owners, adding that even when a durian dropped from a neighbour’s tree, they would pick it up, put it on a platform and tell the owner about it.
“The peaceful and harmonious lifestyle in the longhouse has always been maintained by the respect for the land and one another,” he added.
“I hope we will continue to grow economically with our oil palms but without losing our spiritual and ethical values,” he stressed.