Former Sabah chief minister Harris Salleh is convinced that the future of Sabah and Sarawak will be strengthened with closer economic ties with the rest of Borneo, including Indonesia's Kalimantan provinces.  

In Kalimantan meanwhile, there is waning enthusiasm for Bimp-Eaga, the economic growth triangle which groups together Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines in an East Asean Growth Area.

The Indonesians, according to Harris, complain that "Bimp-Eaga is only good for golf and cocktails."

"Economically, Kalimantan is fast catching up with Sabah and Sarawak and set to overtake us," said Harris after a 10-day fact-finding trip to the provinces in Kalimantan.

"In future, our people would have to look south for employment, investment and business opportunities."

The steady progress being made in Kalimantan would also mean progress for Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei.

"The future of these three regions hinges on Kalimantan which has vast untapped natural resources," said Harris who plans to submit a report on his trip to the state governments of Sabah and Sarawak soon.

The Indonesian Consulates in Sabah and Sarawak and the Brunei government would also be given copies of the report which is under the auspices of the Berjaya Foundation. It sponsored the trip by Harris and a delegation which including Indonesian Consul Abas Basori.

The foundation was set up by the Berjaya Party, now defunct, under which Harris helmed Sabah from 1976 to 1985.

Ways to work together

Harris outlined ways in which the regions could work together. For example, Nunukan in East Kalimantan, and only 70km from Tawau, has plentiful supplies of natural gas which could be tapped for the energy-short eastern seaboard of Sabah.

Elsewhere, Tarakan in East Kalimantan was suitable for fisheries. There were ample opportunities further south in Samarinda in gas, oil, coal and palm oil for which there was plenty of land available. Balikpapan in the south of East Kalimantan and in Pontianak in West Kalimantan has substantial deposits of uranium.

For a start, Harris hopes to persuade the Sabah government to set up a bonded warehouse or a Free Trade Zone for trade between Tawau and Kalimantan to avoid double-taxation.

"It is more convenient for people in Nunukan and Tarakan, for example, to get consumer items like televisions and electronic equipment from Tawau rather than Jakarta which is much further away for them. This is already happening on a daily basis with the Indonesians working in these towns."

Harris' delegation had a telling experience on the return leg of their journey, a five-hour drive from Pontianak in West Kalimantan to Kuching. On the Indonesian side, they breezed through immigration in 10 minutes but on the Malaysian side, it took more than an hour before they were allowed to pass through.

"Problems at the border and with workers are among the many unresolved issues between Malaysia and Indonesia," he said.

On the positive side, the whole of Borneo would be connected by road in the next couple of years, discovered Harris.

The round trip distance from Sabah to east, south, central, and west Kalimantan, Sarawak, Brunei and back to Sabah is 4,000 km. Malaysian roads up to the Kalimantan border are completely metalled. On the Indonesian side, only 10 percent of the roads remain to be metalled.

More efficient in enforcing laws

Harris also found that Kalimantan was more efficient than Malaysia in enforcing laws. He cites the laws on open space as an example.

"In Kalimantan, once an area is declared as an open space, the administrators would have to keep it that way, no matter what. In Malaysia, an open space can suddenly be turned into a car park, a shopping complex or even a roundabout with a fast food joint built on it," he said.

Former Indonesian acting consul-general in Kota Kinabalu Rudhito Widagdo expressed the hope that Harris' report would dispel misconceptions on Kalimantan.

"It hurts me when people ask whether we have ice-cream in Indonesia," said Rudhito who disclosed that in Sabah, he was often mistaken for an Indonesian worker.

Harris is the second political veteran in Sabah to discover Kalimantan in recent months and think in terma of all-Borneo.

Sabah strongman Jeffrey Kitingan has begun making inroads into Kalimantan under the auspices of the Borneo Heritage Foundation and the Borneo Forum, which will meet again on Feb 20 in Kota Kinabalu.

Jeffrey's initiatives follow a trip by Central Kalimantan Governor Augustin Teras Narang to Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei in Dec 2008.