Call to preserve ‘town’ and 100-year-old trees

Under threat: Residents fear that this raintree in Kasigui may have to be chopped down for the expansion of the Donggongon-Tambunan road in Sabah’s Penampang district. — Photo courtesy of Eric Ye

KOTA KINABALU: Kasigui is a tiny colonial “town” in Sabah’s Kadazandusun heartland of Penampang, about 10km from the state capital here.

The little trading post that drew its name from a native kasigui tree has more or less vanished from its colonial glory days as the “town” for the communities living in the district.

A more modern Donggongon township – a hop, step and jump away – has taken over as the town of Penampang district over the past five decades.

What is left in Kasigui is its small market place with a coffeeshop and five raintrees estimated to be between 80 and more than 100 years old.

Nostalgic memories of the tiny town are now generating a social media campaign to save what is left of the little trading post that could be wiped out by a proposed road expansion project.

Kasigui native Eric Ye, a landscape architect, wants the district council to preserve the trees and the marketplace that sits on a 0.2ha area close to Sungai Moyog.

“I believe they should have a proper assessment of the raintrees and take an overall look at road expansion plans for the area.

“A revised road alignment could help enlarge the Kasigui heritage area,” said Ye, who inspected the five trees that might have to be chopped down if the road expansion plan went ahead.

Ye, however, said that four out of the five raintrees were not very healthy as their roots had limited space to spread.

The main trunks of four trees had developed large cavities, reflecting their poor health, he pointed out.

“The existing growing area for the raintrees is just too tight for their survival for several more decades.

“Only one tree looks healthy. Efforts must be made to save the remaining trees as they could be in danger of collapsing sooner or later,” he said, adding that they would need the help of tree experts or arboriculturists.

Ye, who is 60, also said that whatever was left of the Kasigui “town” must be kept as heritage and the trees had provided shade for generations of villagers who came down the river to trade their goods.

He said his grandparents owned a pre-colonial grocery shop in the old wooden double-storey shophouse block that burned down in the 1980s.

“I remember people bringing their latex sheets in boats to Kasigui from where it was taken by road to the Putatan rubber factory.

“We children all met up and played around Kasigui. It was the main town of Penampang,” he said, adding that raintrees were planted in Bristish colonial times as they provided shade.

Kasigui trees had long disappeared, Ye lamented while recollecting that the old wooden district office within Kasigui had also disappeared to make way for more modern office buildings.

Based on a notice by the Public Works Department (PWD), Kasigui area comes under a current road expansion between Donggongon town and Jalan Panglima Banting junction along the Donggongon-Tambunan road.

Sabah Chief Minister’s political secretary Ceaser Mandela Malakun said he was informed by the department that they had no immediate plans to fell any trees in the next two months as work on the project was not in the Kasigui area.

However, concerns about the possibility of the trees being chopped down would be brought up with PWD, Mandela said.