S.K Ulu Lubai, Limbang, Sarawak - Permata dalam Belantara

Sumber : Utusan Malaysia

17 Februari 2011 menjadi detik bersejarah bagi sebuah sekolah pedalaman di Limbang, Sarawak apabila dikunjungi pemimpin nombor dua negara - Timbalan Perdana Menteri merangkap menteri Pelajaran, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Mengapa Timbalan Perdana Menteri melawat sekolah berkenaan iaitu Sekolah Kebangsaan Ulu Lubai, nun jauh di Limbang, Sarawak??

Sekali imbas, SK Ulu Lubai hanyalah sebuah sekolah yang serba sederhana dari segi infrastruktur dengan bangunan kayu lama manakala satu-satunya binaan konkrit hanyalah tandas kegunaan murid dan guru.

Lokasinya terletak di tengah-tengah hutan belantara. Ia dihubungkan melalui jalan balak ataupun menggunakan bot panjang menyusuri Sungai Lubai yang membabitkan tempoh perjalanan kira-kira sejam daripada Medamit.

Sekolah yang dibuka pada 1964 dan pernah ditutup pada 1976 sebelum dibuka semula setahun selepas itu hanya mempunyai 30 orang murid yang dibimbing oleh 11 orang guru dengan bantuan seorang staf sokongan.

Namun hari ini, SK Ulu Lubai mencatatkan sejarah gemilang apabila muncul sebagai sekolah pedalaman pertama yang diiktiraf sebagai Sekolah Berprestasi Tinggi (SBT) sekali gus memberi tamparan kepada sekolah lain yang berada di kawasan bandar mahupun luar bandar.

Menyifatkannya sebagai amat luar biasa, Muhyiddin yang juga Menteri Pelajaran berkata, kejayaan SK Ulu Lubai itu membuktikan bahawa semua sekolah mampu cemerlang tanpa mengira lokasinya.

"Kalau kita lihat persekitaran dan infrastruktur, ia amat sederhana, bangunannya sudah lama dan diperbuat daripada kayu, tidaklah seelok bangunan-bangunan konkrit di sesetengah sekolah.

"Tetapi kerana kepimpinan sekolah itu adalah cemerlang dan guru-guru serta ibu bapa bersama murid-murid amat komited untuk bantu membangunkan sekolah ini, berlaku lonjakan yang amat besar," katanya pada sidang akhbar selepas mengumumkan senarai 23 SBT Kohort Dua di SK Ulu Lubai di sini hari ini.

Muhyiddin juga melontarkan cabaran kepada sekolah-sekolah lain dengan berkata:

"Jika SK Ulu Lubai yang begini keadaannya boleh muncul yang terbaik, saya tidak fikir sekolah lain tidak mampu."

Terdahulu ketika berucap pada majlis berkenaan, Muhyiddin berkata, SK Ulu Lubai telah menunjukkan pencapaian akademik yang amat cemerlang dalam Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) dengan keputusan 100 peratus lulus sejak 2006 sehingga sekarang, menjadikannya sebagai sekolah terbaik di negeri ini.

Katanya, dalam penarafan sekolah kebangsaan, SK Ulu Lubai menduduki tempat ke-54 pada 2009 dan ia melonjak ke tempat pertama pada 2010.

Beliau memberitahu, lebih membanggakan, sekolah itu memenangi dua anugerah peringkat antarabangsa iaitu johan Commonwealth Education Good Practice Award 2009 dan finalis anugerah yang sama daripada Sekretariat Komanwel dan Kerajaan Malaysia.

Menurutnya, pencapaian terkini ialah pencalonan UNESCO Educational International Best Practices 2010.

"Di samping itu, ia juga berjaya merangkul lima anugerah peringkat kebangsaan, 14 di peringkat negeri dan 46 di peringkat bahagian dan daerah," katanya.

Dalam pada itu, Muhyiddin begitu teruja dengan inisiatif SK Ulu Lubai yang bergerak aktif dalam mewujudkan program jalinan dan jaringan dengan institusi pendidikan luar negara.

Katanya, jaringan itu bukan calang-calang kerana pada 2009 dan 2010, mereka mewujudkan jaringan dengan University Bristol, United Kingdom (UK), Jin Shan Primary School, Singapura dan Kingsford Community School serta Deptford Green School, masing-masing di UK.

Sementara itu, Guru Besar SK Ulu Lubai sejak 1998, Jaul Bunyau berkata, kunci kepada kejayaan sekolah itu ialah kerjasama daripada ibu-bapa kerana merekalah yang paling dekat dengan sekolah berkenaan,

Katanya, mengharapkan orang luar untuk membantu sekolah di pedalaman seperti SK Ulu Lubai amat sukar kerana keadaannya terpencil manakala prasarananya amat terhad.

