Borneo Blog

George Bush hater Todd A leave left the United States soon after Bush Bush’s re-election in 2004, saying, “I became so depressed that the idea of sitting under a palm tree far, far away from George Bush became more appealing.”

The Firewater frontman travelled the world but returned three years later in time for the US 2008 Election, with a new album “The Golden Hour”, with Borneo as the opening track.

“Got a monkey for a president” is the third line in the lyrics.

It’s all numbers and logical consequences. If the rate of decline is faster than the rate of replenishment, you’ll eventually end up with the number zero.

That has been the case with Orang Utan population. It has been on the decline in the past decades at a free falling rate — whether in Borneo and in Sumatra — over the past few decades.

A latest study indicated that the rate of decline may have been sharper due to numerous reason.

According to new findings published this month by Great Ape Trust of Iowa scientist Dr. Serge Wich and other orangutan conservation experts in Oryx - The International Journal of Conservation, there is every possibility that the actual number of Orang Utan at the moment is very much lower than previous estimate.

Great Ape Trust of Iowa said:

The experts’ revised estimates put the number of Sumatran orangutans (P. abelii) around 6,600 in 2004.

This is lower than previous estimates of 7,501 as a result of new findings that indicate that a large area in Aceh that was previously thought to contain orangutans actually does not.

Since forest loss in Aceh has been relatively low from 2004 to 2008, the 2004 estimate is probably not much higher than the actual number in 2008.

The 2004 estimate of about 54,000 Bornean orangutans (P. pygmaeus) is probably also higher than the actual number today as there has been a 10 percent orangutan habitat loss in the Indonesian part of Borneo during that period.

“It is clear that the Sumatran orangutan is in rapid decline and unless extraordinary efforts are made soon, it could become the first great ape species to go extinct,” Wich et al said in the report.

“Although these revised estimates for Borneo are encouraging, forest loss and associated loss of orangutans are occurring at an alarming rate, and suggest that recent reductions of Bornean orangutan populations have been far more severe than previously supposed.”

The experts’ report includes sweeping recommendations for:

* Effective law enforcement and prosecution to stop hunting orangutans for food and trade;

* Mechanisms to mitigate and reduce human-orangutan conflict in agricultural areas, including large-scale plantations;

* The development of an auditing process to assess the compliance of forestry concessions to their legal obligation to ensure orangutans are not hunted in concession areas;

* Increased environmental awareness at the local level, following examples set by the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program and the Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project that promote awareness of conservation of forests and the importance of biodiversity;

* Development of mechanisms to monitor orangutan populations and forest cover, building on those in place on both Borneo and Sumatra;

* Continuation of surveys in less explored regions; and

* Continued improvement of survey methodology to include nest-decay rates.

“All efforts to monitor orangutans, however, will be to no avail unless the decline in numbers is halted, and this requires a change in political will,” the statement said, quoting Wich et al.

If it has been easy to resolve, Sabah’s illegal immigrant problems would have been resolved by now.

If the political will has been strong to resolve the issue, we won’t be cancered by the problem.

But what was once an easy problem to tackle, has become so difficult to overcome because of a number of reasons. Here are the 12 reasons for the worsening illegal immigrants problem in Sabah:

#01. The tidak apa attitude among the powers-that-be in the past to resolve the problem;

Read the rest of this entry »

[Photo Source] A Malaysian chef decided to wrestle with fate and ended up opening a restaurant in Portsmouth UK.

According to a report on Portsmouth news online, “Vietnamese-born Tring Lim, her husband Yan Lim and brother-in-law Woo Lim, from Malaysia, of which Borneo is a part, opened this colourful neighbourhood restaurant five years ago.” The article says:

“A succession of chefs from the Borneo village of Sandakan have arrived to cook for their Western brethren who crowd out the restaurant, attracted by the food, a Malay-Chinese mix, and the friendly atmosphere.”

The reports said Malaysian dishes include udang sambal (king prawns cooked in prawn paste with a chilli sauce); ayam santan (chicken drumsticks braised in coconut milk); ikan nyonya (monkfish in a tamarind sour sauce with chilli); lembu rending (beef curry with a coconut sauce) or nasi goreng (fried rice with chicken, prawns, onions, peppers and a touch of chilli sauce).

I definitely want to try the beef rending.

I was once a part-time reporter with a national newspaper. Back then, and still is, they call part-time reporters “stringers”, although none of their job involves stringing strings (for want of a better pun).

That was in the early 90’s and Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan was still the Sabah Chief Minister and Datuk Yong Teck Lee his deputy, if my memory serves me right.

Seri Bersatu assignment

Sometime in 1993, I was assigned to cover an event at Seri Bersatu, Pairin’s residence in Luyang near Kota Kinabalu, the capital city of the Malaysian state of Sabah.

I could not remember what exactly the event was — it might have been a Harvest Festival celebration or a Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) anniversary, but I remember there was partying, and singing, and the food was great.

