TAWAU: The Sabah government has been urged to build more longhouses for the Iban community in Merotai near here with an eye to preserving the state’s traditional culture.
Former Tawau MP Datuk Geoffrey Yee said such initiative could attract more tourists to visit the state in line with Visit Malaysia Year 2014.
In this way, tourists could understand more the traditional aboriginal lifestyle among the Iban community, he added.
Besides promoting the Iban traditional culture, building the longhouses in Merotai could also become a source of homestay for the visitors.
He hoped Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, Datuk Pang Yuk Ming, who is also the Merotai assemblyman, would work hard on this initiative while at the same time foster the tourism development industry.
He told the media this during his attendance at a New Year Eve party organised by the Iban community at the mini hall in Merotai on Dec 31, 2013.
“Many of the Iban community have been staying on a piece of land at Ulu Merotai here but sadly, the Forest Department destroyed the crops they had cultivated for about 32 years in 2011.
“There was a longhouse on the land but they were expelled from the land and not permitted to enter the area which had been classified as forest reserve area,” Geoffrey pointed out.
He, therefore, urged the affected Iban community to submit a memorandum on the matter to the Sabah Chief Minister and hoped that the state government could provide another piece of land for them to inhabit peacefully.
There Iban community living at Balung area numbers around 500 and about 1,000 in the Merotai area.