Social Shaping of Technologies for Community Development Redeployment of Information Communication Technologies among the Kelabit in Bario of the Kelabit Highlands

Using electronic-Bario (e-Bario) project in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak in East Malaysia, this chapter explores how the introduction of information communication technologies (ICT) as developmental tools have been mediated and reconfigured by webs of social relations and the intricate interplay of social, political and cultural conditions specific to different social and technical settings. One crucial factor conditioning the effects of the project has been the Kelabit’s own desire for, and expectations of, “development” and “progress.” This is a quest which ties in closely with two fundamental Kelabit concepts: doo-ness and iyuk. As a result, the social and economic effects of ICT have unfolded through countless open-ended strategic and everyday decisions made by the Kelabit themselves, who actively consume, apply and make use of objects, ideas and services in the Highlands

Masyarakat Kelabit, Tradisi dan Perubahan Sosial

Kelabit merupakan suku kaum yang terkecil di Pulau Borneo. Secara tradisinya, suku kaum ini mendiami Dataran Tinggi Kelabit di Pulau Borneo, namun kini mereka sudah dapat ditemukan di merata-rata tempat di Malaysia dan juga di luar negara. Beberapa orang sarjana seperti Tom Harrisson, Toynbee dan Le Bar menyatakan bahawa sebutan “Kelabit” ini berasal daripada pertemuan pertama antara Charles Hose yang merupakan Residen Bahagian Baram yang pertama dengan beberapa orang pelawat dari Pa’ Labid yang telah melawat stesen kerajaan yang pada masa itu terletak berdekatan dengan Kuala Baram. Malangnya, pelawat-pelawat tersebut tidak tahu bertutur apa-apa bahasa yang digunakan di stesen tersebut. Apabila disoal tentang “bangsa” mereka, jawapan mereka ialah “Kami orang dari Pa’ Labid.” Sebutan “Pa’ Labid” kemudiannya telah disalahfahamkan sebagai “Kelabit” telah ditulis dalam beberapa buah dokumen kerajaan dan lama-kelamaan nama tersebut telah digunakan untuk merujuk suku kaum Lun Lam Bawang Inan atau Lun Dayeh yang menetap di Dataran Tinggi Kelabit. Buku ini membincangkan masyarakat Kelabit secara terperinci. Ia merangkumi tentang sejarah asal usul, sistem organisasi sosial dan politik; sistem kepercayaan tradisional dan pantang larang; kegiatan perekonomian; sistem kekeluargaan, perkahwinan dan kekerabatan; tradisi dan budaya material; pengaruh luar di Dataran Tinggi Kelabit; dan perubahan masyarakat ini selepas pembentukan Malaysia. Buku ini sangat sesuai dibaca untuk memahami dan mengenali dengan lebih mendalam salah satu kaum yang terdapat di Pulau Borneo ini

Changing borders and identities in the Kelabit Highlands :anthropological reflections in growing up near an international border

The central topic of this book is the. International border between Indonesia and Malaysia and its changing and evolving significance to the people of the Kelabit Highlands. Playing upon the multiple meanings inherent in the notions of "boundaries" and "borders " and of the role they play in creating and mediating identities, the author relates the account of the international border to her own odyssey from a Kelabit Highlands childhood to becoming an anthropologist and university lecturer

MAKING SENSE OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC’S SOCIAL DISTANCING AND THE EMERGENCE OF VILLAGE BASED DISEASE SURVEILLANCE IN THE KELABIT HIGHLANDS OF SARAWAK

The introduction of social distancing as a measure to slow the spread of disease related to COVID-19 has led to ongoing debate about its disruptive effects around the world. There is a wide variation in the response and the use of the measures to counter the pandemic. Drawing on cultural analysis, this paper aims to explicate the socio-cultural reasons for these differences. To this end, this paper throws light on a rural village in Sarawak to provide insight how local perspectives and interpretations have shaped community response to national mechanisms to curtail the spread of COVID-19 disease. This is by examining playful and colourful texts of local dialogues, narratives and anecdotes encountered via WhatsApp chats as the villagers negotiate to make sense of Malaysia’s movement control order (MCO). It argues that as social distancing measures begun to intersect with their perceptions of home and reorient their daily activities and cultural practices, the community tap into their village narratives and shared experiences in order to reconstruct a sense of meaning and order. Out of this, they formulate a village-based disease surveillance protocols, strategies and framework. The finding affirms growing calls for greater integration of socio-cultural approaches to health care strategies

