I saw in disbelief a skyscraper in the sleepy town of LA. It was a 14-storey building and real 'big' and outstanding for the bazaar which only having 2 rows of shophouses. I just could not reason out with current 10 police personals to be fitted into this building.
The skyscraper will housed the PDRM offices, living quaters and the other components such as cell. It was too outstanding that it could be seen from any direction.
The intention of my trip to LA (Lubok Antu) was for 3 purposes. One was to see the mammoth dam of Batang Ai, secondly was to see whether or not the government honour their promises during the by-election (April 2009) to improve the road and other infrastructure and finally to see construction of CIQ the Malaysian-Indonesian (Badau) border.
The road signages leading to both destinations were perfectly alright and one can never get lost their way. We managed to enter the Hydro Station and their control room as I have my friend working therein. After the 'briefing' of how the hydro electricity works, we proceeded to LA for our late lunch. It took us almost 20 minutes to reach the LA from BA.
The skyscraper will housed the PDRM offices, living quaters and the other components such as cell. It was too outstanding that it could be seen from any direction.
The intention of my trip to LA (Lubok Antu) was for 3 purposes. One was to see the mammoth dam of Batang Ai, secondly was to see whether or not the government honour their promises during the by-election (April 2009) to improve the road and other infrastructure and finally to see construction of CIQ the Malaysian-Indonesian (Badau) border.
The road signages leading to both destinations were perfectly alright and one can never get lost their way. We managed to enter the Hydro Station and their control room as I have my friend working therein. After the 'briefing' of how the hydro electricity works, we proceeded to LA for our late lunch. It took us almost 20 minutes to reach the LA from BA.
LUBOK ANTU situated on the banks of the Batang Ai river is a typical small town, indeed very small. It has just two rows of shops, one petrol station, a lone hotel and a market. It’s so small that it doesn’t even have a bank. Local folk either pay their bills at the post office or go all the way to Sri Aman, slightly more than an hour’s drive away.
The town generally comes alive in the morning when the market is in full swing and people come to buy all kinds of produce, especially the famous red tilapia fish found in the waters of the Batang Ai river. By lunch time, the market is shut, and the traders return to their longhouses and there is hardly a soul to be seen.
Sarawak’s first hydroelectric dam was built in the constituency in the 1980s, and there is now a Hilton Batang Ai Longhouse Resort on the shores of the reservoir. The Batang Ai National Park and Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary, home to the endangered orang utan among other species, could also be found here.
This is a predominantly Iban constituency and Iban is very much the lingua franca in the area. Everyone, including the malays and Chinese speaks Iban in Lubok Antu and Batang Ai. "Even the Chinese speak Iban among themselves,” my friends affirmed.
Ther are only 56 Muslim houses and one mosque namely, Masjid Nurul Huda.
The town generally comes alive in the morning when the market is in full swing and people come to buy all kinds of produce, especially the famous red tilapia fish found in the waters of the Batang Ai river. By lunch time, the market is shut, and the traders return to their longhouses and there is hardly a soul to be seen.
Sarawak’s first hydroelectric dam was built in the constituency in the 1980s, and there is now a Hilton Batang Ai Longhouse Resort on the shores of the reservoir. The Batang Ai National Park and Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary, home to the endangered orang utan among other species, could also be found here.
This is a predominantly Iban constituency and Iban is very much the lingua franca in the area. Everyone, including the malays and Chinese speaks Iban in Lubok Antu and Batang Ai. "Even the Chinese speak Iban among themselves,” my friends affirmed.
Ther are only 56 Muslim houses and one mosque namely, Masjid Nurul Huda.
LA River Front
A variety of items: The five-foot way in front of shops lined with products in the Lubok Antu town.
RM12.0 Million CIQ under construction. The border between LA and Badau (indonesia)
I agree there is something wrong with our people up there. Who owns the company named BLT? This is white elephant!
ReplyDeleteInteresting note on L.A. Infact, the abbreviation was never mooted during my early years of working on the planning of the CIQs besides the other 25 gazzetted border towns along the Sarawak- Kalimantan border. Nanga Badau is small but big in the sense that the populace is bigger but the infrastructure is much less. During those years , late 1990's, the border town folks of Nange Badau would walk for hours just to get medical services from the Klinik at Lubok Antu, which was then attended by a Medical Assistant ( no doctor). By far, the services and facilities was far better than what they have.
ReplyDeleteThere was planning for a better township or border town, but the highrise or any highrise for that matter was never planned for simply because there is no need to do so. But plannning in this country is not the playing field for technocrats, it's always a political decision. To point out a well planned town in this country is like trying to find a grain of rice that fells into a heap of snow.
If our PM is really serious about the country's vision, then projects such as this should not materialised. This and many more projects of such nature could save government billions of dollars. This is where the real saving could be done.