Pak Ben's Email: Town Planning National Guideline for Swiftlet Shelter

Dear All,

I have wanted to share some of my views but was flat out for last two weeks till last night bringing much needed humanitarian Aids to 5 flood evacuations Centers in Suai,Niah ,Bakong And marudi on behalf of " People of Malaysia through Mercy Malaysia" .If you think we have problem think again !

The highly esteemed Datuk Lord Canbrook a renowned scientists who worked in Sarawak for many years and together with Dr.Lim Chan Koon co- authored Swiftlets of Borneo was the speaker on Sarawak Swiftlets organized by Sarawak Nature Society in Bintulu last year.
He stress that what he call "House Swiftlets " are either a sub species or an Hybrid species that he named " Fuciphagus Domesticus " and would categories as domestic animals like chicken and pigs.

He further stress that they cannot survive in the wild and live in towns , abandon buildings and other man made structures like bridges Ect.
Ten years ago In Bintulu, these birds started to occupied empty shop lots and on ledges of buildings. They are commonly found under ledges around MAS office and surrounding buildings till today.

Also noted that these sub species are distantly different from their caves cousins .
Although they share same food sources but have different behaviors and even the nest are of different compositions. Hopefully our Malaysian scientist will do further study and do a DNA profiling on this special gift from God to the under privilege people of Sarawak.

I further asked Lord Carnbrook on what will happen if they are forcefully evicted from the shophouses.
He feared that most will parish in bad weather conditions like now. Some will migrate like their forefathers migrated from Indonesia to Malaysia about 10 years ago during the forest fire and haze due to Logging and forest destruction' s for oil palm .
Sarawak we may be killing the goose that lay the golden eggs. This can be adverted if farmers are given license and time to build stand alone and let the swiftlets move them self to these standalone as BH in shop lots are being phase out .

Scientist say that Swiftlets cannot be force to move like chicken or pigs., but lay man who only attended a seminar in KT together with me about a year ago become an " EXPERT " . Being a good and amusing writer can talk to and convinced many people with authority who have little knowledge on Swiftlets. This is dangerous as this will destroy an industry that is the core business of many farmers whose livelihood solely depend on Swiftlets Farming. Many families and lives will be destroy just to satisfy some individuals EGO !!

The biggest lost is Sarawak as the Seed are also being destroyed as panicking farmers in Bintulu, Serikai, Miri, Sibu, Mukah and Kuching are now as I am writing are throwing away eggs and baby swiftlets by the thousands in order to harvest as many nest as possible .
To add insult to injuries they fear that if evidents of swiftlets farming are found , apparatus like amplifiers , speakers and so on they will be slap with a compound fine of RM5000.00. I hope that these rumors are unfounded.

For the record I do agree with the authorities that sustainable Swiftlets farming should be carried out in Agriculture land as I clearly stated in my earlier article.
WE beg for extension of grace period to allowed the ranchers who have shown commitment to relocate and have submitted their application to the Forestry Department to remain status quo until they have being granted the necessary licenses and a time frame to complete their stand alond BH in agriculture land before their present BH is being Closed. Its not unreasonable to ask for this small consideration. For those who refused to comply will be responsible for their own actions.

Where as the GAHP is very necessary for serious farmers ,but what shocked me is the venue was used by none other then the Secretary on the Sarawak Swiftlets Association to promote his Eco Park. How can the organizer allowed this. This Mr. Wong So and So repeated at least 6 times that he is trying to help the swiftlets farmers. HA HA is he giving us 1 unit each free of charge ?? My Foot !

Dear all readers I have traveled far and wide ot observe the best method of Swiftlets Farming . I like to ask Mr. Secretary Wong of Kuching to show us where is a successful Swiftlets ECO park in Malaysia and Indonisia except for a few units within the park. In Kuching ?? The total populations of Swiftlets in Kuching will only fill up 2 BH in Mukah ro Serikai so don't be fooled.

Any buyer should demand to only pay a deposit and the balance paid to a stake holder and only to release the balance once there are 300 nest (real ones not FAKE ones ) in the BH. If this conditions can be met I will be the first one to Book one unit. By the way with 300 nest Mr. Wong will keep for himself. SHAME SHAME!!
So please readers be careful. Wish you all good luck and god bless.

BEN