Muqaddimah
GUAL PERIOK KAMPUNG BUNIAN
Kini Pekan Gual Periok sebuah pekan mati. Satu pekan yang dahulunya merupakan pekan pemangkin dan nadi ekonomi kepada penduduknya dan penduduk di kawasan sekitarnya.
Di tahun-tahun 60an Gual Periok adalah pekan kaya. Kaya dengan hasil mahsulnya yang tersendiri. Kaya dengan hasil perlombongan bijih besinya. Kaya dengan hasil mahsul getah dan nenasnya. Kaya dengan hasil kedondong air dan kelubinya. Malah tidak kurang Gual Periok jua menjadi pentas pemburuan burung punai dan ikan darat, bagi orang besar- besar negeri Kelantan.
Di tahun-tahun 60an bendang-bendang padi menjadi. Sebahagian besar penduduk kampung Gual Nibong, kampung Luar dan Pekan Gual Periok sendiri, berupaya memiliki beras tidak berbeli – beras sendiri. Di setiap rumah boleh dikatakan ada saja satu atau dua baloh padi sendiri. Baloh yang berisi padi, dengan padi usang dan padi baru yang dihasilkan oleh bendang sendiri.
Orang Gual Periok di masa itu memang banyak padi sehingga ada orang luar yang sanggup datang bermalam di kampung-kampung kerana mencari rezeki dari padi-padi zakat di samping di setiap rumah boleh dikatakan ada sepuluh hingga dua puloh ekor lembu atau kerbau yang dimilik. Lantaran itu bolehlah penduduk Gual Periok di masa itu bermegah dengan hasil mahsul yang ada, semacam meletakkan mereka di kalangan rakyat Kelantan yang mewah lagi di segani.
Satu lagi faktor yang membolehkan penduduk Gual Periok bermegah sendiri adalah kerana adanya perkhidmatan keretapi. Perkhidmatan keretapi dari Pasir Mas – Golok dan sebaliknya. Pekan Gual Periok lebih bernasib baik kerana Gual Periok memiliki stesen keretapi dan stesen keretapinya lebeh besar dari stesen keretapi di Rantau Panjang kerana keretapi di Gual Periok boleh berselisih di antara satu dengan lain.
Tambah-tambah pula di musim itu perkhidmatan keretapi sajalah merupakan satu-satu alat pengangkutan bagi penduduk Gual Periok dan kawasan sekitarnya untuk membawa mereka keluar dari kawasan. Di masa itu mereka tidak ada pilihan lain kecuali mereka terpaksa datang ke Gual Periok untuk mendapat perkhidmatan keretapi. Dalam pada itu keretapi juga berperanan sebagai pengakutan bagi mengeluarkan bijih-bijih besi yang di lombong, getah yang ditoreh, malahan hasil mahsul yang lain seumpama nenas jua di eksport keluar melaluinya. Sesungguhnya kelahiran perkhidmatan keretapi telah banyak menyumbang dengan menghasilkan ecomomic impact opportunity kepada penduduk Gual Periok dan membuat penduduk pekan Gual Periok dan kawasan sekitarnya menjadi mewah dan teramat mewah.
Tapi sayang menjelang di akhir tahun 70an, keseluruhan kegiatan tersebut telah hilang di mata. Perlombongan bijih besi ditutup. Kegiatan penanaman getah terbantut akibat harga getah asli di bawah paras galakan ekonomi, bendang padi tidak menjadi. Di mana membuat penduduk Gual Periok terpaksa meninggalkan sektor ini dan lari mencari ruang baru untuk mencari makan sehinggalah sebahagian penduduk Gual Periok terpaksa berpindah dari Gual Periok, malah tidak kurang mencari pekerjaan buat rumah batu di Singapura, yang akhirnya Gual Periok terpaksa meruntuhkan dirinya sendiri terutama apabila terhentinya perkhidmatan keretapi Pasir Mas – Golok.
