CURIOSITY kills the cat but, among others, it kindles in humans the thrill and passion to learn about the history of things and places.
That’s why among the objects of curiosity to people visiting a new country are its historical sites or relics.
While most people tend to think of such land-based monuments as the only tourist attractions around, there is one area which can also be exploited for tourism — water world.
This niche tourism product can be aimed at scuba divers but its promotion locally has been subdued so far.
The different species of marine life, corals and reefs are natural attractions but in the case of Sarawak, there is a very special feature that can lure diving enthusiasts — World War II shipwrecks.
Yes, there are divers keen to explore wrecks under the sea just as there are Pokemon Go buffs who sneak into the most absurd of places to capture virtual creatures.
The wrecks-seekers are different.
They are curious about history, and the sights of remnants of ruins beneath the waves will take them back in time — to the days of adventures or misadventures on the high seas.
Tourism Malaysia advisor (for diving) Clement Lee is a keen promoter of scuba diving in the country.
He considers himself very lucky being able to continue pursuing his passion.
Over the past few years, he has been diving a lot in Sarawak waters, especially off Kuching and Miri.
A pioneer of diving tourism in Sabah, especially for the worldfamous Sipadan Island, Lee said Sarawak had not been fairly rewarded with the potential label it deserves because there are still many things under the sea the state can exploit for tourism.
“I feel Sarawak should to be given the international recognition it deserves.
As Tourism Malaysia advisor, I have been making presentations and giving talks the world over — from Japan, the US and Australia to Hong Kong — to promote the state.
And I have been doing this for many years now,” he said.
This year, for the biggest dive show in Las Vegas, USA — DEMA (diving equipment and marketing association) Show 2016 in November — he has managed to convince Tourism Malaysia to give him a slot dedicated solely to Sarawak.
“I’ll speak on Sarawak diving for one hour.
It’s a very rare chance to dedicate a topic to just one area.
I want to tap Sarawak’s potential as a diving destination.
Right here in Kuching, we already have the fantastic World War II shipwrecks,” he enthused.
Lee said such wrecks might be considered as only mangled metal but were, in fact, historical legacies.
“They are like time capsules — museum pieces.
When one is down there looking through the rubbles one by one, one is helping to ressurrect forgotten episodes of history.
“These wrecks are not only found around Kuching but the whole of Borneo — Second World War relics waiting to be discovered and protected.
They are like gold nuggets for historians worldwide.”
Lee believed there are over 20 locations of wrecks but so far, only five or six have been discovered or accessible to divers, saying: “So not only people of Sarawak but the whole of Borneo should treasure and not destroy them.”
He pointed out that while diving and taking pictures at these sites, he was sad to see two of the wrecks — Katori Maru and Sagiri — had been vandalised.
“The mid-sections of these sunken ships are missing.
It’s like the time-capsule chain has been broken.
I believe people who took away the parts to sell as scrap metal are ignorant of the wrecks’ historical signifi cance.
There is urgency to stop this vandalism before more is destroyed or gone forever. ”
Diving season
The diving season in Kuching starts annually around April, ending in September or October.
Besides Kuching, Miri is among the earliest places designated as a diving destination.
There are over 30 dive sites around Miri waters — with a visibility of 10 to 30 metres.
The best season to dive in the Resort City is from March to September or November, weatherpermitting.
Aside from its natural dive spots, Miri also has fi ve shipwrecks dive spots.
Among the most beautiful are the artifi cial reefs called The Kenyalang Wreck — a joint development by Shell and Petronas from seven years ago.
Other spots include the Anemone Garden, Siwa Reef and Hawa Reef.
According to Lee, diving tourism is big money and if promoted to the right crowd, Sarawak will have a lot of tourism receipts from diving alone.
A tourist receipt is the expenditure of international inbound visitors, including payments to national carriers for international transport.
It includes any other prepayment made for goods or services received in the destination country.
In Sabah, the annual diving tourist arrivals are between 55,000 and 66,000 and its tourist receipts range from RM300,000 to RM400,000 million.
Lee believed if Sabah could do it, there was no reason why Sarawak couldn’t.
“These metal pieces they took from the sea may be worth only RM20,000 to RM50,000 at most.
But the RM50,000 could easily have come from the diving tourists instead and it won’t be one-off.
The wrecks are going to continuously rake in money.
There are divers around the world with a penchant to explore shipwrecks.”
He compared these divers to golfers travelling the world to play on different courses for the experience and thrill of trying new things.
“So it’s not a crazy idea at all to try and protect and preserve the seemingly useless wrecks laying hidden beneath the water.
Let it not be an ‘out-of-sight out-of-mind’ scenario.
“My suggestion is to create an awareness campaign, targetted mainly at the fi shermen or any other seafarers — to get their cooperation to help watch out for and protect the wreck zones and report any suspicious activities to the authorities,” Lee said, adding that the perhaps the Tourism Ministry could talk with the stakeholders and all those interested in protecting the wrecks.”
He said the pictures he took of the two wrecks — Katori Maru and Sagiri — were priced possessions because they are now no longer the original structures they once were.
“No one can replace these antiquities. They’re gone forever.”
