Netster 宅男

I grew up in this squatter’s area for more than 15 years. My grand­mother and grand­fa­ther sold off their land at 17th miles and move here for more than 40 years. I was 11 years old when my father bought a shabby house for RM500 (USD143) from the pre­vi­ous ten­ant. This small areas houses Iban (major­ity) Bidayuh & Chinese.

On Decem­ber 12, 2007 The Bor­neo Post pub­lish an arti­cle “170-year-old Iban ceme­tery in piti­ful state” urg­ing the Dayak com­mu­nity to clean up the ceme­tery. When I exam­ine the photo closely I was sur­prise the pic­ture shown is the place where I use to live, in fact my par­ents and my sib­ling still stay there. I’ve tried to con­vince my mom to move to my new house but she still like to stay there for a while longer to see if the local gov­ern­ment would relo­cate them to a bet­ter hous­ing area.

There’s one ques­tion though, Not that I’m busy body – just a ques­tion of integrity. No one has express cares nor claim the owner ship of this ceme­tery not until recently, why? (Only now that I know SDNU exist! SDNU was known as SDA (Sarawak Dayak Asso­ci­a­tion) which was form in 1946) It’s a good thing that the asso­ci­a­tion start­ing to cares for the ceme­tery as this place does sound leg­end! The ceme­tery was left in “piti­ful state” for so long is def­i­nitely unacceptable.

When I was young, I use to walk into that ceme­tery (week before Chi­nese New Year) with my cousin to get a long, straight and beau­ti­ful green bam­boo – for hang­ing up the 8 or 12 meters Chi­nese fire cracker *laugh*. Walk­ing into that ceme­tery is a creepy expe­ri­ence. It was dark and cold, the scent of the dirt and the sur­round­ing trees and bushes remind you of one thing – It’s the place for the dead! It’s a taboo to go in the ceme­tery to dis­turb the nature so in order to cut down the bam­boo we would ask for per­mis­sion by say­ing the words out loud and ask for for­give­ness in case cut­ting down the bam­boo does dis­turb their peace.

We would clean up the leaves and han­dle with care after we cut down the bam­boo. This is impor­tant because the bam­boo can make your skin real itchy if you’re care­less. The next step is where you get ready and … RUN! *laugh* I’m not so sure why, nor­mally when me and my cousin walk into than ceme­tery we don’t feel afraid but the feel­ing only kick in after we have got the bam­boo! *LOL* (excited to get what we want? *LOL*)

Here’s the list of facts about the ceme­tery from the new papers article

• Accord­ing to “the Angli­can Church in Bor­neo” the ceme­tery was first use by Sebuyau Tribe from Lingga.
• Those that buried their remains in this ceme­tery would be those that con­verted to Chris­tian­ity in 1848. For those that con­vert later, their remains would be buried at St. Thomas Church Cemetery.
• 1952, the bur­ial ground was gaz­zated as native Area land
• 1975, the land was leased for 99 years to SDNU

Pic­tures below show­ing the ceme­tery have been clean up! Wow, not too scary now *laugh*

Grow­ing up in the rough area is very tough. We do not have elec­tric­ity so we would use gen­er­a­tor that would runs for 4 – 5 hours a night, this is enough to light up few house­hold with 2 – 3 flu­o­res­cent tube and a set of 15 inch TV tube. As soon as the gen­er­a­tor stops, we would use the kerosene lamp to light our table to do our study. Unless I am prepar­ing for an exam than I would have the strength to con­tinue under the dim light if not I pre­fer to look for a part time job and get on with life with full of bright light. *smile*

Look­ing back, it’s like a dream — mem­ory and pain. Those were the days.

I like to talk more about my child­hood but let’s just keep it for next time, Okay? hehe­hehe Have a nice week­end every one!

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