Sarawak as when I was born in 1960 constituted Kuching, Simanggang, Sibu, Miri and Limbang divisions. The naming of the divisions was done as such I would believe signifying the stages of their conquest by the Brookes. The British then passed on Sarawak to us in the forms of five divisions. When I joined the State Service in 1986, Sarawak was made up of Kuching, Sri Aman, Sarikei, Sibu, Kapit, Bintulu, Miri and Limbang divisions. Simanggang was named Sri Aman to signify the victory upon the communist insurgency of the area in 1970s. By the time I left the State Service, in 2011 Sarawak is made of Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Betong, Sarikei, Kapit, Sibu, Mukah, Bintulu, Miri and Limbang divisions. Now, Serian is the latest split to form a Division on its own departing from Samarahan. Indeed the early Kuching division was the most dynamic which now becomes Kuching, Samarahan and Serian divisions. Soon probably Bau and Lundu districts of Kuching will combine to form their own new division with Kuching left to cover only from Padawan to Matang regions. Kuching I would visualize to move to be the Washington DC of Sarawak. In Shaa Allah.
(2) Allah made the early civilization of humankind began basically at the basins. Yang Tze, Nile, Ganges, and Euphrates were formed on the concept of River Basin development. The very reason for such was simple. Lives evolves around water bodies. Allah had said so clearly in the Al Quran. Almost every living creature is created from water. Civilizations so to speak evolves from water. The renaissance of Mecca where the shrine Kaabah is located is due to the founding of zam-zam. Even the mega growth of Las Vegas was stimulated by the Hover Dam to regulate the Rocky Mountain water flow into the dry Nevada desert. Today Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and even Syrian conflicts are prolonged fighting for water. In heaven, Allah talks about the best water ready to serve us hereafter. Water indeed is a real source of wealth and conflicts. Sarawak is not spared. Sarawak indeed is a State with many rivers. Large and winding rivers. This is due not because Sarawak is mountainous. Sarawak indeed is about 35-40 per cents consist of flat soft alluvial-peat land with heavy rainfall and 60-65 percents of hilly to rugged mountainous ever green hinterland. Such is Allah blessing onto Sarawak. It is also a challenge for Sarawakians to build over their intellectual to manage Sarawak for the blessing of all.
(3) In the olden days, Sarawakians were very much dependent on water bodies for transport and their sources of living. So much so, places in Sarawak were name according to the rivers. Except for Kuching, which originally was called Sarawak based on the Sarawak River, in the early Brooke's colonization, the rest of towns and regions in Sarawak remained named as they were. But today, the State seem not keeping those rivers' names to name a place; such as Sadong River is no more to address both Simunjan and Serian as it used to be. During the early days, Simunjan and Serian were used to refer to both the townships. Sadong was being used to name the region such as Lower Sadong which referred to Simunjan and Upper Sadong which referred to Serian. River indeed is the soul to a place. In a sense, today administration is taking away the soul of a place from its originality. Such, in term of future especially tourism marketing interest, would placed such places out of their natural context. Let see, what is so great about London? It is the Thames that gives London the soul. The same with Bangkok of the Menam Chow Praya. Chicago of the Great Lakes. Niagara of the Niagara Falls. Even Kuching and Sarawak for the matter the soul lies in the Sarawak River. I have a strong feeling that say Simunjan and Serian should refer to both the towns, but let keep say Lower Sadong and Upper Sadong as names of the two districts; Lower Sadong with Simunjan as the district capital and Upper Sadong with Serian as the district capital.
(4) With Allah statement that He created every living thing by water, I could see then Sarawak must be concerned of water resources as our norms and strategies of development. We should take the rivers and all those water catchments as the soul or axis of our development planning and management. We must never be forgetful, that Klang Valley of Malaya is facing lots of development stress despite of alot of Allah blessing, is due to poor water management conceptualization. Keep the UMNO political short sighted apart, professionally and theologically I would say, the Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam administration despite their grandeur Mosque structures, a monumental symbol of their state of Islamization, they indeed are in the dark to the broader meaning of Allah saying "I created every living thing from water". To me we should be looking at such Allah's saying among other as a warning over our humankind future existence and prosperity. Water is paramount to future human population expansion. As such, I would love to take readers to what I'm going to write that Sarawak should now be thinking seriously to manage our socio-economic development along the River Basin Model. Allah indeed about 4,000-5,000 years ago had shown such as the model that had guided humankind to the early civilized living. Therefore it should be revisited accordingly as a model that Sarawak should consider to achieve its sustainable high growth development desires.
(5) We can now ignore the importance of water-based planning to achieve development growth, but be mindful, to sustain a long term high development growth in one way or another will force us to one day have to admit, water is central to human development. To be regretful to almost the end of a journey is always dreadful and resources wasting, therefore it is great to take all the risk calculation at the very beginning of a destiny. Our destiny should be a sustainable development to the End of the Day; Khiamah.
