I don’t know what it is that makes a writer go to his desk in his shut-off room day after day after year after year unless it is the sure knowledge that not to have done the daily stint of writing that day is infinitely more agonizing than to write.
– Edna Ferber, award-winning American author
PRINCESS Diana’s passing on Aug 31, 1997, was an unforgettable event as it coincided with my first meeting with a newly introduced friend at a pub in Miri.
On the evening of that fateful day, Queen E II addressed her nation and the world about the death of the former wife of then Prince Charles (now King Charles III) and the mother of Princes William and Harry.
I was on my way to Kuala Belait and was to start an early journey the next morning taking a lift from a newly introduced friend Ir. Anum Lingoh was working with Brunei Shell in Seria but staying in Kuala Belait.
Also joining us at the music joint in the evening were lawyer Christopher Sawan Jiram who was practising law in Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), Brunei and his wife Chang Yi, a teacher.
I had known the couple for many years and had been a guest at their Sibu home in the late 80s. Sawan, who was to drive early together with us the next morning, was also a former principal of SMK Sedaya, Kanowit some years earlier than me whereas Chang Yi’s younger sister Chang Yin was my classmate in 1973-74 at Methodist Secondary School, Sibu.
I came to Brunei equipped with just some pieces of paper showing blah blah about my teaching and some other skills after making a wrong decision about leaving a comfort zone and shifting to a more challenging and higher paying job in the public education sector, only to find that the licence was not easily obtainable as promised.
Landing in the sultanate on Sept 1 1997, Kuala Belait (KB) was my first stop, thanks to Anum, a petroleum engineer with Shell Brunei. He was alone in KB as his family was still in Miri.
It was also Anum’s idea that I should start exploiting my batik painting skill by trying a few pieces that could be exhibited at Shell Club in Seria which he would willingly arrange. So while he was away on one weekend I started my batik painting, my first in many years. It went smoothly and after three weeks, I managed to produce about 20 good ones.
By mid-October 1997, Anum said space was reserved for my batiks at Seria Shell Club in Seria. All the 20 pieces were put on a show, priced cheaply between B$ 350 and B$700 that were all taken within three hours, thanks to a big number of expatriates among the Shell employees. All the paintings featured Bornean landscapes, cultural traits and motifs, particularly those of Iban ethnicity which appealed to Europeans, Americans, Australians, Kiwis and others.
A local forwarding company Anyalina employed me as its media relations officer on November 1 with quite a decent pay and allowed me to use a company car, an old BMW with automatic gear that took three days for me to master. By mid-November, I quit the job to accept an offer with Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) to teach Psychology of Education in its Education Faculty headed by my former education lecturer at Universiti Sains Malaysia Penang, Professor Datuk Dr Amir Awang, Malaysia’s well-known counselling and guidance psychologist.
I taught only for two weeks at Brunei’s sole university because Brunei Press Berhad, through its daily English paper The Borneo Bulletin, offered me a better deal as a junior sub-editor, thanks to my six-month stint in 1975 as assistant editor of Berita Rayat, an Iban eight-page monthly newspaper in Info/Psywar Section of the Information Department that was under the jurisdiction of the Rajang Area Security Command (RASCOM) in Sibu.
My landing in the sultanate in late 1997 was more or less like a hazy one as Brunei was experiencing a hazy situation and hot weather after almost a month without rain at that time. On both sides of the road from Sungai Tujuh to Kuala Belait and from Kuala Belait to Tutong and then to BSB, one could see fires all the way, razing bushes and forests.
A few days after settling down in BSB, lodging with an Iban mechanic, I was brought around on a ‘familiarisation’ round in the Brunei capital. Jambai, the mechanic, an amiable Iban from Julau, held a red Brunei identity card (permanent residential status) for being married to an Iban lady from Temburong, the sultanate’s fourth district.
I reported for duty with The Borneo Bulletin on December 3, 1997. The Brunei Press Sdn Bhd was located at Beribi light industrial estate, in Gadong.
Jambai let me use a reconditioned and repainted red Nissan Skyline 1.8 cc 1978 model that I finally purchased. It served me well until I got a newer one, a Daewoo Racer II two years later.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of the New Sarawak Tribune.
