Serian Town and Farmer's Market

Serian : A small market town about 1 hour from Kuching. The main attraction is an excellent farmers' market selling all manner of fruit, vegetables and forest produce and a thriving fish market. If you are lucky you will also see sago worms, a favorite local delicacy, offered for sale. The Serian District Council has a number of chalets at nearby Ranchan Pools, a local beauty spot. Chalets RM 50-100, Dormitory RM 100 10 beds). Tel: 876681 Fax: 874799.

The town is very famous for its durians, which are popularly believed to be the best in Sarawak. This has prompted the Serian District Council to erect a giant monument to this "king of fruits" right in the middle of the market square. However, other monuments such as the tiger and the buffalo statues seem out of place as there are no tigers or buffalos in this district. 

The town is very well connected to its rich hinterlandboth by road and by water and thus one can find all sorts of jungle produce available in the jungle produce market but lately, most of these produce were brought in from Kalimantan, Indonesia as the price are cheaper.

The district population (year 2010 census) was 90,763.^[1] About 65% of the population are Bidayuh. The other main ethnic groups are Iban, Chinese, and Malay.

SMK Tebakang celebrates double joy

SERIAN: It was a night of double joy for SMK Tebakang last Saturday as the school celebrated its 40th anniversary and the launch of its long-awaited alumni association.

The dinner held at the Serian community hall was attended by former students and graced by several former principals including the first principal Jonas Noeb who headed the school when it was established in 1974.

Even the guest-of-honour Infrastructure Development and Communications Minister Dato Sri Michael Manyin was a former principal having helmed the school for eight years and three months.

Manyin, in his speech, praised the ex-students for initiating and forming the alumni association as a platform to network and to work with other entities.

Noting that the alumni comprised individuals who had excelled despite early hardship, he called on the alumni to assist their alma mater with programmes that can improve the school’s academic achievement.

“In those (early) days, there were not enough food, and we lacked basic facilities. And yet, the students then did well, as they benefited from the ‘blessing of scarcity’.

“It’s now time for the alumni to give back to society, by helping SMK Tebakang to excel. Just because the school can now afford to give six meals a day to the students, we do not want them to suffer from the ‘curse of luxury’, so please assist in building up the standard of the school,” he said.

As the elected representative for the area and a former principal, Manyin said he is always with SMK Tebakang, and feels proud when the school does well but sad when it did otherwise.

He also pledged RM20,000 as grant for SMK Tebakang Alumni Association to organise programmes this year.

Meanwhile, the school principal Carter Ballang and alumni association president Dr Alim Impira pledged to work together to improve the academic performance.

The dinner’s highlight was the singing of the school’s anthem ‘Tebakang Peduli’ in Malay, English and Bidayuh.

Among those who attended the dinner were former Sri Aman MP Jimmy Donald, also a former principal and Serian District Council deputy chairman Dr Simon Sinang Bada.

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2015/02/02/smk-tebakang-celebrates-double-joy/#ixzz3QdGKCpf3

Proposal to change Triboh to Bung Sadong

KUCHING: The proposed new seat of Triboh in the Serian parliamentary constituency continues to face objections in terms of name and boundary.

The latest objection came from PKR Serian branch, which came up with a counter proposal for the new seat to incorporate other polling districts and be renamed ‘Bung Sadong’.

They suggested this proposed seat include Bentang and Lanchang polling districts, in addition to the current boundary comprising Selabi, Pasar Serian and Kakai polling districts.

The ‘Bung Sadong’ name proposed by them is the mountain located near Kampung Taee in Bentang polling district.

Under their counter-proposal, which they will submit to the Election Commission (EC), the Sedihan and Serian Ulu polling districts are to be ‘returned’ to the Tebedu state seat, while the Triboh polling district will be proposed to return to Kedup state seat.

“Considering that Serian is going to be elevated as a division, we would like to see a balanced and fair distribution of development taking place in these three seats.

“As such, it is relevant to insist that there should be a balanced distribution of voters in these three seats. This is to ensure the tenet of democracy — the principle of one person one vote works as there will be equal size of surface area of the three seats and a fair representation in the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) is maintained at all times,” said a statement issued by branch deputy chairman Reginald Abel and treasurer Alex Saben Nyipong.

They further emphasised that by dividing equally five polling districts each for Tebedu (11,652 voters), Kedup (12,268 voters) and Bung Sadong (10,322 voters), there will be a fair representation in

the DUN, regardless of whoever got elected.

For the proposed Bung Sadong seat, they said it would be a semi-rural seat comprising 50 per cent Bidayuh, 25 per cent Chinese, 15 per cent Iban, eight per cent Malay, and two per cent others.

On the Triboh seat proposed by EC, PKR Serian said they observed some maneuvering and gerry-meandering of areas involved in creating this seat by carving it out from Tebedu and Kedup.

As such, they hope the EC would make some readjustments to the polling districts and boundaries of the three state seats.

Meanwhile, there have been talks that several groups of voters are unhappy with the name Triboh.

They argued that ‘Triboh’ would give the impression that it is an Iban-majority seat, when in fact the area is predominantly Bidayuh.

Triboh is actually the name of an Iban village, a small locality in the proposed new seat.

 

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2015/02/02/change-triboh-to-bung-sadong-urges-pkr-serian/#ixzz3QdFX0Hmc