The Star
By LOH FOON FONG
By LOH FOON FONG
foonfong@thestar.com.my
Photos by AZLINA ABDULLAH
Local rice bowl: Sekinchan is made up of vast tracts of padi fields.In the Sekinchan and Sungai Panjang state seats — under the constituency — vast tracts of padi fields are visible, with egrets digging into the muddy ground.
Sekinchan was originally a fishing village in the 1920s. In 1953, the British segregated the villagers from the early Malayan Communist Party insurgents and sites A, B, C and Bagan were formed.
In the last decade or more, the constituency has been acknowledged for having the highest padi yield in the country.
This is the result of the farmers’ innovative spirit, diligence in adhering to standard operating procedure on land management and their use of mechanised farming methods.
At 8.5 tonne per hectare yield, it has produced an average 2.08 million tonnes of padi each year since 2006, making up almost 70% of the country’s local rice supply.
Almost half of 9,642 active farmers working on more than 19,000 ha of land in Selangor are from Sekinchan.
The area also has many orchards, with mangoes being one of the main crop, besides ciku, jambu air and jagung, which are sold at stalls lining the road leading into Sekinchan.
The Sungai Besar constituency is also known for its fishing villages — Bagan Sungai Besar and Bagan Sekinchan. With more than 2,000 fishermen in Bagan Sungai Besar and another 350 in Sekinchan, the Sungai Besar parliamentary seat has the highest number of fishermen in Selangor.
Seafood restaurants can be found everywhere and are known for their Teochew cooking style.
This is not surprising as almost all the fishermen in Bagan Sungai Besar and Sekinchan are Teochews.
Since Sekinchan has large padi fields and is near the coastal area, it is also a place for migratory birds sightings.
Sweet success: Aside from padi fields, Sungai Besar is home to many fruit orchards. According to www.sekinchan.org, migratory birds could be sighted along Lorong 5 and Lorong 6 at Bagan Village.
Sungai Besar, the coastal town, is the centre of administration for Sabak Bernam district with many government offices and local authorities located there.
The Sungai Besar parliamentary seat (P93) falls in the Sabak Bernam district while its state seats are Sungai Panjang (N3) and Sekinchan (N4).
The Sungai Besar parliamentary seat was newly created for the 2004 general election. It was formerly a state seat, which no longer exist.
The two-term incumbent, Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Noriah Kasnon, is said to be working hard to keep her seat.
Noriah is expected to defend her seat against a PAS condidate.
For the Sungai Panjang seat, Sungai Besar Umno Youth chief Budiman Mohd Zohdi is said to be a likely candidate.
The incumbent Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo, former Selangor Mentri Besar, was found guilty of graft in December 2011 and has been sentenced to a year’s jail.
Sungai Besar PAS chief Ustaz Mohd Fadzlin Taslimin is said to likely put up a fight for the seat again. He lost to Dr Khir in the last election by more than 5,000 votes.
For the Sekinchan seat, incumbent DAP deputy secretary for Selangor, Ng Suee Lim, who speaks fluent Javanese is popular with the Malays there, is likely to defend his seat.
The names of potential candidates from Barisan Nasional include Sungai Besar MCA division chairman Kek Seng Hooi, Sungai Besar MCA Public Complaints Bureau head Law Kok Chai and Sungai Besar MCA Youth deputy chief Pua Lai Hoon.
Village C Sekinchan farmer Ng Oon Chai, 50, said farmers in Sekinchan were very experienced and produced the highest padi yield in South-East Asia, on par with the Taiwanese and South Koreans.
He said they were also able to produce high quality fragrant rice but the main challenge was that they were not able to sell higher than the price capped by the Government at RM1.15 per kg.
“The high quality fragrant rice that we produce can fetch RM5 to RM6 a kilogramme,” said the father of five children.
Ng said the price should be left to the open market and industry monopoly should end as it stifled its potential to do better and reap higher income.
He said the Taiwanese government encourages their padi farmers to improve their skills and reap better quality yield, and this should be emulated here as well.
Meanwhile, Parit 2 Sungai Haji Dorani village head Safie Zakaria said the drainage system at his village was inadequate.
“We don’t have enough water for the padi fields, especially during dry season. If there is adequate water, the yield can be increased,” he said.
Safie said farmers also felt that the padi price set at RM1,200 per tonne was too low and hoped it could be increased to RM1,500 as the cost of managing padi fields was increasing despite government subsidy.
“The farmers prefer that the price of rice follows the open market,” he said.
He also said the amount of spoilage of 18kg out of 100kg that was removed from their payment by Bernas should be reduced to 15kg as many of them produced good quality rice.
Safie added that there was a lack of tourism promotion for his area although the potential was great. Unknown to many, fireflies can also be sighted in Sungai Panjang.
Federal village head committee (JKKKP) chairman for Bagan Sungai Besar, Chia Hiyok Cheng, said most of the fishermen in his area were categorised as Zone B fishermen.
Chia said they wanted the Government to allow them to hire foreign workers so they could expand their business.
Currently, only Zone C fishermen with boats weighing more than 40 tonnes, are allowed to hire foreign workers.
He also said the Chinese burial land in Sungai Besar was getting scarce and in need of upgrading.
Azman Mohd Hanafiah, 39, and his wife Norasyikin Kamaruzaman, 20, who operate a sugar cane stall by the roadside in Jalan Sungai Panjang, said they were contented with life there.
“We have everything here, including Chinese and Tamil schools. We have libraries, too,” said Norasyikin.
Azman, who shares a 1.2ha padi field with an aunt, said the water supply in his area was adequate but the drains were small.
His only grouses were that the roads were riddled with potholes while the nearest hospital, Hospital Sabak Bernam, lacked specialists.
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