Agus Wahyuni
Contributor, Pontianak, West Kalimantan
Sumardi had just returned from the sea and moored his boat to the pier in Temajuk, Paloh district, Sambas regency, West Kalimantan, when another villager ran up to him to let him know his wife Masrah was going to have her baby any minute.
Juraini, the only midwife left the remote village, could not handle the delivery because of the fetus’ position.
Sumardi had to rush his wife Masrah to the clinic in Liku village. He panicked at the thought of having to face six hours of sailing in bad weather, strong winds and high waves to get his wife to the hospital located 90 kilometers from his village.
To make matters worse, when he eventually arrived at the clinic in Liku, staff couldn’t help either and referred his wife to Sambas Regional Hospital. Sumardi rushed to hire a car to drive to Sambas, where Masrah delivered her first child in the afternoon. He spent Rp 3 million on transportation and hospital expenses.
Sumardi is one of many living in Kalimantan’s remote villages on the border between Malaysia and Indonesia, almost in complete isolation because of the lack of infrastructure.
Temajuk, located near the Malaysian village of Teluk Melano, is in Sambas regency, which is 250 kilometers from the provincial capital of Pontianak.
The village’s community figure Murjani said locals had long expected the construction of roads from their village to the city center, since Temajuk became a hotbed for the Sarawak People’s Movement Troop and the North Kalimantan People’s Union (PGRS/Paraku) decades ago.
In 1983, the central government launched a local migration program to relocate citizens there for de-fense purposes. The Social Services Ministry cooperated with the Indonesian Army to organize the exodus from various areas of Sambas to Temajuk.
Most of the migrants came from the districts of Sungai Duri, Selakau, Pemangkat and Tebas. Each family was provided with a modest home and a 5-hectare plot along with plant seedlings like rambutan, rubber and pepper.
Since the 1987 Malaysia-Indo-nesia (Malindo) operation, there aren’t any more PGRS members in the area.
“Sadly, the successful operation wasn’t followed by proper development of infrastructure for the village.”
Between 1980 and 1990, many people from other regions went to the village to work as loggers and sold their wood to timber companies. When the timber industry collapsed, 70 percent of Temajuk residents turned to pepper plantations, with the rest comprising fishermen, farmers and traders.
The local economy grew rapidly, with residents earning an average of Rp 1 to 7 million per month. As the price of pepper soared, the annual turnover of pepper growers was as high as Rp 50 to 100 million.
Malaysia copied Indonesia’s exodus program, by drawing people from Temajuk to become Malay, to defend their side of the border zone.
Nowadays, Temajuk is made up of 550 families inhabiting two hamlets, Camar Bulan and Maludin.
The neighboring Malay village of Teluk Melano comprises 53 families. Although villagers from Temajuk and Teluk Melano are from different countries, they live as close neighbors without going through border crossing checkpoints. What differs however between both populations is their access to infrastructure, roads and health services.
In Malay Teluk Melano, the government sends medical and paramedical personnel each month by helicopter to provide healthcare for its citizens, from blood tests to free drugs and vitamins. Serious cases are referred to a hospital in Sematan, Malaysia, which is about 30 minutes’ sail by speedboat.
There is no such service in Indonesian Temajuk. When locals fall ill, their lives are at stake. Mahyadi, former Temajuk Village Council speaker, lost his son Yudi (8) in 2008, who had a high fever. Mahyadi had sent the boy to the village paramedic in charge but the fever persisted.
Then he took his son to Sambas Regional Hospital in spite of the long distance. The tide was high, with two-meter waves washing ashore, forcing the motorbike to ride slowly on the flooded road. Yudi died in his dad’s embrace as the trip simply took too long.
Temajuk village chief Mulyadi explained that out of the dozens of childbirths and ailing patients recorded every year, half had to be referred to public clinics or hospitals because of the village’s lack of medical personnel and equipment. Villagers have so far helped each other get expectant mothers safely to hospital.
Once he mobilized dozens of residents to carry a mother who was about to give birth to the Paloh district public clinic in a sedan chair along the coastal road, while waves were high. The speedboat made available by the Sambas regency in 2009 was too small to resist the rising tide.
Sambas Health Office data in 2010 showed 32 deliveries in Temajuk were referred to public clinics and hospitals. Sambas Health Service Division Chief Rahma said most pregnant women were sent to hospital because they hadn’t been checked by midwifes often enough.
Because Temajuk is so isolated, Rahma suggested expectant mothers remain in the city center at least a month before their estimated delivery dates.
Meanwhile, Sambas Regent Burhanuddin A Rasyid has often visited the village promising its residents he would provide infrastructure. Head of the Sambas Road Construction Office Ferry Madagaskar also proposed central government aid to build a Paloh district border road on the Temajuk-Cermai route, 34 kilometers and 6 meters wide, but its implementation is uncertain.
Chairman of the Institute for Border Region Empowerment and Development Studies, Dedi S. Helmi, said border areas had not yet been subjected to integrated handling because of the frequent tug-of-war between diverse interests.
The other problem is the central government’s greater dominance in border zone handling, with regional authorities only lodging complaints. The projected 48-kilometer Sebubus-Aruk road and 38-kilometer Cermai–Sui Sumpit- Temajuk can’t yet be completed yet, for instance.
“It’s thus proper for local people to question which institution is responsible for the development of border areas and the fostering of their communities,” added Dedi. So far they mostly are unaware of the physical borders with neighboring nations.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar