‘In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.’
– Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900); a German philosopher, cultural critic, poet, and philologist best known for his works on morality, religion, philosophy, and the human condition.
Just two days ago I joined the Facebook group for our area, Melupa in Saratok. It’s called Ruai Raban Iban Melupa, Saratok (Gallery of Melupa Iban Group, Saratok). I am member number 323, the last to be accepted.
It’s certainly intriguing to be welcomed as a new member considering that the group was formed in 2011. I therefore joined a good number of my Kedap longhouse mates including my two elder brothers Edward and Jon and their four university-educated children. And interestingly, one of the administrators is my third cousin Mary Tukau @ Anda. I last saw her when she was just a kid aged around five or six and now more than thirty years later we are FB friends. She has an older brother who is my namesake and named at birth after our great-great granduncle Tawi Bungin nicknamed ‘Lanang Kasih Sayang Bedindang Madang Rutan, Tawi Berani Ati Pemudi Kayan’ (Jolly Bachelor Who Sings Among the Rutan Creepers, Tawi the Brave Who Terrifies His Enemies).
There are a good number of first and second and third cousins in the group. My second cousin Robert Ussak Jugi is also in the group. He was perhaps the first from our area to graduate from university,earning his engineering degree from a New Zealand university while I became the first local university degree holder and the first Nanga Assam Primary School, Melupa kid to graduate with a degree.
By joining the FB group, I am able to connect and renew kinship with all the area’s gentlemen and ladies. Now Melupa houses a number of longhouses including ours in Kedap, the lowest part of the Melupa basin, plus three others in upper Melupa, namely Tanjung Sikup, Munggu Embawang (my dad’s birth place, Sungai Belung and in Assam, a middle Melupa tributary there are Nanga Assam (formerly Sulau and Lubuk Bundung combined), Pelaie Ili, Pelaie Ulu, Mendas Baru, Mendas Atas and Mendas Asal (these last three are formerly from a 48-door longhouse Mendas that disintegrated in 1999 due to some factors).
Having been bred and brought up in the middle Melupa at Bukit Tinggi, our rubber plantation just above Nanga Assam Primary School since 1962 right after our enrolment as the first group of pioneers at the school in the same year, I grew up in the jungle edge, facing the Melupa River as a friendly bathing site and fishing ground. So by renewing my relationship with others from the same area I have so much to share with them.
First of all I would like to share with them about our first day in school in early January of 1962. We then started from Kedap, because Bukit Tinggi was not ready yet at that time. My brother Jon @ Chandi who was 14 at that time led me to the school where we were registered as student number 9 and 7 respectively – in 2014 during a school gathering that I attended the school’s headmaster reminded the audience that I was registered as number 7 in the school register. By then I was already sub-editor with the New Sarawak Tribune. He read that I was also the first Nanga Assam student to graduate with a university degree and thereby being the first from Melupa to graduate with a degree from local university.
Back to the first school day, I was taken aback when all students, both boys and girls went bathing all naked to the Melupa River just by the school front. Perhaps only Jon and I were not joining them as we were unprepared. Just imagine how the situation appeared bearing boys and girls (some girls had their mammary well-developed already at puberty) mixing innocently together. Our sole teacher Michael Abunawas (now deceased) jumped from his house upon receiving such information and called all students to abandon plan to bathe naked. In the next day’s morning assembly Abunawas told all students not to repeat the folly any more. But it remains a record for ages that the number of those bathing naked in the Melupa River together surpassed 50 on that early January, 1962 a year before Malaysia was born.
Around June of 1962, the school held its first land sport inviting three other schools for the inter-school meet. The two invited schools were Tanduk Primary School in Kerangan at middle Krian and Nanga Drau Primary School in upper Krian. I recall for Boys A and Girls A, all were in their late teens. Only the Boys B and C and their female counterparts were of the right ages. In the first day of the land sport, all events were participated by the three schools and were equally won. It was in the second day of the meet that was very interesting as it involved the participation of parents and guardians for students. One of the events, namely Javelin Throw, my bother-in-law Brayon Encharang (now deceased) won with a very good throw whose distance was not able to be measured as the bamboo stick that functioned as the javelin landed far into the rubber garden next to the school field, thereby making it not necessary to measure as it was automatically adjudged the winner. Luckily it didn’t hit anyone.
During the throw I was joining mom and dad at their stall selling chicken curry rice and ‘suntung palu’ (pounded cuttlefish) as well as some sweetened drinks. I remember the chicken curry rice sold for just for a ringgit per plate while the ‘suntung palu’ sold just for 30 sen each. By midday all items were totally sold, giving both my parents a hearty smile each.
The school’s first students to lodge at night at the sole building in early 1963 were I myself, my brother Jon and our second cousin Tajak Radin. We were allowed to take lodge at the school building’s loft and did our own cooking. Shortly later the school was made into a boarding school with a cook employed to prepare food for the boarders. We then had an additional teacher Tom Meludin Dian from Disso Saratok to join the school as discipline master. He came with a young wife, a daughter and an infant son. By this time my family had moved to Bukit Tinggi and thereby nearer to the school as it just took about 25 minutes on foot from our hovel at Bukit Tinggi to the school.
Around July of 1963, Meludin and wife suffered the loss of their infant son Igat who died at one evening and the vigil was conducted at their Nanga Assam School quarters and he was buried at the Christian Cemetery next to the school the next day. They were totally devastated due to their loss and then sought comfort from our family and took lodge with us at our Bukit Tinggi humble residence for at least two weeks after the funeral. My mom later adopted Meludin as her brother and this led to Jon and I being given lodging at their school quarters thereafter but we still maintained our boarding status at the school, paying the fees and still taking meals with the other boarders.
During weekend leaves I would join my two cousins Madil Jatan and Kimbui Bungin (now deceased) to traverse the Sungai Tapang stream nearby Bukit Tinggi and did all sorts of fishing including using the feminine pastime ‘pemansai’ basket, rod fishing as well as using the tuba (tubai in Iban) poison at the upper reaches of the stream. It was the tuba fishing that was the most interesting when we harvested the half-dead fish found floating. But after a while these fish would regain their breathe and would regain their normalcy. So we had to go harvesting the fish in a haste.
On other days, especially on long school break I would go alone on rod fishing in the bigger site, namely the Melupa River just below our Bukit Tinggi home especially at a big pool below Sungai Tapang estuary the Lubuk Muney, formerly named Lubuk Raran. It changed named after the body of a Chinese trader Muney was found trapped by the pool’s edge after he was gunned down using shotgun while passing through using a boat by the steep gradient below Sungai Tapang estuary. Another boat passenger Toh Hua escaped and went to alert our longhouse residents in Kedap. This occurred in the early 1930s and the British government, after a preliminary probe arrested my uncle Ujih Untan, dad’s first cousin. It was alleged that Muney and Toh Hua were playing poker with Ujih and others prior to the shooting at the Munggu Embawang longhouse. The two Chinese traders celebrated with laughter after winning big in the poker game and this allegedly made Ujih angry and went to aim with a shotgun from the steep gradient by the estuary of the Sungai Tapang stream some two kilometres below Munggu Embawang longhouse where they played poker earlier. However, after about three weeks in police cell, the British government could not find the shotgun used to kill Muney and Ujih was released. He died at an old age of 90 circa 1995.
The legacy of the shooting incident remains up till now as the pool remains to be called Lubuk Muney instead of Lubuk Raran.
The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the New Sarawak Tribune.
