SERIAN: Many people in this market town who eke out a living every day are unfazed by the declaration of a state of emergency in Serian Division by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong late Friday after the air quality crept into the “hazardous” category.
The air pollutant index (API) was 518 on Friday afternoon in Serian Division, which has a population of 114,000 and spans 2,819 sq km. Serian town is only 38km from the Kalimantan border.
Under the National Haze Action Plan, after a state of emergency is declared, government and private offices and other workplaces in the affected area, except those providing essential services, may be required to close.
However, most people in the town said “life will be as usual” even during the emergency.
“We are immune,” they declared.
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“My shop will be open (today), emergency or not,” said Kenneth Sim, 68, proprietor of a fertiliser shop.
“It will be too expensive to close. It will cost me a lot of money,” he said while tending to a steady stream of customers looking to buy fertilisers and weedkillers.
“If you ask people in this town, yes, they will complain about the deteriorating quality of the air. But they will also tell you they are immune to the haze.
“It’s not a new experience. We experience it every year, though it must be admitted that this year, it is pretty bad.
“The government can shut up shop and go home, but I can’t. Life must go on.”
With the durian season in full swing, both sides of the Serian-Sri Aman stretch of the Pan Borneo Highway are lined with makeshift huts set up by families of orchard owners, hawking the fruit to passing motorists.
“It would be a shame if I do not try to sell my durians,” 60-year-old grandmother Lilia Tarap said.
Lilia said she sits by the road for long hours waiting for customers and earns RM100 a day from selling the durians.
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When asked if she was worried about her health being affected by the poor air quality, Lilia pointed to her surgical face mask and broad brim hat before saying, “I’m quite protected.”
The RM100 or so she earns a day is quite a sum for an unemployed person like her, who depends on welfare assistance and her children to feed her, she added.
Lilia has been selling durians by the roadside for the past two weeks.
The fruit is harvested from a family orchard high up the hills behind her village, Seroban.
One of her younger brothers pick the fruit in the morning.
“Cari makan,” was how another Kampung Seroban villager, Jeremis Sanyam, 59, described his decision to continue selling durians by the roadside despite the emergency.
He said he would only stay at home if it was compulsory for everyone to stay indoors.
“If the government order is like the movement control order deployed during the Covid-19 pandemic, then I guess I will stay home.
“Otherwise, I will continue to brave the haze to make a living.”
An odd job worker, Jeremis said he makes about RM80 a day – or less if people bargained down the price.
As he prefers to sell all the fruit quickly and rarely wants to take them home, he agrees to the lower price even though collecting the durians from the hills is hard work.
To get to the family’s farm, he needs to take a half-hour ride by motorcycle, Jeremis said.
“And then I have to ride back with a tambok (native wicker basket) on my back that weighs about 50kg.
“So, haze or no haze, life must go on,” he said.