Bermula dari saat itulah, Gual Periok terus dirundung malang. Pekan Gual Periok tidak ubah bagai pekan di serang Geruda. Rumah-rumah kedai yang dahulunya terhias dengan barang-barang jualan terpaksa menjadi rumah hantu tanpa penghuni. Kini Pekan Gual Periok sendiri hanya di diami oleh segelintir warganya dengan rupa hutan kecil tumbuh terbiar di sekeliling di samping wajah Pejabat Pertanian milik Kerajaan ditutup dan terbiar tanpa pegawai disamping bangunan Pusat Penyembelihan Ternakan milik kerajaan yang belum ketentuan fungsinya. Beginilah rupa Gual Periok di tahun 2004 di persimpangan Wawasan 2020.
Dalam pada itu, Gual periok juga (Di tahun 2004) tidak mempunyai perkhidmatan bas atau teksi, tidak seumpama Pekan Rantau Panjang dan lain kampung seperti Repek, Tok Deh, Gual Tinggi dan Gual Sitok. Orang Gual Periok terpaksa mengguna motosikal sendiri untuk ke Cabang Haji Bedol di persimpangan Lebuh-raya yang jaraknya lebih kurang 5 km atau ke kampung Tok Deh yang jaraknya 3 km dari pusat pekan mati Gual Periok. Sesungguhnya kedudukan seumpama, meletakkan Pekan Gual Periok semacam terpinggir dan tersisih dari kemeriahan keliling. Di sini kami menjemput mana-mana pihak yang berperihatin datanglah menjenguk Pekan Gual Periok.
Di sudut yang lain. Gual Periok semacam kehilangan pemimpin – tiada seorang berpengaruh yang di kenali di peringkat negeri dan negara. Kalau dahulu Gual Periok ada Haji Wan Ibrahim Salleh, adanya Penggawa Haji Ali – Penggawa Jaafar, Adanya Haji Isa, adanya Haji Bedul, adanya Che Mat Che Omar tetapi sekarang semua tidak ada. Semuanya telah meninggal dunia.
Orang Gual Periok kini semacam terkiai-kiai mencari pemimpin yang boleh menjadi pencetus semangat dan ideal serta berupaya menjadi jurucakap bagi pihak mereka agar keuzuran nasib Gual Periok terbela dan di bela. Tidak ada lagi bentuk-bentuk kegiatan yang boleh menggerakkan hati menteri dan hati orang-orang besar negeri untuk datang ke Gual Periok.
Kini kami generasi Gual Periok yang berada di Kuala Lumpur mulai sedar, setelah ada sedikit keupayaan untuk bernafas. Kami sedar, kami lah yang sepatutnya melangkah kehadapan melihat nasib kampung sendiri. Kami tidak harus membiarkan Pekan Gual Periok ranap dan runtuh, akibat kedhaifan upaya warganya sendiri. Kini kami bangkit bagi menentukan Gual Periok hidup kembali dan Gual Periok hendaklah diberi peluang yang sama seiring dengan perkembangan kemajuan negara menjelang Malaysia maju di tahun 2020.
Di sini kami tidak perlu salahkan kepada mana-mana orang kerana terbiarnya Gual Periok dari arus pembangunan. Kami tidak perlu salahkan orang, kerana tidak membela nasib Gual Periok, sehingga Pekan Gual Periok menjadi sepi dan mati . Sebaliknya kami sendiri lah kena sedar, bahawa sebenarnya tangan kami sendiri lah selama ini, meletakkan Gual Periok sebagai sebuah kampung bunian – terpandang dari dalam – terbuta dari luar – yang menyebabkan mata orang yang lalu lalang teralih pandang untuk melihat nasib Pekan Gual Periok dan penduduknya.
Kami sedar, bahawa laungan kami selama ini tidak menyusuk masuk ke telinga orang luar kerana kami bunian. Jeritan dan kepedihan kami tidak diendah oleh orang, kerana kami bunian. Malah tapak kaki kami jua terlindung pandang, kerana kami bunian. Lantaran itu adalah menjadi tanggungjawab kami Anak Beranak Yayasan Gual Periok, bangun dan mencari jalan untuk membela dan mengubah nasib sendiri setelah menyedari kami bukanlah dari kaum yang lemah malah maseh berkaki.
