A day before the Ides of March 1987

EDUCATION Sarawak | Has Awang Tengah lost his Atas or his Bawah?

FRESH WATER SUPPLY: Awang Tengah (second right) and Len (right) scope water from the new water supply.

It seems that in Sarawak even tertiary education for Ministers has done no good! Now they want more sacrifices from Penans while they burn billions in Bakun and stole more Penan lands they could remember. And for high tech they had burned billions in that useless 1st Malaysia Silicon that has changed names more times than Awang Tengah change his underwear.

Sacrifice for children’s education, Penans told

Anthony Joseph | November 30, 2010, Tuesday | The Borneo Post

ULU KUBAAN, LAWAS: The Penans were yesterday asked to make some sacrifices to ensure their children went to school and received education.

Making the call, Second Minister of Planning and Resource Management Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan said the community should view education as a top priority in the interest of their future generation.

He said education would enable them to be on a par with the other communities.

Noting that the Penans were a caring and loving lot, he said this should not prevent them from sending their children to school.

The minister was speaking at the launching of several projects including a Penan housing project and gravity-feed water supply at Kampung Ba Medamot, Ulu Kubaan near Bario.

Awang Tengah said the parents’ unwillingness to separate from their children while they attended school caused some ‘doting’ parents to bring their children back to the jungle.

“This will affect their studies and discourage them from going to school,” the minister said.

Currently, there are 3,000 Penan students in primary and secondary schools in the state, and 26 from the community have continued their studies in institutions of higher learning.

He suggested that the community learned from the experiences of the Penans in resettlements in Sebiew, Bintulu and Suai, Niah.

“They are more successful than the Penans elsewhere in the state because they emphasise on education and involvement in socio-economic activities.

Awang Tengah also encouraged them to be involved in agricultural activities and stop their nomadic lifestyle.

From the 13,000 Penans across the state, around 300 are still nomadic.

The housing project, complete with piped water supply and amenities, has been provided by the Forest Department, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Malaysia, International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) and Samling Strategic Corporation Sdn Bhd as a community-based development activity under Pulong Tau National Park project that is supported by ITTO.

Ba Medamot is occupied by 17 families with a population of about 80.

Since settling down, they have learned to grow hill padi, tapioca and fruit trees from the Kelabits, but are still largely dependent on the forest for much of their daily needs.

The villagers have been allocated 15 new houses.

Director of Forests Sarawak and chief executive officer of Sarawak Forestry Corporation Datu Len Talif Salleh, Deputy State Secretary Datu Ose Murang, Assistant Minister of Planning and Resource Management Naroden Majais, Miri Resident Anthonio Khati Galis, Dr Paul Chai from ITTO and general manager of Erickson Air-Crane (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd Paul Farrer were among those present.