Biar kau menjadi lilin

I still remember Datuk Lawrence Gimbang was singing “Biarku Menjadi Lilin” that night and did quite a nice rendition of the song.

Well, it wasn’t great — as Simon Cowell would have put it — but it wasn’t terrible. Now we know from whom Rich of Akadami Fantasia got his singing talent.

Calling it the blues

I also remember the sharp, stinging and definitive sound of an electric guitar in the hands of Datuk Hassan Alban Sandukong, who was Sabah Legislative Assembly Speaker at the time, again if my memory serves me right –  about Alban’s post, I mean; not the guitar.

I remember the guitar well because guitar-playing politician was quite a sight for me — the greenhorn stringer — back then.

Hassan Alban is no Eric Clapton but man, he can still play the blues.

And then there was Young Turk Lee

Then there was Yong, the then PBS Deputy President, whom we — the reporters — bumped into while filling our plates with food. He greeted us and told us how great the party was.

Something in the way he said it

But there was something else he said that night that is flooding back to me now like an old dream.

I guess, we, the reporters, must have remarked about the food and had probably asked him if he had taken his. He told us that he in fact had, and that he was just walking around “to get an idea how to make a party”.

That was many more months before he finally made the party and it had nothing to do with playing guitar or singing about becoming a candle. His party is called Parti Maju Sabah or Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP).

… to be continued (but can’t promise when)

The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), a Sabah-based component party of the ruling Barisan Nasional, said today it had lost confidence in Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

In the coming sitting of the Parliament session on Monday, its two Members of Parliament will support a vote of no confidence against the Prime Minister, the party said. [Further details in The Star].

Up to you to decide whether the Typhoon Sapp is indeed a typhoon or just a storm in the teacup.

“Whether its MPs table the vote of no confidence, or whether other MPs will do it, would be determined in due course,” the party said in a statement.

In the meantime, the Sanglang state seat in Perlis has been declared vacant by an election court. Meaning there is going to could be a by-election. The seat was won by Barisan Nasional in the March 8 general election.

Alternatively, the Election Commission can just declare the other candidate, from Pas, as the winner.

So it’s going to be just like in the song, dari Perlis sampailah ke Sabah… at least for today lah.

Forget Bigfoot. We have already call their bluff. It’s time to prepare for the storm, politically, which have been brewing in Sabah in the past few weeks that even the goodies announced on Harvest Festival Day failed to lighten up the sky.

Word has it that the storm, which this blog shall call Typhoon Sapp, will finally hit tomorrow.

As of tonight there was no information as to the severity of the storm but political meteorologists said it was set to uproot trees and send rooftops flying in the air.

Watch out for June 18 and listen to the political weather forecast around 3pm. It could well be Category 4 political storm. Or, maybe just a storm in a teacup.

Borneo Blog will try to bring you the news from 2.30pm tomorrow.

Having solved the mystery behind The Crystal Skull, word has it that the bullwhip-lashing archaeologist, Dr Indiana Jones, was to be flown to Borneo to resolve once-and-for-all the mysteries behind the discovery of two large footprints in Sarawak, rumoured to be those of the mythical Bigfoot.

Dr Jones all set for Borneo

He was already fully-geared for the Borneo adventure — the fedora perched on his head, shoulder bag strapped sideways over the tanned safari shirt, his war-time navy officer’s pants all buckled up, with handgun holster — often with the handgun missing — strapped to the hip, not to mention three days’ worth of unshaved beard for good measure.

He was grinning from ear to ear in anticipation of the adventure when he received the news that the footprints were fake. Alas, his grin disappeared (see picture). There goes the greatest Dr Jones adventure, he thought.

“It’s man-made and a hoax,” Sarawak Museum anthropologist Dr Charles Leh said, and promptly text-messaged Spielberg, Lucas and Dr Jones not to waste their time chasing after a non-existent primate in Borneo.

Sorry 4 d trouble

“Guys, so sori 4 d trouble d nws hav caused. The ftprints were fake. I rpt, d ftprints were fake. To make up 4 d disappoinmt, why dont d 3 of u go 2 d cinema n watch incredble hulk instead. Adios, Dr Leh,” said the text message.

Disclaimer: like the footprint, the information above is part fiction, part real. The print is real, the foot is not. — Jaxon S.

Borneo is losing its forest and losing it fast, especially in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo Island.

Sabah is not doing too bad according to the WWF map below and if some of the powers-that-be in Sabah and Malaysia could still make it right, there is every possibility that the vast tract of forested land will remain where its is.

There is hope. If and only if the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia as well as those of Sabah, Sarawak and Kalimantan are keeping to their promises of preserving the Heart of Borneo as shown below.

[Both maps are courtesy of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature]

A hoax. That has been the general reaction to the discovery of two large Borneo Bigfoot “footprints” in Daro, Mukah, Sarawak.

Apparently it got not only Malaysians talking but also other Bigfooters around the world as well. And they are skeptical that the footprints were that of the mythical giant primate, Bigfoot.