(6) To start with, let us try to think and revisit, on what geo-socio logical rational for instance the original Sarawak in the far olden days to cover Lundu, Bau, Kuching, Samarahan, Simunjan and Serian regions? There are four main rivers there ie the Lundu River, Sarawak River, Samarahan River and Sadong River. Was it not based on the ground that the three later rivers are ending to the same wavy Muara Tebas that geo-politically gave birth to Sarawak. In the old Malays tradition, they loved to cluster any thing of similar nature into one classification. Secondly, geo-politically it was the same political regional base. These were the regions of the Malays majority that having strong association with the early Sultanate of Brunei. Indeed the coastal plain of the old Sarawak was and to this day is being dominated by the Malays population. The Brooke's whom maneuvered to take controlled of Sarawak then, probably saw Sarawak on such perspectives which to me was very sound and wise. Brooke then strongly associated himself with the then Malays to have his cloud over the rest of the regions thereon. But on the wiser note, I would salute the farsighted of the locals whom saw the old Sarawak ie the then larger Kuching division as such. Was it by human instinct and or Allah designed that the old Sarawak or Kuching was indeed crafted as a basin management model. The old Sarawak ie old Kuching was a rivers basin formed by the Lundu, Sarawak, Samarahan and Sadong Rivers. All these rivers bundled up to end at the larger Tg Po-Muara Tebas Bay. From hereon, I would like to take these Kuching, Samarahan and Serian divisions as illustration for the discussion.
(7) What is the significant of managing say Kuching, Samarahan and Serian divisions into a basin-based development management. Let call these divisions as the greater Kuching which then I would call as Kuching Basin. The same concept should then be applied to the Greater Lupar, Rajang, Miri and Limbang. I won't argue about the present normal and political administrative boundaries arrangement which are very subjective and volatile in nature. Least to say, I'm taking an indifferent stance on the R&DO administrative boundaries arrangement, my concern is over the long term key socio-economic development and management matter especially wrt water resources development and management vis-a-vis the then all the other key socio-economic developments. As such, the role of the State Planning Unit to plan and coordinate the spatial key socio-economic developments among all ministries and agencies in the Basin must be treated as serious and vital.
(8) Greater Kuching population had grown from 777,854 in 2000 to 956,168 in 2010, an increased of 22.92 per cents. Kuching district per se was experiencing a 21.30 per cents growth in the same period with the population growing from 509,374 persons in 2000 to 617,887 persons in 2010. Samarahan experienced the fastest population growth from 48,068 persons in 2000 to 87,923 persons in 2010 ie an increased of 82.30 per cents. While population growth and mobility elasticity is a good sign of economic achievement, but such growth and movement if not managed accordingly, will attract future disaster(s). With
high population growth in Kuching and Kota Samarahan for instance had placed among others high pressure over water supply and demand within the Kuching Basin. The Begoh Dam need to be built to support the existing Matang Water Supply System, but then such effort may be suitable for medium (15-25 years) range basis. What then would be the longer range (beyond 25 years) term consideration. Thus while the medium term urban growth of the Kuching Basin will be sustained by the Matang and Begoh Water Supply System, but the longer term growth would be of major dilemma. The dilemma as I see it is to balance between urban and rural development.
(9) Urban development is always associated with high cost of living, while rural development will need to trade off between bulldozing rural landscapes and sustaining rural resources. Massive urban development in one way or another had impacted a missed match problem within the migrants rural population. Housing and employment missed match are the most glaring urban issues that later giving rise to all sort of urban social problems. Rural migrants due to certain short falls in their acquitance of the urban growth, has to fall back onto the rural economy to supplement their needs. Thus, despite they had migrated to urban areas, they continue to have grip over their rural resources. Unfortunately, the way they developed and managed their rural resources is becoming less productive and thus sustaining the waste of rural economic opportunities and sustainable development management. Indeed, the rural sector as it is, is not contributing to the wealth generation to the people and the State.
