Orang Ulu, We Can Do Better

The Orang Ulu community will always have a special place in my heart. When you’re one out of the 25, 000 Orang Ulu population in Malaysia, you form a tight-knitted community where almost everyone is related to each other, one way or another.

As a little girl, Christmas was an occasion that I’d look forward to every year, because it meant going back to kampung (village) and playing with all my cousins; it meant slumber parties and receiving gifts from Santa Claus (a role happily enacted by my uncles); it meant listening to ghost stories and stealing keropok from my grandparent’s shop at midnight (lol).

My parents are both Orang Ulu; my mum is of Kayan descent and my dad a Kenyah. When you trace back our lineage, our ancestors actually originated from the central parts of Kalimantan, Indonesia. My kampung is located in the interior parts of Miri, Sarawak, in a district called Baram. Not many years ago, our kampung was only accessible by express boats or four-wheel drive vehicles due to the unfavourable, muddy terrain. Thanks to advancing development, the roads have been progressively improved and now, even some sedans can be found in sight heading towards villages.

Visiting my grandparent’s orchard by boat and picking up various tropical fruits such as durians, oranges and rambutans were common activities for my brothers and I as kids. My first swimming lesson was by the river. I remembered smearing our bodies with dampened, slimy mud by the riverside and treating ourselves to some organic mud spa. Those were the days.

My akek (grandad) was the strongest man I knew back then. It’s impressive how he could carry baskets of durians behind his back, sauntering back and forth like no one’s business. Now, old age is visibly taking a toll on his physical health — a diminished strength, slower gait and deteriorating eyesight. Gout and chronic kidney disease only exacerbates it further.

When I reminisce on my childhood kampung moments, it usually seemed like a distant memory, etched with a sense of fondness, nostalgia and longing that I am only capable of reviving in my mind.

So much has changed ever since.

The kids that I used to play with have now grown up, just as I have; some married with children, some performing well in their careers, others continue to live a humble life in kampung.

When I reflect on the youngsters in kampung right now, I ask myself: Are they being guided well enough?

I am blessed to have parents who toiled away night and day with blood, sweat and tears, just so my brothers and I can discover a life beyond our hometown. I am lucky to have a family who emphasizes on education and incessantly reminding us to pursue a purposeful life. My circumstances would’ve turn out differently, had I been born of a different family. Unfortunately, life’s not always fair that way.

I commiserate with the young Orang Ulus in many kampungs, who I believe, have huge potentials and talents yet untapped within them; who weren’t given the same opportunity in terms of education and finance, as my brothers and I have; who still live in the comforts of their small village because that is the only life they know.

How I wish they could see life beyond the four walls of their home, and realize that the world is vast, with beauty waiting to be discovered.

Every single one of us has a part in building the nation, no matter how big or small. As for myself, I am truly passionate in uplifting the youngsters of my community, because I strongly believe they are our future leaders whom we should guide and groom at an early age.

If there are any suggestions that I’d propose to improve the dire circumstances of the young Orang Ulus in rural Sarawak, these would be it:

EDUCATION

I have conviction that education provides the foundation to a better standard of living.

As mentioned by Melinda Gates in The Moment of Lift, “Education has transformative effects on the health and economic advancement of the nation, and is an absolutely vital step towards a path to empowerment for every child — a path that starts with good health, nutrition and prepares them to earn an income, run a business, form an organization and lead”.

Education determines who thrives and is a window of opportunity towards a life bigger than yourself.

It allows you to be equipped with the skills and knowledge required for a particular job, which will subsequently improve your living standards and supplements you to survive the vicissitudes of life.

Whilst some say money is the currency of power, so is education. I’m not merely referring to academic education in schools, which is equally as important. But I’m talking about immersing oneself in the richness that the world has to offer — be it art, literature, history, politics, economy, science, molecular biology, biotechnology, finance etc. These are exciting times in the field of scientific research and technology. Give yourself permission to broaden your perspectives, open your minds and explore different fields. There’s a whole new world out there and it doesn’t just revolve around you.

“A deep and abiding curiosity enables the discovery of new people, places and ideas, as well as an awareness and an understanding of the marketplace and its changing dynamics. The path to innovation begins with curiosity”.

— Robert Iger, The Ride of A Lifetime

Sometimes, I don’t think we comprehend how fortunate we are to live in a country where education is prioritized and is made available equally to both boys and girls. I sympathize with the plights suffered by many children in different parts of the continents who are denied access and privilege to education: girls of lower caste in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa who are chained by their culture and tradition, Afghan girls under the Taliban regime or war-torn countries such as Syria or Gaza.

