Bada (fourth left) and his fellow members are seen in a photocall during the recent PRS dinner. Their president Tan Sri Datuk Amar James Masing is at fifth left.
MIRI: The news on interest-free loans for building longhouses with a maximum loan of up to RM50,000 per door read over the air by the local radio yesterday morning is likened to a ‘tasty and crunchy breakfast’ for members of Association for Longhouse Chiefs in Suai.
All the 62 members gave a big applause, describing the news as the greatest breaking news, which was read on air while they had their breakfast at a coffee shop in the town.
“We are so joyful, thanks to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, for the kind consideration on the longhouse folk,” the association chairman Boniface Bada Enjah told thesundaypost yesterday.
He said the longhouse interest-free loan was the best piece of news they have ever heard in a long time.
Najib on Friday announced that RM70 million would be provided through Bank Simpanan Nasional in collaboration with the Sabah and Sarawak governments for interest-free loans for the purpose of building longhouses with a maximum loan of up to RM50,000 for every unit in the longhouse.
That would encourage more Ibans to build a unit in the longhouse.
On another note, Bada who is the longhouse chief of his village in Sungai Senga, Tanjong Baru Suai, also hoped the 25km feeder road to their village would be tar-sealed.
“It is our only access road to the outside world to market our agricultural produce and commodities such as fresh oil palm.”
According to Bada, most of people in his village had several acres of oil palm estate each, harvesting about 1,000 tonnes of the fruits monthly.
The access road he said would greatly benefit people from 120 longhouses in Suai and Niah areas if it were tar-sealed.