Source: Daily Express 10 October 2008. Page 7. Caption: " Tenom School Kids at Risk".
(Note: See the car in the background? I wonder how it will cross the bridge)
We are talking 2008. Quite honestly, things like this cannot be. But this is likely the norm here in Sabah. Why is this so? That's the question begging a reply. Or rather, a long reply.
Why are we not able to mend a small bridge? Part of the answer is that just to replace 23 bridges on main (Federal) roads we need RM205 million ( Daily Express 11th October). There is a total of 166 such bridges. Then there are state roads, municipal roads and village roads... just imagine the numbers of bridges needed, they could be in the thousands.
Why aren't we getting the money needed to build and repair roads so that our kids can go to school safely?. First of course is the money, rather the lack of it. Sabahans are a patient lot, and I think because most of the rural people do not realise that other places in Malaysia have better roads and bridges. What you don't know wont hurt you.
Second, is the fact, that most Malaysians, usually the pensinsular kind, especially the politicians, do not realize that Sabah is probably 30 times the size of Malacca, and for which reason they are prone to treat Sabah as just one of the small peninsular states.
Children take these infrastructural shortcoming in their strides. Crossing broken bridges, walking on slippery muddy earth roads, and crossing turbid rivers, are great fun, and just the things that make up the norm of a laid-back rural life. But adults should know better.
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