(10) Rural development is and had been strongly associated with the depletion of the forest resources. The depletion of forest resources is then strongly associated with the degradation of water resources and thus giving stream of other social and environmental bad effects. Polluted human water needs, depletion of water-based recreational areas, soil erosion, flooding, siltation, and even depletion of marine resources are some immediate effects to poor forest resources management. Economically, the effect of such damages had caused high cost onto the next development effort. Kuching, Sri Aman, Betong and even Miri-Bintulu basins are now seriously facing these issues. While rapid urban growth is the very effective tool to draw out the rural population, nonetheless our land tenure system would still subject rural areas to non-balanced landuse development. Coupled with the inability of the urban growth to absorb fully the needs of rural migrants sustained the vicious cycle of rural resources poor management system. So much so, toward the longer term, both the urban and rural areas will be exhausted of growth frontiers or the development becoming very expensive. Indeed today we can see states such as Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, and even Sabah are now experiencing tough growth issues due to initial hungry harvest of their resources. Today while absolute poverty is the rural diseases, but relative poverty is an epidemic in urban areas. Kuching and even Sibu, Mukah, Miri, Bintulu as well as smaller towns such as Simunjan, Serian, Sri Aman, Betong, Sarikei, Bintangor, Marudi, Lawas and Limbang are facing an up rising of exported poverty. The rural migrants are trapped into the urban poverty issues, so much so, while relative poverty is reducing in the rural area, such phenomena is on the up rising in the urban areas.
(11) In the presence of our incapability to resolve the relative poverty issues either by high development growth in the urban and or rural areas, such had created high pressure over the resources at both worlds of the State. While urban areas is infested with high population pressure, the rural areas resources had not been relieved by the rural-urban exodus. Thus economically, in the long run, we are not even achieving the Zero Sum Game but we are failing in both sides of the State. Therefore the State, I strongly believe must go back to the integrated regional and or river basin development approach. In the past we had been practicing the Regional Development Area (RDA) and Integrated Agriculture Development Project (IADP), but now it seem that not only we are not improving over such, but we are ignoring the importance of such model. We are biased toward individuals and or groups short sighted political interest. Our developments are too much political greed driven rather moving along the true professional paths. Thus lots of the presence development missed match had made mostly the government machineries ie the civil servants to take a very indifferent attitude toward their professionalism. As I begin to see, today State Civil Servants are mere worker boys to the respective political masters, so much so, we begin to see lots of wastage in term of development funding and priorities.
(12) At the national level, I begin to see, the interest of the "Government" is to fund mega projects that could give quick earning and or political popularity to certain quarters yet not necessarily impacting positively onto the overall wellbeing of the rakyat. I have no issue on the importance of the projects, but what worrying is the "values of the projects". The project values "sounded" too exorbitant. Such in fact in the past was also happening to the State. If such is not immediately corrected, we will be experiencing slowing, stagnant or even dipping rakyat related wealth growth into the future. The State indeed had experienced as such in the past. Thus, instead of achieving the 7-10 per cents growth over certain period, we seem to be
happy to average at five per cents. No doubt growth will still be possible for the Country and State, but not necessarily such growth will be contributing significantly to accelerate wealth growth among the rakyat. Kuala Lumpur and even Johor are experiencing such now. Both regions are facing high growth, yet more and more of the rakyat are struggling to their feet. Worst, if there is serious corruption in dealing with all sorts of government projects, I would believe not long into the future (5-10 years) we will be facing serious resources constraint to keep to our needed pace of development demands.
(13) Basin-based development model is nothing alien. It is among the natural resources and even economic development management sustaining features of some well developed nations. In the modern world, America was among the first to implement and to this day adheres to such model. In facing the Great Economic Depression in 1933, Franklin D Roosevelt signed off the establishment of Tennessee River Valley Authority (TVA) which regulate the Tennessee Water Management covering the seven southern states namely Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. TVA provides navigation facilities, flood control, hydropower generating, fertilizer industries development and all other related economic development. Based on the success of the TVA, the World Bank then deployed the same approach in initiating the improvement of the agarian sector in some of the Third World Economy. The success of the Thailand Central Plain Agricultural Industries was attributed to the proper management of the Menam Chao Phraya water system. In Malaysia, in the era of Abdul Razak, projects such as MADA (Kedah), KEMUBU (Kelantan), KESEDAR (Kelantan), KETENGAH (Trengganu) DARA (Pahang), and KEJORA (Johor) were all based on World Bank funding made along the TVA concept. These Regional-based (RDA) development evolved into a smaller scale during Mahathir time into the Integrated Agriculture Development Project (IADP) which were also funded mostly by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. In Sarawak, Samarahan and Kalaka-Saribas was developed along the similar concept. These projects had lifted majority of the rural Kedah, Perlis, Penang, Kelantan, Pahang, Trengganu, Johor even in Samarahan and Kalaka-Saribas in Sarawak out of the hard core poverty vicious circle. Unfortunately as the time passed, the RDA development concept had shifted toward niche industrial development clustering. The Iskandar of Johor, ECER of Kelantan-Trengganu and SCORE of Sarawak are all industrial based clustering development corridors mooted at time of Abdullah Badawi. So much so, now we began to experience the handicap of poor water resources management aspect of all such high growth development undertaking. The government by reason of the prevailing political disunity seem to fail in managing the balanced development needs of the Nation and State on the longer range basis.
