Pulau Tioman - Part 2

We were in Tioman for a week and lots of activities were done between the kampung folks and the participants. We had a series of awareness programmes in education, health and social integration. We were informed by the villagers that most of their children had stopped schooling after grade six. In order to further their study at the secondary school, they have to stay at hostel in Rompin which is located at the mainland. Most of the parents and children cannot bear the separation. They can only meet during the school holiday, which is in few months' time. Children that completed their secondary school were very few and they belongs to well off middle class families, where their parents could visited them frequently during the weekends. We tried explaining to them that education is the most important process to the children and most of the inputs were in the form of literatures. They need to improve the literacy rate amongst the villagers. I met a 16 years old boy, who had stopped schooling after grade 6 and barely could read properly. He seem to be very contented with the islander lifestyles wearing T-shirt and bermuda short, strolling with female tourists along the beaches as the unpaid tourist guide. He in fact boasted that he had free sex with tourists from all over the world. We were very sad that a young boy at that tender age had indecent exposure and on top of that he felt it was a great achievement to have an illicit relationships. I realised that we can't changed their lifestyles in short period of time. The Government should tackle this educational issue, if they want to make sure the younger generations are educated with the right knowledges and able to differentiate good or bad moral values. We also realised that not all the children have equal opportunity to complete their study. They were literally forced to abandon their pursuance of obtaining higher education when the Government do not provide the basic infrastructure in Tioman. I am not so sure whether the secondary school has been built or not to cater the growing number of children in the island. It maybe uneconomical to build another school over there but by centralise the primary and secondary under one roof would be a solution to the problem. Online classes are another way to resolve the problem and at the same times reduce the cost of development and maintenance.

On the health issue, the island was serviced by the Pusat Kesihatan cum clinic under the jurisdiction of Kuala Rompin District's Jabatan Kesihatan. We were told that the clinic would dispense medication related to fever, headache, diarrhoea, dressing of cuts and also pregnancy check-up. I wish I could elaborate more but our focus at that time was just on family planning and balance food intake. I am not so sure whether medical officer from mainland would visit the island on periodical basis. It would be great if the medical officer can visit them on monthly basis for few days and giving chances to the islanders to have their medical issues sorted out.

Relationships between the participants itself bonded well and no untoward incident that would caused our objective to be slackened. However, as a normal human being I could only plan but my cordial relationship with Aini had turned out to be a gossip amongst the participants. I was so frustrated with the gossip, as I knew very well that she has been engaged to my friend, also a participant in this project. As we were staying in the same house during the project period (same foster parent), naturally she would followed me to all the places we had the programmes. That was my straight thinking and I treated her as if she was my sister. I do not have any feelings toward her. I could still remembered the incidence at Pulau Tulai that became the apex of gossip. Pulau Tulai, an island located at the northern tip of Tioman, where the seawater was crystal clear and light green in colour. The beaches were white sandy and unspoilt. Tourists seldom go to this island as Tioman was already good enough for them. The corals were beautiful and the colourful fishes swam gracefully unperturbed by our presence. It seemed that the seabed was just 5 to 6 feet depth. Nearly all the participants that could swim including Aini were already enjoying the water. The sea was calm with gentle cool breeze and I could not resist in joining them albeit I couldn't swim. I grabbed a lifebuoy and jumped. The colourful coral fishes swam closely to me and I thanked Allah for creating this magnificient nature that I could relish it with a feeling of serenity. My tranquility was abruptly disturbed by Aini, who was an excellence swimmer. She pulled my lifebuoy further from the beaches and I started to panicky. "Abang, Aini is here. Why worry?,"she said with a smile. My adrenalin dropped slowly and started to enjoy her company. From afar I noticed that Aini's fiancee sat quietly on the beach starring at us. I could sense his frustration and sorrow. I told Aini to pull me back to the boat and accompanied her fiancee instead. My words seemed to be drown by the wind. She still tagged along and what can I do? The gossip was very disturbing and my leadership credibility could be at stake. I do not want it to prolong and I need to confront Aini before her fiancee bash me up or humiliate me in front of others.

On our last night at Tioman, I brought up this issue to Aini. She remained calm whereas I was very nervous and felt been cheated by our cordial relationship. I kept on blabbering on her reaction toward me and also hurting her fiancee's feeling. She just starred blankly at my face without saying a word. She must have a stone cold heart. It was me who shed tears instead of her. I felt I was being made a scapegoat, when she told me that she wanted to break up her engagement. I would definitely be blamed for the break-off. On the way back to Kuantan, I tried to straighten out the situation by explaining the matter to Aini's fiancee. I told him that I do not have any feeling towards Aini and our relationship was purely superficial. He seemed to accept my explaination and I told him to settle it with Aini. While talking to him, Aini came and sat beside me. In her mellow voice, "Abang, I am thirsty" and she took my can drink from my hand and drank it. I was stunned by her antic action and so does her fiancee.

The baktisiswa project was indeed a memorable one to all of us. Three couples becomes inseparable and tied the knot after graduation. Another committee member met an island girl, fall in love and married after graduation. Aini broke her engagement and after the graduation I have not heard or meet her again. May Allah give her peace and happiness in her life.