A piece I wrote several weeks earlier mulling the creation of Sarawak’s own airline drew some readers to write to me in response. These responses fall broadly into two categories: those who welcomed the idea and others — perhaps the more thoughtful ones — who cautioned, with eminent good reasons, that it may end up a bottomless pit devouring scarce state resources.
The first group of respondents, I think, speaks for a constituency hungry for the state to more aggressively chart its own course, however and whatever such a course may manifest itself. It is a general sentiment that informs and drives much of the political debate today in Sarawak.
The second group does not necessarily oppose the idea outright. In fact, a particularly considered opinion proffered that the state government must not be wholly owning such an airline and that the partners — both in equity and management — ought to be sought from without, after it is concluded following careful studies that the idea may be feasible and viable.
Perhaps, somewhat lost in the debate is not so much whether Sarawak is losing out (particularly when it comes to attracting tourists) with its dearth of direct air connections to destinations outside the country. Attracting tourists to Sarawak at this stage is an issue likely to lead to an endless chicken-or-egg-first debate.
Far more important is the question of maintaining Kuching’s position as the premier business and commercial centre in Borneo owing to its population size. It is the city’s so far unequalled size in either Sarawak or Sabah that makes it a manufacturing base of choice and the first point of call for retailers and other businesses seeking a beachhead in the Borneo states as they plot expansion plans.
This means the city’s position as a logistics hub must be safeguarded but there are some signs that the state authorities are not paying necessary attention to maintaining and enhancing this position.
Building up Kuching as an air hub of significance — and not just in aid of a still miniscule and nascent tourist industry — has to be an important facet of the overall strategic plan to sustain and enhance its position as an overall business hub. Thus, it is important to try to devise ways to “weaponise” Sarawak’s internally generated air passengers as a means to persuade and convince airlines or, as a final resort, to start one to help the state realise such an air hub.
Equally, Kuching’s position as a maritime hub must not be neglected, and unfortunately, the state government has taken a cavalier attitude in this regard. This is shown by Sarawak going along with a Sabah-initiated move to remove shipping cabotage on the mistaken assumption that it will result in lower consumer prices in both states.
Instead, the move has negatively impacted Sarawak’s own domestic shipping lines. Moreover, it has become evident that Sabah aggressively pushed the move because of the Sabah government’s own efforts to promote Kota Kinabalu as the regional transhipment hub for the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines-East Asean Growth Area. It has invested heavily in the further expansion of Sepanggar Port precisely aimed towards just such an objective.
With Kota Kinabalu already the regional airport hub of choice for national air carriers and Sabah’s success in turning the city into a sea transhipment hub, it can only mean Kuching’s position as an important business hub will be eroded in years to come.
If neither state has the population base and therefore economic scale on its own to sustain each state’s own business hub served by its own state airport and seaport hubs, Sarawak may have some uncomfortable questions to answer as to whether it is not consciously or otherwise ceding Kuching’s regional premier business hub status eventually to Kota Kinabalu.
There may come a time when both Sarawak and Sabah grow organically to justify their respective state capitals as the logical and independent business hubs to serve their own state hinterlands alone. But with the evolution and growth of cities, geographic location may be destiny and, on this score, Kota Kinabalu clearly has distinct advantages over Kuching.
Thus, unless the Sarawak government takes proactive steps to build on and protect Kuching’s existing advantages, there is every chance Sabah will pull ahead in years to come and become the irresistible and undisputed magnet attracting all life and energy in the Borneo states in its direction.
Cities, like old generals, may not die but simply fade away!
The writer views developments in the nation, the region and the wider world from his vantage point in Kuching, Sarawak