Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale.
― Peter S Beagle, American novelist and screenwriter
Two week ago Sarawak lost one of its renowned Lun Bawang leaders Penghulu George Sigar Sultan who passed away after a short illness.
Sigar, who was in his early 70s, was the chairman of the Alliance of the Indigenous Peoples of The Highlands of Borneo (Formadat), a group of 15,000 natives living in the mountainous border region of northern Sarawak.
His colourful history goes back to the mid-1960s when he was a Border-Scout sergeant at height of the Malaysia-Indonesian Confrontation seconded to the British Special Air Service (SAS).
After retiring from the Border Scouts Sigar became a farmer but later was involved in community development among the Lun Bawang community in upper Lawas and Lun Dayeh of Kerayan at the Indonesian border district of North Kalimantan.
I first met Sigar in December 1985 while covering a Borneo Evangelical Mission (BEM) gathering of 1,000 people at Ba Kelalan.
Later, through Sigar’s effort, together with Pastors Agung Bangau and Tagal Paran, the community was motivated to a build church on the 2,432m Gunung Murud, Sarawak’s highest mountain.
During his association with the Tagal family, Sigar worked closely with former’s two sons lawyer Datuk Mutang Tagal who was the Member of Parliament for Bukit Mas (Lawas district) and the late Dr Judson Sakai Tagal, a state assemblyman and deputy speaker to develop this rural enclave.
The senior Tagal, who was an ardent “Adan” rice grower, ventured into apple farming and raised some riding ponies to promote tourism.
Tagal and his sons also pushed for a modern airport and by the early 1990s the Buduk Nur grass strip became modern rural airport with tar-sealed tarmac which now caters for two daily trips to Ba Kelalan.
It took several years before the church-cum-community hall was finally built on a saddle – just before the peak of Murud at about 7,000 ft high.
To achieve this, elderly men and women trekked up the steep Gunung Murud mountain, carrying building material such as bricks, sand and cement and equipment and by 1991 had established a church named “Gedung Haleluyah”.
Ten years ago Sigar teamed up with Kelabit councillor John Tarawe from Bario and his Lun Dayeh counterpart businessman Alex Balang from across the border to start Formadat.
In an interview, Sigar said that Formadat was established to strengthen close ethnic and family ties that went back to hundreds of years.
“Today we are a trans-boundary, grassroots initiative that aims to increase awareness and understanding about the communities in the highlands; to enjoy sustainable development while protecting our social and natural environment.
“Needless to say, Formadat will preserve our water resources, river banks and community forests protect cultural and historical sites and the collective intellectual property rights of the indigenous peoples of the highlands,” said Sigar.
Sigar’s last official assignment was in 2018 when he led a team of its members from Bario, Ba Kelalan and Long Semadoh to call on Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg at his office.
Explaining Formadat’s legacy and some of its recent achievements at the international level, Sigar said the Alliance aimed at seeking for support, particularly in pushing for sustainable rice farming and promoting its signature ecotourism event, Heart of Borneo Highlands Eco Challenge (HoBHEC).
On my last visit to Ba Kelalan last year, Sigar was busy tending to his buffaloes and spoke about another pet project – to help the Ba Kelalan Border Scout Association which he had set up to look after the interests of former members and their families.
In 2016, he wrote to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and copied his letter to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak as well as the late Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem.
However, he was disappointed that little was done by federal or state leaders to help the men who defended the border during the Confrontation and well into the 1980s against communists.
“I felt that the government could at least provide the former Border Scouts and their families a small pension.
“After all our people also fought for Merdeka and sacrificed their lives to defend the country to ensure peace and harmony,” wrote Sigar.
Sigar even alerted his countryman from Long Semadoh, Baru Bian, who was and still is the assemblyman for Ba Kelalan.
After four years and even after his passing, the Border Scouts of Sarawak as a whole continued to be the forgotten sacrificial lambs.
A Born-again Christian, Baru who was once a BEM lay reader was unable to do much when he was an opposition assemblyman with no influence or practically no clout.
But in the last general election in 2018 he became a senior federal cabinet minister and trusted member of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He achieved his first benchmark by ensuring the grand multi-billion ringgit Pan Borneo Highway would be completed by July next year.
But the recent political manoeuvering has blighted his dreams of helping his long-forgotten community to have a proper trunk road from Lawas to Ba Kelalan.
And now Ba Kelalan and its humble folk are back in the doldrums!
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the New Sarawak Tribune.