Penulisan Kertas Cadangan Komprehensif untuk Calon Sarjana dan Doktor Falsafah

Menulis sebuah kertas cadangan penyelidikan yang benar-bernar bersifat ilmiah adalah cabaran terawal yang harus ditempuh oleh calon-calon sarjana dan doktor falsafah. Kekecewaan yang berlaku pada peringkat ini bukanlan cerita yang asing. Buku ini diolah agar peringkat penulisan kertas cadangan itu menjadi satu pengembaraan ilmiah tanpa cabaran yang tidak diperlukan

Decolonizing the pocket monster : Smartphones, Pokémon Go and generational conflict in Malaysian Borneo

This article analyzes the generational politics of smartphones in the Malaysian state of Sarawak in the context of Bornean history and contemporary Sarawakian political economy. We respond to a global north bias in the standing literature on smartphone media and suggest approaches to improve representation of global south perspectives. Concretely, we propose three programmatic maxims as a methodological guide to incorporate perspectives and concerns from the global south more fully. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research in Sarawak, we demonstrate the value of these suggestions by framing smartphones in the perspective of Bornean history as tools for maintaining instrumental social networks more than exchanging information across spatial disjunction. These tools are used differently by young urbanites and older rural populations. This leads us to show how Pokémon Go refracts generational conflicts by becoming the cultural touchstone of the changing political economic conditions of Malaysian urbanization

Becoming like us : Conversion and Penan-ness at Long Beruang, Sarawak

How did the Penan of Sarawak, East Malaysia stop their nomadic life and become settled farmers and retain their identity as Penan? This article presents the memories of settled Kelabit and the neighbouring Penan of a time when they were reluctant to meet one another, when the Penan were nomadic. Their lifestyles were very different: the Penan were wary of outsiders, and the Kelabit children were scared of the Penan. The processes which brought about change between these two groups were motivated by the Kelabit urge to evangelise to the Penan. They began meeting and sharing food. Gradually, the Kelabit farmers encouraged the Penan ‘to become like us’, to settle as their neighbours at Long Beruang and become Christians like them. Eventually the Penan became successful padi-farmers and made their livelihood from both the forest where they hunted and foraged and from the padi fields where they grew rice. However, this did not lead to the assimilation of the Penan by the Kelabit but to a greater deliberate expression of Penan identity. This appears to be in keeping with phenomena elsewhere in the world, which suggest that when an ethnic group is under threat from external forces and assimilation, people assert their ethnic identity

Digital inclusion of the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia: Remote virtual mechanism for usability of telecentres amongst indigenous peoples

Over the last decades, researchers and development practitioners have been experimenting with models, frameworks and devises to meet the needs of diverse users of information communication technologies. Turning to an ICT‐based community development known as the Telecentre Programme amongst Orang Asli, an indigenous people groups in Peninsular Malaysia, this paper describes why a remote virtual management devise was invented to encounter challenges related to rugged terrain constraints, which would have directly impacted the planning and the execution of programmes designed at the telecentres. This paper argues as a technological solution, the virtual remote management system has powered an ecosystem, which shored up the digital inclusion of the indigenous communities and in the process enabled the enhancement of local informational capabilities. To this end, it reduced their technological dependency on outsiders leading to the usability and sustainability of the telecentre for local capacity building and socioeconomic benefits for the disadvantage communities

The Practice of ‘Othering' during COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia: From the cities to the highlands

This paper attempts to throw light on the concept of ‘othering’ previously framed through the prism of identity politics. As COVID-19 continues to ravage our economy and social life, we turn to looking at two contested sites of the highland national borders and the urban cities to understand how the ‘othering' idea manifests itself right when the pandemic began in late December 2019. The first situation is described in social media as Malaysia’s mass rage and xenophobic rants against Rohingya refugees and the second scenario is the closure of international borders between Sarawak and East Kalimantan in the uplands located in the northeast of Central Borneo. By analysing texts in the form of narratives, anecdotes and communication encountered through social media, the paper raised questions whether these were manifestations of specific forms of marginalisation of people based on perceived group differences or simply expressions of fear of COVID-19 disease and anxiety about scarcity of resources as a result of the pandemic