(14) Let me now take on the need for the Greater Kuching Development to be managed along the River Basin Development Model. Though the Greater Kuching had never being managed along such system, I still believe with strong political commitment, we are still not too late. As I earlier said, the Klingkang-Penrisen Mountain Range is the Rooftop of the Greater Kuching. Apart as the natural boundary to Kalimantan, this rooftop is the water source to keep the Sadong, Samarahan, Sarawak and Lundu rivers flowing at the sustainable depth, failing which there will be lots of river bank erosion and thus giving rise to water pollution that would impact negatively to all sort of down rivers' livings. Accordingly, with the constant discharge of fresh water from this rooftop, would limit the intrusion of the salt water at even the highest tide periods. Such requirement has it
numerous unaccounted merits. The Klingkang and Penrissen Highland hosted numerous botanical, zoological and even geological features that are of great future socio-economic interest. The diverse ecological contents of this rooftop I would believe will be of great recreational and pharmaceutical importance. Thus keeping the Klingkang-Penrissen Highland forested is considered very critical. Therefore, a balance Forest-Agriculture development to the south of the Pan Borneo Higway of this Greater Kuching is considered very important and a must. Unfortunately, the hilly to mountainous Klingkang-Penrisen Highland is populated by the undeveloped agarian societies. The Swedish Farming System that followed the earlier greedy logging industry among the societies had devastated the forest areas within the southern enclave of the Greater Kuching. Worst those lands are now being turned into the water hungry oil palm plantation and smallholdings development with the very less concern over Forest-Water Catchments conservation management. All these, I could visualize will be of great threat to our longer range humans interest.
(15) Accordingly, with the improvement of the Kuching-Lundu Pan Borneo Highway, I could predict, much urbanised development will be gearing within the Matang Area. Lots of housing and urban related development are making big way along the Matang-Bau Road. The Matang area especially all those peatland surrounding the Serapi Mountains Complex is Allah's gift that had taken up a very central function in sustaining the growth of the Greater Kuching. Matang area is the key water source to keep the Greater Kuching growing fast. Disturbance of the Matang Water Catchment area would in the future limit the further expansion of the Greater Kuching, Since the hinterland of Samarahan, Sadong and even Sarawak Kiri are very much subjected to social constraints if such were to be managed on strict Forest-Water Catchment need, therefore keeping the Matang as much as possible intact is very critical. Very limited urban and land-based development should be imposed on Matang, and where possible the State must move to curtail the population
growth within the area. The presence tendency of pushing low cost housing into this area must be stopped or drastically reduced. Accordingly, the State must take into serious recognition to the role of the Matang peat land and Serapi Complex in the sustaining of the rich Sempadi-Rampangi Mangrove ecosystem. Constant and balanced discharge of fresh water from thses areas is very vital to the health and wealth of the Sempadi-Rampangi Mangrove ecosystem. Kuching, as one of its main tourism features is the delicacies of its seafoods. The destruction of the Matang Water Catchment and thus the Sempadi-Rampangi Mangrove would not only destroyed our seafood-base but would as well be exposing the coastal Kuching to sea wave damaging disaster. Indeed Santubong and Pasir Panjang-Pendek villages are experiencing as such now.
(16) Definitely the Greater Kuching growth must not be stopped. Improving health and population expansion would never warrant such. But what needed is the regulation of growth. The concept of Zero Sum Game and worst the Survival of the Fittest must never be practiced. To Allah forbidding people, such games are very unethical and is in deviant of Allah trust upon man to be the caliph. Thus, high growth must be managed to be able to bring greater comfort and affordability to the affected population both directly and or indirectly. In the past we had seen, the high growth of the Greater Kuching had displaced and even entrapped its citizens into all sort of urban hardships. Indeed in the rural
areas and smaller townships, from 1970s to 1980s I could see that the Greater Kuching high growth had created pseudo-expectation among its citizens. Upon the collapsed of the greedy logging industry in Sadong, Samarahan, and Lundu-Bau in 1980s, the rural population were left in the noway of the big rough open sea. Rural-urban out migration were their only choice, but then they had to face lack of affordable good housing, suitable employment, and lack of social amenities issues so much so, all sorts of social problem accrued with the high growth of the Greater Kuching. Thus over time I could see, the quality of urban living especially among the natives and rural migrants had not improved drastically despite the presence of high growth phenomena. Bintawa Hilir, Gita Kubor, Tabuan etc were and to this day are flooded with floating population. Kuching indeed is growing with dichotomy facades either by ethnicity and or intra-ethnicity.