"Jadi kita kena libatkan komuniti setempat dan guru-guru pula tidak boleh terpisah dengan masyarakat," katanya.

Sementara itu, Muhyiddin turut meluang masa melawat Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Tutoh Apoh di Long Panai, Baram yang 12 hingga 18 kali ditenggelami banjir dalam masa setahun kerana terletak bersebelahan Sungai Apoh.

Sekolah berkenaan pada awal tahun lalu pernah mendapat perhatian beliau yang kemudian mengumumkan peruntukan RM50 juta untuk pembinaan bangunan baru di tempat lebih tinggi.

Muhyiddin sewaktu berucap dalam majlis bersama penghuni rumah Panjang Uma Beluvuh bersebelahan SMK Tutoh Apoh menjelaskan bangunan baru sekolah itu akan dibina dalam masa terdekat dan ia dijangka mengambil masa kira-kira dua tahun untuk disiapkan.

Beliau menjelaskan, nilai sebenar projek yang kini berada dalam peringkat melantik perunding reka bentuk itu hanyalah RM30 juta.

"Kita juga sudah membayar ganti rugi pengambilan balik tanah membabitkan keluasan 12 hektar," katanya.

Dalam pada itu, beliau turut mengumumkan peruntukan RM2,000 bagi setiap 117 pintu Rumah Panjang Uma Beluvoh bagi tujuan penyelenggaraan kediaman.

Limbang issue - who is right?

Pictures of Limbang, a border town, north of Sarawak, sandwiced between 2 areas of Brunei - Brunei proper and Temburong.

On Monday, The Prime Minister of Malaysia and the Sultan of Brunei, inked a historic exchange of letters at the Istana Nurul Iman, Bandar Seri Begawan, to formally resolve the long standing land and maritime borders issues between Sarawak and Brunei.

However, the next day, that statement was denied by Brunei 2nd Minister of foreign affairs and trade, Datuk Seri Lim Jock Seng.

So, i am confused here as to who is right and who is not right here???

This is the newsreport on that signing of exchange of letters on Monday by the star online.

Brunei drops claim over Limbang in Sarawak (Update3)

By LEONG SHEN LI

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN:In a historic move, Brunei has officially dropped its long-standing claim over Sarawak’s Limbang district, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said on Monday.

This was the result of the two countries resolving their various land and sea territorial disputes, he said.

"Brunei has decided to drop the Limbang issue and as a result, Limbang is part of Malaysian territory," he told a press conference with the Malaysian media at the Malaysian High Commission here.

"With this resolution, there are no more issues to haunt the close relationship between Brunei and Malaysia," he said.

The resolution was part of several disputes which were settled and sealed with the signing of Letters of Exchange by Abdullah and the Sultan of Brunei Sultan Hasannal Bolkiah at Istana Nurul Iman here on Monday.

The other disputes include questions over where the common maritime boundary of the two countries in the South China Sea should run, the rights to exploit potentially rich oil deposits in the disputed maritime territory, the right of movement by Malaysian vessels over Brunei waters and the demarcation of the common boundary of the two countries.

The dispute over Limbang can be traced back to the cession of the territory by Brunei to Sarawak's White Rajahs in 1890. The cession has been strongly disputed by the Sultanate which regarded the transfer as annexation by Sarawak.

The cession of Limbang resulted in a significant reduction of Bruneian territory and cut the sultanate into two parts.

On Monday, Abdullah thanked the Sultan for the resolution of the various disputes and especially that of Limbang.

He said bilateral relations between the two countries would now enter a new era.

On the points in the Letters of Exchange, Abdullah and the Sultan in a joint statement said they had reached agreement over the final maritime boundaries between the two countries in the South China Sea.

They also agreed to establish a "commercial arrangement area" where oil and gas revenue in the disputed area would be shared between the two countries. How much each country would get was however not disclosed.

The two countries also agreed to the existence of "unsuspendable rights of maritime access" which guaranteed the right of movement by Malaysia vessels through Bruneian territorial waters provided Brunei's laws and regulations are observed.

Lastly, the Letters of Exchange also established the methods to demarcate the land boundary between Brunei and Malaysia.

With the resolution of the maritime boundary delimitation issue, the leaders said the two countries would be able to embark on new developments in their respective areas.

The negotiations, which began in 1995, took 39 rounds of talks to reach resolution.

