Urban-Rural : Take Two Part 2 - Highways

In this series of posts, we show you a contrast of stuff we use in our urban lives against what the locals used and have across our journey. We hope this gives you a better picture of life in rural areas or rural Sarawak.

Highways

Indispendable Highways (Photo Credit : LDP by Azreey)

In KL, we have all the well acronym-ed highways - LDP, KESAS, KARAK - in fact, enough to make a fun quiz! Imagine a quiz where for RM???, if you can name what these highways stand for...

I digress.

Yet, we do take for granted the level of development which is enjoyed over here. It takes 2 hours + to make a journey to Ipoh from KL or to Malacca for distances around about 200km. Compare this to single lane "highways" such as the Borneo Highway which we travelled on to reach Bengoh from Kuching. In other places in Sarawak, waiting for ferries to cross and journeys of even 100km take times of 2 hours or more!

Here's some video of footage on the Borneo Highway from Kuching to Bengoh our film crew took:

The view of the paved road of from the Bengoh Village to the Bengoh Dam (a few KM from the JKR checkpoint)

Begs the question - Why do Sarawakians (or even Sabahans for that matter) do not enjoy the same level of development as our Western brethren? Surely this is not a question of these states' income as they are states that are rich with natural resources and plantations. Then, the question should turn towards the Federal Allocation or the way these states are spending their allocations?

A frequent reply to this(lack of rural development) is that the cost-benefit analysis does not warrant such development.?Why spend millions for the benefit of the few? (Think Japan and their highways to no where in their zeal to spend more to encourage government spending)

Or even that private enterprises do not want to spend on such areas as they do not get any returns - does the responsibility of providing amenities and roads to these villagers fall back to the government?

Which government - federal or state level?

Yet, can't help but think if there was less wastage in general, could there be more allocation to go around for rural areas?

Look out as we make more comparisons between urban-rural (Sarawak - Bengoh). Part 3 will be related to this - Reststops. Come back to find out more.

Past Parts:

Part 1 - Carrying Supplies