(17) I'm in total agreement that urban living is the hinting phenomena of Allah's earlier river basin-based developments model. Indeed in today high population growth, it is of our cost-effective resources management interest that urban living is the best choice. Nonetheless, it must be well understood, healthy and prosperous urban living could only be achieved if our surrounding hinterland resources are sustainably managed. In human physiology, it is not the heart that keep the body healthy, but a healthy body will lengthen the life of a heart. Thus sustaining the hinterland resources is a must for the sustainable growth of a city or township. In this regard, one must never take Allah's saying that He created everything thing from water too literally. Such saying carries lots of scientific and the art perspectives. Not only living things, even the gravel, silt and sand were all crafted through water. Thus ensuring the growth of the Greater Kuching calls us to manage our future water resources to the best intellectual and wisdom. Managing our forest and rural development on a much holistic and integratedly along the Klingkang-Penrissen Range to the Pan Borneo Highway I would say is a must. Poor management of this region would made growth to the Greater Kuching becoming costly and or limited.
(18) Accordingly, the coastal area of the Greater Kuching ie ranging between 1-2 kilometers inward of the South China Sea is home to the ever green nourishing mangrove forest. Subsequently, as far as 10-15 kilometers from the estuarine of the Lundu, Sarawak, Samarahan and Sadong rivers, mangrove habitat provides a very serene panoramic views. While such ecosystem is important to support the rich tropical marine resources, indeed the mangrove is vital to buffer the hinterland from all sort of possible damages incurred by the rough monsoon South China Sea heavy waves. Accordingly, the mangrove system is also important to buffer the salt water intrusion deeper into the hinterland and thus distrupting all the other related fresh water ecosystem. Thus, one should be able to see now what Allah had said, that He created thing in pair, the fresh water peatland and salty mangrove systems are symbiosis to each other existence. Indeed the existence of the fresh water source of the Klingkang-Penrissen and even Serapi-Matang are critical to the sustenance of all these mangrove ecosystems. Their existence, is of nothing most beneficial but to humankind. Therefore to this far, one should be able to see that, the proper management of both the Klingkang-Penrissen and Serapi-Matang fresh water source and as well as the Sempadi-Rampangi, Samarahan and Sadong mangrove ecosystem is something that we must place at a high development management agenda. Both of these Allah's gifts are very important to sustain the high growth of the Greater Kuching on a very long term basis.
(19) Both the Klingkang-Penrissen and Serapi-Matang mountain complexs and the Sempadi-Rampangi, Samarahan and Sadong mangrove ecosystems I would estimate to cover about 30-40 per cents of the Greater Kuching land masses. The balance 60-70 per cents are mid range land bounded in between the rugged interior mountains range and the flat coastal-riverine mangrove ecosystem. These are either undulating hinterland and or flat marine alluvial and peatland. Peat and alluvial land masses are found mostly within the enclave of the Pan Borneo Highway and the Lundu-Sebuyau Coastal Road. Undulating land are mostly found 2-5 kilometers into the southern of the Pan Borneo Highway leading toward the Klingkang-Penrissen Range to the further interior. Currently, the peat, alluvial and as well as the undulating land housed the most active economic activities within the current Greater Kuching. Sematan, Lundu, Bau, Kuching City, Kota Samarahan, Asajaya, Kota Sentosa, Kota Padawan, Siburan, Serian, Simunjan, Gedong and Sebuyau are among the major townships, settlements and industrial development within the area. This is the home of at least 70 per cents of the Greater Kuching population.
(20) In term of large scale agriculture development, I would say Samarahan, Asajaya, Simunjan and Serian are the main districts that should be focused on. Probably 60-70 per cents of the Greater Kuching best agriculture lands are found in this four districts. Thus in term of sustainable agriculture development, this eastern region of the Greater Kuching could play a key role and thereon giving the long term impetus for a much prosperous Greater Kuching and Kuching City growth. I could see this eastern region is the vital economic hinterland to the Greater Kuching long term prosperity development. A proper long term agriculture development plan as well as other critical land uses plan must be prepared for this eastern region. I can see that this region require a much holistic water resources management in view of its low lying and as well as had been heavily deforested. The clustering of the present settlements development need further enhancement to take the region into a much developed status. Accordingly, the present roading system within the area need major improvement particularly in regard to its connectivity efficiency and loading capacity. The better development planning and management of the area would help to diffuse the possible urban stress currently imposed onto Kuching City. Growth must not only be focused to the Kuching City environ alone, but difusion into the hinterland at a very systematic way must be made. The Klang Valley development syndrome must never be repeated of forget in regard to the pursuance of Kuching High Growth.
