A roof over their heads

THERE are several areas in Kuching, a mere stone’s throw from elegant condominiums and shopping malls, where people live in shacks and hovels, fashioned from any materials they could find, often on unsuitable land.

I am referring in particular to the families living in a burial ground, right in the middle of our prosperous city. They need housing badly. They have been living ‘among the dead’ for the past thirty years, without the benefit of the usual civic services such as rubbish collection, water supply and electricity, because they don’t pay the assessment fees.

Of course they don’t – they don’t own the land or the houses. Technically they are not squatters, but people occupying land registered in the name of a non-governmental organisation (NGO), not state land.

These people need help! Here they are, in the middle of a lovely city in a ‘high-income’ state, raising their children at a graveyard!

But help is at hand. Our Premier recently announced the allocation of substantial funds, in the 2025 State Budget, for the purpose of building houses for people who need them, in Kuching, Serian, Betong, Sarikei, Mukah, Miri and Limbang.

The premier said: “This is the state government’s effort to provide affordable housing to the people, particularly the low-income group.”

I just hope the houses in question would be built where the people need to live, to get to their places of work.

If I understood the Premier’s words correctly, that is exactly what he is planning, to integrate the low-income group among the more affluent – and for those working as cleaners, caretakers, and gardeners in the condominiums and shopping malls, a chance to live near their place of employment.

Good news indeed, though it will not happen overnight. As far as I know, no survey of the need for housing for these people has been made by the Housing Commission.

I am associated with a project funded by All Political Party Group Malaysia (APPGM). This NGO has collected basic data on the settlement in the graveyard, the settlers’ needs, their requirements, and their problems.

They want to get out of that dismal spot, into housing that they can afford to pay. But they have refused an offer to be moved to a remote location, fearing that there will be no employment there.

Many of them are working in factories nearby, in the Pending area, within reach of their own limited means of transport.

APPGM will be happy to share information with any authority that is making a serious effort to accommodate this group, and the urban poor in general, as long as the proposed housing is within the area of Kuching and – most importantly – within reach of employment.

The squatters around Kuching are mainly members of the rural-urban drift, a movement that started in the 1950s and has been continuing ever since.

The ones at the graveyard originate mainly from the Second Division, but the others are from all parts of the state.

They came to town to look for employment, better health and other services, also better schooling opportunities for their children. They stay in a ramshackle hut, and feel lucky if they can get a job as ‘amah’ (helper), cleaner or gardener in one of the elegant villas nearby.

Some of them, having left their original village or longhouse, have in the meantime lost their land (often to plantation companies), so there is no ‘go home to your kampong (village) and back to farming!’ option.

The government will be wise to look into this state of affairs seriously. Rural-urban migrants have been harassed by some housing developers but nobody, certainly no government agency, has come to their rescue.

It is my hope that they would be first in line when these new affordable houses are handed out.

They need to be able to settle in modest but sanitary buildings with the necessary infrastructure, near to their places of work.

The Premier’s very-welcome announcement opens a new page in Sarawak’s history, but we are not the first to have thought of this. In Puerto Rico, the government built single houses with, practically, only the walls and roof, and basic sanitary installations.

When these ‘shells’ were handed over, the new owners could improve as they liked, subject to regulations and strict supervision. This scheme was started quite some time ago. I was in San Juan in 1971, and was shown around the project.

To the best of my knowledge, it is still going strong.

The main problem for any low-cost housing scheme, especially if it is intended to be established within the civic area, is of course land. In cities and towns like Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu, Miri, Limbang and Mukah, the good land inside city limits is already fully-utilised, or at any rate owned, and slated for further development of the commercial kind.

One solution would be to work out some sort of investment project involving land acquired by the government.

The government must not allow schemes designed to help the low-income group to be run by commercial entities.

Trust the relevant NGOs, and make sure the voice of the settlers themselves will be heard.

Men, women and children, fellow-citizens – we cannot leave them to dwell at a graveyard!

* The opinions expressed in this article are the columnist’s own and do not reflect the view of the newspaper.