The dispute over maritime territory arose out of a 1979 map published by Malaysia which indicated that all deep sea territorial waters off the coast of Brunei belonged to Malaysia.

The latest incident related to the dispute over maritime territory occurred in 2003 when Malaysia and Brunei awarded petroleum production-sharing contracts to four exploration blocks in the disputed area, close to where a 440 million-barrel discovery had been made the year before.

Petronas awarded its two blocks to US oild firm Murphy Oil while Brunei awarded one of its blocks to France's Total, BHP Billiton and Hess Corp and the othr to Shell, Mitsubishi and Conoco-Phillips.

Following the dispute, both countries agreed to stop drilling activities in the area.

Earlier, before the signing ceremony, Abdullah had a four-eyed meeting with the Sultan at the Palace.

Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said the resolution of the question over the ownership of Limbang would enable several projects in the Sarawak district, which could benefit Brunei to proceed.

He said one of them was the construction of a hydroelectric dam across the Sungai Limbang where electricity could be supplied to Brunei.

”This will bring Sarawak and Brunei closer together as we can supply electricity to Brunei,” he told a press conference at the Malaysia High Commission.

On whether the resolution of the Limbang question would bring about easier access between that district and the rest of Sarawak, Taib said the problem was more to do with finding a convenient practice for immigration and customs checks.

He said the two countries had already agreed to using indentity cards instead of passports and further fine-tuning of the procedures could enable easier passage of people passing through checkpoints on the Brunei-Malaysia border.

Limbang’s road network is cut off from the rest of Sarawak and those travelling to the district have to pass through two border checkpoints.

And on Tuesday 17 March, Brunei 2nd minister of foreign affairs and trade, was reported to have said this : (source Borneo Buletin, Bernama and The Star online)

Brunei: Limbang claim not discussed

MIRI: Brunei's Second Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Datuk Seri Lim Jock Seng has denied that claims on Limbang were discussed during the meeting between Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Speaking at the Brunei legislative council meeting on Tuesday, he said the discussion that led to the signing of the Letters of Exchange (LoE) in Bandar Seri Begawan on Monday was on the demarcation of land boundaries on the whole.

"Certain press reports yesterday (Monday) claimed that Brunei has dropped claims over Limbang. In fact, the claim on Limbang was never discussed," he was reported as saying by Brunei's local daily, Borneo Bulletin, Wednesday.

He said a joint press statement was issued after the meeting which mentioned that the demarcation of the land boundaries between the two countries would be resolved on the basis of five existing historical agreements between the Government of Brunei and the State of Sarawak, and, as appropriate, the watershed principle.

"After that, a working group comprising general surveyors of the two countries will follow with the technical aspect to solve the land border issue," Lim added. Abdullah, at a news conference with Malaysian journalists after the signing of the LoE on Monday, said that Brunei had officially dropped its longstanding territorial claim over Limbang, Sarawak's northernmost division.

He said the matter was part of the historic LoE inked between him and Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah at Istana Nurul Iman in Bandar Seri Begawan.

"It has been stated in the LoE that Brunei has dropped the issue and this means that Limbang is part of Malaysia," he was quoted as saying.

Limbang, located on the banks of Sungai Limbang between the two halves of Brunei and covering an area of 3,978 sq km with a population of more than 40,000, was annexed by James Brooke, the first Rajah of Sarawak, in 1890 as the fifth division of Sarawak. - Bernama

And this is an explanation by the Foreign Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, today Thursday 19 March 2009.

Limbang, other border issues to be resolved: Rais

By NURBAITI HAMDAN

KUALA LUMPUR: Various border issues including Limbang will be resolved once re-demarcation works are completed, said Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

He said although the word “Limbang” was not mentioned during discussion at the Letters of Exchange ceremony between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the Sultan of Brunei, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, on Monday, the district issue will be regarded as resolved after the physical works are carried out.“

(Disputes on land borders will be resolved) once the physical works of re-demarcation are completed in accordance with the principles of the five agreements,” he told reporters at a press conference in the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations here Thursday.

Two out of the five agreements, signed between 1920 and 1939, directly mentioned the Limbang district in the documents.

Dr Rais was responding to articles in the Brunei press that questioned the status of Limbang.

The reports quoted Brunei’s Second Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Datuk Seri Lim Jock Seng as denying that Limbang was discussed during the meeting between the Sultan and Abdullah.

“I hope this issue won’t be politicised despite their local media raising issues,” he said.

He added that both parties would have to wait between 12 and 18 months for the re-dermarcation works to be completed by the technical committee.