(21) On the other hand, Bau and Lundu, which formed the western region of the Greater Kuching, are having their own niche strengths. Adventurous recreational elements are abundant but undeveloped in the interior hinterland of Bau and Lundu and even Serian. Couple with the beaches and mangrove in the coastal area, Serian, Bau and Lundu are the Greater Kuching potential natural recreational power house. The development of these natural recreational areas required for the sustainable development planning and management of the Klingkang-Penrissen, Serapi-Matang and the coastal mangrove ecosystems. Thus the existing large scale agriculture development in the area need to be reviewed. Accordingly, well managed new township and industrial areas should be planned for Bau and Lundu; Sematan, Tondong, Serikin, Teluk Melano etc to provide a better economic seclude for their rural population. These are to draw out those rural population that may impacted negatively onto the interest to conserve the Klingkang-Penrissen and Serapi-Matang water catchments areas. This is very possible in view of the high out migration rate currently experienced by these districts. Accordingly, a very systematic nature-based recreational facilities must then be well developed to provide alternative and lucrative economic choice for those rural population whom preferred to stay back. They must then be educated to care for the environmental conservation as the key success strategy in advancing the natural resources-based economic development.
(22) The Central Region of the Greater Kuching is now being highly urbanised. This includes areas stretching from Siburan to the east, Kota Samarahan to the north and partially Matang-Petra Jaya to the south-west. Currently, I would estimate that about 1,000,000 population are domicile of this enclave. The figure is growing comparatively higher than any other areas in Sarawak. Unfortunately, this Central Region used to face lots of water-related management issues; be it flooding a the monsoon period due to heavy rush off as well as the coincident with the sea high tide or shortage of clean industrial and domestic water supply. Flash flood is becoming an issue in certain part of Kuching. The growth of the Region is becoming a missed match problem with the overall water-based management requirement. So much so, urban development in the Region is very costly and to certain extend creating a very unhygienic environment. The glaring failure that I could see in the urban related development in the Region is a very poor drainage and green space development and management. The State Planning Authority (SPA) and the Councils that approved all sort of developments in the Region paid less attention to the heavy-rain climatic regime that the Region is experiencing. Most approvals I would say is left to the greed and stinginess of the developers. Indeed in this sense, I could see the SPA and Council officials denied or blinded themselves to what Allah had endured Sarawak for; the State with many rivers and green forests. They I would bravely said, clouded by the developers greed and stinginess or even worst to certain self interest of certain parties, failed to learn and understand the Al Quran saying that I created nothing not for the good of humankind, thus Allah making of the Region with lots of rivers and stream within the ever green environ meant nothing to them. Allah as His natural law, once we defiant His governance, disaster will always be at our door steps. Kuching to me is growing into a barren city; a city quick to loose it soul.
(23) Thus to me, Kuching development must reflect what Allah had did to the Nile Civilization over the past 3,000-4,000 years ago. The baron Nile Valley turned populated and prosperous with the genius of Pharaoh to develop ducks and dikes to regulate the Nile flood and tide. People of Ganges, Euphrates and even Yang Tze all prosper through such wisdom imparted by Allah. Even the Baghdad, Damshek, Cardova, Instanbul later emulated as such, and definitely Venice, Holland etc are among those very successfully understood the message of Allah through his Pharoah and Joseph genius in making Nile into the very livable desert. All these civilization sustained to have great city living through good water-based management system. Did we in the hunger of development realize such?
(24) In conclusion, I would love to call upon the State Government particularly the State Panning Unit in the interest to keep Sarawak to forever to grow and thus making this State a very different and truly managed along the gift of Allah within the tropical ecosystem, we need to revived our development planning and management along the Regional Concept. With Geographical Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing and even today drone technologies, such regional planning and management system is becoming very easy and cheaper to organise. The only issue is political and management will, do we have the gut to move as such? It is not because, such was my professional discipline, but such is what Allah being practicing in His global management. He keeps the deserts, oceans, forest types, animal kingdoms, human races etc in respond to His macro climatic zoning of the earth. We must never deny such, and if we do so, I would believe we are amounting to not to believe in Him. Astafirullah.
(25) Selamat Hari Sarawak.
Kg Terasi, Sadong Jaya, Asajaya
16 Sept., 2016
(4) With Allah statement that He created every living thing by water, I could see then Sarawak must be concerned of water resources as our norms and strategies of development. We should take the rivers and all those water catchments as the soul or axis of our development planning and management. We must never be forgetful, that Klang Valley of Malaya is facing lots of development stress despite of alot of Allah blessing, is due to poor water management conceptualization. Keep the UMNO political short sighted apart, professionally and theologically I would say, the Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam administration despite their grandeur Mosque structures, a monumental symbol of their state of Islamization, they indeed are in the dark to the broader meaning of Allah saying "I created every living thing from water". To me we should be looking at such Allah's saying among other as a warning over our humankind future existence and prosperity. Water is paramount to future human population expansion. As such, I would love to take readers to what I'm going to write that Sarawak should now be thinking seriously to manage our socio-economic development along the River Basin Model. Allah indeed about 4,000-5,000 years ago had shown such as the model that had guided humankind to the early civilized living. Therefore it should be revisited accordingly as a model that Sarawak should consider to achieve its sustainable high growth development desires.