Lee pointed out that the Sagiri, one of the most beautiful wrecks with a lot of colours and soft corals, is now ‘kind of fl attened’ with about 90 per cent gone, leaving only a few unremovable protruding metals.
“It’s like a whole museum piece has been destroyed,” he lamented.
During future trips to Sydney, Australia, and the US to give talks, Lee will be reluctant to mention the two wrecks.
Instead, he will just promote the other wrecks.
So the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) will have to explore more wrecks now to make up for the two that have been ravaged.
He said many people may think they had nothing to do with diving and many business people may also not be aware that diving had the potential to generate lot of business opportunities.
“There is co-ordination involved — travels, accommodation and so forth.
People should realise they have a great product waiting to be unleashed.
” Lee is looking into the possibility of starting a forum, highlighting the damage infl icted on the wrecks.
Having done it for Sabah, he believes he can also do it for Sarawak.
According to him, Sabah is way ahead of Sarawak in diving and that could due to the many exotic islands off the Sabah coast — Sipadan is one of them.
He said a downside for Sarawak was the waters nearer shore being ‘a little too murky’, adding that visibility is affected by mudcoloured waters fl owing out of the rivers.
But fortunately, the wrecks are located away from the bad visibility zones.
Sarawak and Sabah are in Borneo and Lee hopes to see the two states cooperating to develop diving tourism.
Borneo as a whole
PADI instructor Ernest Teo said the wrecks in Kuching were part and parcel of not only the history of the state capital but also the whole of Borneo.
The Japanese warships, sunk in the South China Sea, were the result of their strategy to take over Borneo.
Just days after the Pearl Harbour bombing attack, Japan launched a massive invasion of Southeast Asia and Kuching was one of its main targets for control of Borneo.
News of the Japanese fl eet sailing to Kuching was picked up by the US ally — the Dutch and with their submarine division in Terakan — and they set course to intercept.
It was on Christmas Eve of 1941 when it all happened.
One of the main reasons the Japanese occupied Kuching was to gain control of the sea route from Singapore, Malaya and all the way to the Philippines.
Today, the wrecks lie at the bottom of the South China Sea, just off the coast of Kuching.
Anglers and recreational scuba divers frequent these sites during the diving season.
Teo said he had been promoting these wrecks over the past fi ve years.
With help from Tourism Malaysia in last three years, he is highly motivated to push further and honestly believes some things have changed as ‘the response now is amazing compared to years ago’.
Last year, he went to Hong Kong to do some promotion and he hopes to get more support from the State as well as Tourism Malaysia.
Embodiment of dive industry
Meanwhile, Lee said in the middle of September, he would be making a presentation at the Australian International Dive Expo (AIDE) in Sydney.
He is ‘very sure’ of getting at least 50 to 100 more Australians to know about the wrecks in Sarawak.
Hoping to see an upward trend in diving over the next few years, he said the chief ethical policy of tourism divers is to accord due care to the environment.
He added that the concept of ‘less is more’ was recognised and even practised in Sabah — meaning divers would spend a lot of money when they come for the diving, much more than other tourists.
“So if we can get the right type of divers to come, they will not only generate dive tourism receipts but also help conserve the delicate under water environment.”
He said the required infrastructures for dive tourism were jetties and boats which could also cater for leisure fi shing and water skiing and provide employment for the locals.
Lee, who was one of the fi rst PADI instructors in Sabah, added that dive tourism alone in that state employed probably between 4,000 and 5,000 people.
He was specifi cally into training locals as he believed in giving jobs to the local populace.
He suggested the ministry could adopt this policy.
Lee has been described by Tourism Malaysia as the embodiment of the dive industry entrepreneurial pioneer, a staunch conservationist with firm views on the importance of protecting and conserving the region’s unique marine attractions.
The Tourism Advisor Programme, initiated by the Tourism and Culture Ministry through Tourism Malaysia, has engaged the Who’s Who in various fi elds to help promote tourism in the country.
In 2015, Lee was appointed as a Malaysia Tourism advisor, among nine others.
In receiving the appointment, he said: “I’m actually very happy that even in my retirement, I have this excellent opportunity to continue contributing to my country, Malaysia, and on top of that continue to pursue my passion in scuba diving.”
Lee became a PADI Instructor in 1985, and in 1991, was one of the fi rst two Malaysians to become a PADI course director.
He and his partners then set up the Borneo Divers Training Institute for PADI professional certifi cation.
He was one of the pioneers to introduce professionalism in recreational diving as well as dive resort management in Sipadan.
As a Tourism Board Dive committee member for Sabah, he has also worked tirelessly to promote the dive tourism industry there.
Actively promoting conservation and environmental initiatives, including Project AWARE, Lee has won numerous PADI awards over the years.
Among them are PADI Certifi cate of Recognition for Excellence Award, USA, a number of PADI Instructor Development Awards, recognising his contributions to the PADI Director Training Course in Kota Kinabalu in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007, as well as awards for Excellence in Dive Resort Operation, Outstanding Contribution to the Diving Industry and Outstanding Customer Service and Professionalism in PADI Scuba Instruction.
He also received the prestigious DEMA Reaching Out Award in 2008 — the fi rst Asian to do so — in Las Vegas, and was inducted into the International Scuba Diver Hall of Fame in 2011 in Cayman Island.