But you don’t have to look far — even some children in rural parts of Sabah and Sarawak do not have education that is easily accessible. Some villages do not have schools, and the nearest one is usually a few hours from their kampung. Some do not even have the financial resources to enroll these children in schools.

We must direct our efforts toward relieving the insurmountable hurdles that these children are facing.

INCOME

“Poverty itself is romanticized only by fools”.

— J. K. Rowling

Money always had a bad representation when we were younger. Money doesn’t buy happiness. Money is the root of evil. So when we grow up, the negative connotation towards money never really fades.

As Kanye West nicely puts it, “Having money isn’t everything, not having it is”. Because lets face it: How do you buy food, if not with money? How do you obtain an education, if not with money? How do you provide basic necessities such as clean water and a safe shelter for your family, if not with money?

When you are financially stable, it ultimately leads to an upgraded social condition.

Financial constraint impedes education because it ends up becoming a burden. Money becomes scarce to even afford school, thus children are forced to work at a young age, working long hours performing odd jobs or labour work, just to sustain the family’s impoverished condition.

When all a child knows is a life of destitute, that knowledge and lifestyle is passed down to his/her subsequent generation, and it becomes a vicious cycle. Unless someone disrupts that chain, the wheels of poverty will continue to rotate endlessly.

Poverty entails stress, fear and depression. When a family lives in penury, education and ambition takes a backseat because the top priority is: survival — to provide for the family and attain the first few lower tiers of the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Only time will tell before the child can actually reach self-actualization.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

A life lived for others is a life worth living. So when you’re able to stand on your two feet, it’s only fitting that you lend others a helping hand and serve those less fortunate in any way possible.

One of the way is through entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship centres around problem-solving and combating the difficulties faced by consumers, thus improving the lifestyle of everyone.

Building a business creates job opportunities and increases employment rates by enabling employees to utilise the skills and knowledge that they possess, for example, in manufacturing, software development, design, management etc.

Entrepreneurship enhances the national economy and helps not only the people, but also the country to prosper by increasing productivity.

Bank Negara Malaysia released a statistical report in March 2019, which revealed an increasing number of Malaysian graduates in the labour force, as opposed to high-skilled jobs from 2010 to 2017.

It also cited the ‘average minimum monthly basic salary for fresh graduates without prior experience’ is underwhelming in 2018 compared to 2010, and it has been declining every year.

BNM attributed this pattern to the lack of jobs created for employees with high level of education. Thus, with an ample supply of graduates and limited demand for them by firms, graduate salaries have faced downward pressures.

I personally believe entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in battling this issue.

As an Orang Ulu and a minority in the country, we need to stop our habit of being overly dependent on higher authorities for our tribulations, such as relying on incentives from kerajaan (government) or political leaders. It’s about time that we, or whoever capable, take full responsibility for our state of affairs and help our community do the same.

You don’t need the title of YB or ketua kampung (village chief) to make a difference.

“When you learn, teach. When you get, give.”

— Maya Angelou

ACTION

We need to destroy the mentality of complacency and stop wasting away our life living idly.

We need to build a community that works together towards a better life for the collective; we need to create a climate fueled by the kaizen concept (the pursuit towards constant improvement); to engage in dialogues and debates, not coercions; and to cooperate when the going gets tough.

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

— Howard Thurman

Having a great leader is vital. We need leaders who are qualified based on competency and meritocracy, not nepotism. We need to elect leaders based on a voting system grounded by fairness and democracy, not favouritism and bribery.

Whether someone is the “right person” has more to do with character traits and innate capabilities, than specific knowledge, background or skills.

We are in desperate need of a “Level 5 leader” — someone who embodies a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will; who is ambitious first and foremost for their people, not themselves; who is fanatically driven to produce sustainable results; displays workmanlike diligence and listens attentively to the outcries of the people.

A person led by ego, self-entitlement, dishonesty and a lust for power, fame or money has no place in true leadership.

It still irks me to witness the ineptness of some community leaders who still rule by the “backdoor politics” playbook.

“If you use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify with not only the powerful, but the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud family who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better”.

— J. K. Rowling

To end this blog, my wishes for the Orang Ulu youngsters are: To break the chains of comfort that still bounds you; explore the vastness of the world beyond your four walls, and be infused by its richness; unravel your hidden potentials and empower others to do the same. Always lead with integrity and give back to those who have built you along the way.

As quoted by the Roman Stoic philosopher, Seneca: “As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters”.