(5) We can now ignore the importance of water-based planning to achieve development growth, but be mindful, to sustain a long term high development growth in one way or another will force us to one day have to admit, water is central to human development. To be regretful to almost the end of a journey is always dreadful and resources wasting, therefore it is great to take all the risk calculation at the very beginning of a destiny. Our destiny should be a sustainable development to the End of the Day; Khiamah.
(7) What is the significant of managing say Kuching, Samarahan and Serian divisions into a basin-based development management. Let call these divisions as the greater Kuching which then I would call as Kuching Basin. The same concept should then be applied to the Greater Lupar, Rajang, Miri and Limbang. I won't argue about the present normal and political administrative boundaries arrangement which are very subjective and volatile in nature. Least to say, I'm taking an indifferent stance on the R&DO administrative boundaries arrangement, my concern is over the long term key socio-economic development and management matter especially wrt water resources development and management vis-a-vis the then all the other key socio-economic developments. As such, the role of the State Planning Unit to plan and coordinate the spatial key socio-economic developments among all ministries and agencies in the Basin must be treated as serious and vital.
(8) Greater Kuching population had grown from 777,854 in 2000 to 956,168 in 2010, an increased of 22.92 per cents. Kuching district per se was experiencing a 21.30 per cents growth in the same period with the population growing from 509,374 persons in 2000 to 617,887 persons in 2010. Samarahan experienced the fastest population growth from 48,068 persons in 2000 to 87,923 persons in 2010 ie an increased of 82.30 per cents. While population growth and mobility elasticity is a good sign of economic achievement, but such growth and movement if not managed accordingly, will attract future disaster(s). With
high population growth in Kuching and Kota Samarahan for instance had placed among others high pressure over water supply and demand within the Kuching Basin. The Begoh Dam need to be built to support the existing Matang Water Supply System, but then such effort may be suitable for medium (15-25 years) range basis. What then would be the longer range (beyond 25 years) term consideration. Thus while the medium term urban growth of the Kuching Basin will be sustained by the Matang and Begoh Water Supply System, but the longer term growth would be of major dilemma. The dilemma as I see it is to balance between urban and rural development.(9) Urban development is always associated with high cost of living, while rural development will need to trade off between bulldozing rural landscapes and sustaining rural resources. Massive urban development in one way or another had impacted a missed match problem within the migrants rural population. Housing and employment missed match are the most glaring urban issues that later giving rise to all sort of urban social problems. Rural migrants due to certain short falls in their acquitance of the urban growth, has to fall back onto the rural economy to supplement their needs. Thus, despite they had migrated to urban areas, they continue to have grip over their rural resources. Unfortunately, the way they developed and managed their rural resources is becoming less productive and thus sustaining the waste of rural economic opportunities and sustainable development management. Indeed, the rural sector as it is, is not contributing to the wealth generation to the people and the State.
numerous unaccounted merits. The Klingkang and Penrissen Highland hosted numerous botanical, zoological and even geological features that are of great future socio-economic interest. The diverse ecological contents of this rooftop I would believe will be of great recreational and pharmaceutical importance. Thus keeping the Klingkang-Penrissen Highland forested is considered very critical. Therefore, a balance Forest-Agriculture development to the south of the Pan Borneo Higway of this Greater Kuching is considered very important and a must. Unfortunately, the hilly to mountainous Klingkang-Penrisen Highland is populated by the undeveloped agarian societies. The Swedish Farming System that followed the earlier greedy logging industry among the societies had devastated the forest areas within the southern enclave of the Greater Kuching. Worst those lands are now being turned into the water hungry oil palm plantation and smallholdings development with the very less concern over Forest-Water Catchments conservation management. All these, I could visualize will be of great threat to our longer range humans interest.
growth within the area. The presence tendency of pushing low cost housing into this area must be stopped or drastically reduced. Accordingly, the State must take into serious recognition to the role of the Matang peat land and Serapi Complex in the sustaining of the rich Sempadi-Rampangi Mangrove ecosystem. Constant and balanced discharge of fresh water from thses areas is very vital to the health and wealth of the Sempadi-Rampangi Mangrove ecosystem. Kuching, as one of its main tourism features is the delicacies of its seafoods. The destruction of the Matang Water Catchment and thus the Sempadi-Rampangi Mangrove would not only destroyed our seafood-base but would as well be exposing the coastal Kuching to sea wave damaging disaster. Indeed Santubong and Pasir Panjang-Pendek villages are experiencing as such now.(16) Definitely the Greater Kuching growth must not be stopped. Improving health and population expansion would never warrant such. But what needed is the regulation of growth. The concept of Zero Sum Game and worst the Survival of the Fittest must never be practiced. To Allah forbidding people, such games are very unethical and is in deviant of Allah trust upon man to be the caliph. Thus, high growth must be managed to be able to bring greater comfort and affordability to the affected population both directly and or indirectly. In the past we had seen, the high growth of the Greater Kuching had displaced and even entrapped its citizens into all sort of urban hardships. Indeed in the rural
areas and smaller townships, from 1970s to 1980s I could see that the Greater Kuching high growth had created pseudo-expectation among its citizens. Upon the collapsed of the greedy logging industry in Sadong, Samarahan, and Lundu-Bau in 1980s, the rural population were left in the noway of the big rough open sea. Rural-urban out migration were their only choice, but then they had to face lack of affordable good housing, suitable employment, and lack of social amenities issues so much so, all sorts of social problem accrued with the high growth of the Greater Kuching. Thus over time I could see, the quality of urban living especially among the natives and rural migrants had not improved drastically despite the presence of high growth phenomena. Bintawa Hilir, Gita Kubor, Tabuan etc were and to this day are flooded with floating population. Kuching indeed is growing with dichotomy facades either by ethnicity and or intra-ethnicity.(17) I'm in total agreement that urban living is the hinting phenomena of Allah's earlier river basin-based developments model. Indeed in today high population growth, it is of our cost-effective resources management interest that urban living is the best choice. Nonetheless, it must be well understood, healthy and prosperous urban living could only be achieved if our surrounding hinterland resources are sustainably managed. In human physiology, it is not the heart that keep the body healthy, but a healthy body will lengthen the life of a heart. Thus sustaining the hinterland resources is a must for the sustainable growth of a city or township. In this regard, one must never take Allah's saying that He created everything thing from water too literally. Such saying carries lots of scientific and the art perspectives. Not only living things, even the gravel, silt and sand were all crafted through water. Thus ensuring the growth of the Greater Kuching calls us to manage our future water resources to the best intellectual and wisdom. Managing our forest and rural development on a much holistic and integratedly along the Klingkang-Penrissen Range to the Pan Borneo Highway I would say is a must. Poor management of this region would made growth to the Greater Kuching becoming costly and or limited.
(21) On the other hand, Bau and Lundu, which formed the western region of the Greater Kuching, are having their own niche strengths. Adventurous recreational elements are abundant but undeveloped in the interior hinterland of Bau and Lundu and even Serian. Couple with the beaches and mangrove in the coastal area, Serian, Bau and Lundu are the Greater Kuching potential natural recreational power house. The development of these natural recreational areas required for the sustainable development planning and management of the Klingkang-Penrissen, Serapi-Matang and the coastal mangrove ecosystems. Thus the existing large scale agriculture development in the area need to be reviewed. Accordingly, well managed new township and industrial areas should be planned for Bau and Lundu; Sematan, Tondong, Serikin, Teluk Melano etc to provide a better economic seclude for their rural population. These are to draw out those rural population that may impacted negatively onto the interest to conserve the Klingkang-Penrissen and Serapi-Matang water catchments areas. This is very possible in view of the high out migration rate currently experienced by these districts. Accordingly, a very systematic nature-based recreational facilities must then be well developed to provide alternative and lucrative economic choice for those rural population whom preferred to stay back. They must then be educated to care for the environmental conservation as the key success strategy in advancing the natural resources-based economic development.
(23) Thus to me, Kuching development must reflect what Allah had did to the Nile Civilization over the past 3,000-4,000 years ago. The baron Nile Valley turned populated and prosperous with the genius of Pharaoh to develop ducks and dikes to regulate the Nile flood and tide. People of Ganges, Euphrates and even Yang Tze all prosper through such wisdom imparted by Allah. Even the Baghdad, Damshek, Cardova, Instanbul later emulated as such, and definitely Venice, Holland etc are among those very successfully understood the message of Allah through his Pharoah and Joseph genius in making Nile into the very livable desert. All these civilization sustained to have great city living through good water-based management system. Did we in the hunger of development realize such?
(24) In conclusion, I would love to call upon the State Government particularly the State Panning Unit in the interest to keep Sarawak to forever to grow and thus making this State a very different and truly managed along the gift of Allah within the tropical ecosystem, we need to revived our development planning and management along the Regional Concept. With Geographical Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing and even today drone technologies, such regional planning and management system is becoming very easy and cheaper to organise. The only issue is political and management will, do we have the gut to move as such? It is not because, such was my professional discipline, but such is what Allah being practicing in His global management. He keeps the deserts, oceans, forest types, animal kingdoms, human races etc in respond to His macro climatic zoning of the earth. We must never deny such, and if we do so, I would believe we are amounting to not to believe in Him. Astafirullah.
(25) Selamat Hari Sarawak.
Kg Terasi, Sadong Jaya, Asajaya
16 Sept., 2016
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