Akhir kata kami menyeru kepada semua pihak yang berperihatin, agar bangun bersama Yayasan Gual Periok. Demi penduduk Gual Periok dan berilah peluang kepada penduduk Gual Periok menjadi orang seumpama orang lain. Kami percaya bukan kerana pihak berperihatin tidak menghirau orang Gual Periok selama ini tetapi sebenarnya pihak berperihatin tidak dapat mendengar laungan suara pemberitahuan tentang kedudukan sebenar Gual periok. Maka dengan pendedahan ini, insyaallah nasib penduduk Gual Periok akan diberi perhatian di saat terzahirnya Yayasan Gual Periok.
Amin Ya Rabbal ‘alamina.
GUAL PERIOK KAMPUNG BUNIAN
Today, Gual Periok is a dead town—a town that was once a catalyst and the economic lifeline for its own residents as well as the people living in the surrounding areas.
During the 1960s, Gual Periok was a prosperous town. It was rich in its own agricultural produce, rich from the yield of its iron ore mining, and rich from its rubber and pineapple production. It was also abundant in kedondong air and kelubi. Gual Periok was even a hunting ground for punai birds and freshwater fish for the prominent people of the state of Kelantan.
During the 1960s, the paddy fields flourished. A large proportion of the residents of Kampung Gual Nibong, Kampung Luar, and Gual Periok itself were able to have rice without having to buy it—they produced their own rice. Almost every household had one or two baloh padi of their own—granaries filled with rice, consisting of both old and newly harvested paddy produced from their own fields.
The people of Gual Periok had an abundance of paddy at that time. There were even outsiders who were willing to spend the night in the villages in search of sustenance from the zakat paddy. In addition, almost every household owned between ten and twenty cattle or buffaloes. As a result, the people of Gual Periok could take pride in their abundance of produce and livestock, placing them among the more prosperous and respected people of Kelantan.
Another factor that enabled the people of Gual Periok to take pride in their town was the existence of railway services—the railway service between Pasir Mas and Golok, and vice versa. Gual Periok was particularly fortunate because it had its own railway station, and its station was larger than the one in Rantau Panjang, as trains in Gual Periok were able to pass one another.
Moreover, during that period, the railway service was the only means of transportation available to the people of Gual Periok and the surrounding areas to travel outside the region. They had no other choice but to come to Gual Periok in order to access the railway service.
The railway also played an important role in transporting the iron ore that was mined, the rubber that was tapped, and other agricultural produce such as pineapples for export. Indeed, the establishment of the railway service contributed greatly by creating economic opportunities for the people of Gual Periok and made the people of Gual Periok and its surrounding areas prosperous—even exceedingly prosperous.
Sadly, towards the end of the 1970s, all these activities gradually disappeared. The iron ore mining operations were closed. Rubber cultivation was severely affected by the price of natural rubber falling below the economically viable level. The paddy fields also ceased to produce sufficient yields. As a result, the people of Gual Periok were forced to leave this sector and seek new means of earning a living.
Some residents of Gual Periok were eventually forced to leave the area altogether. Others went to Singapore in search of employment, including construction work. Eventually, Gual Periok was left to decline on its own, particularly after the Pasir Mas–Golok railway service was discontinued.
From that moment onwards, Gual Periok continued to suffer misfortune. Gual Periok town became like a town struck by a great calamity. The rows of shop houses that were once filled with merchandise and bustling with trade were gradually transformed into abandoned, haunted-looking buildings without occupants.
Today, Gual Periok town itself is inhabited by only a small number of its residents. Small patches of forest have grown wild and unchecked around the area. The Government-owned Agriculture Office has also been closed and left abandoned without officers, while the Government-owned Livestock Slaughterhouse remains standing without any clear purpose or certainty regarding its function.
This was the condition of Gual Periok in 2004, at the crossroads of the Vision 2020 era.
Furthermore, in 2004, Gual Periok had no bus or taxi services, unlike Rantau Panjang and other villages such as Repek, Tok Deh, Gual Tinggi and Gual Sitok. The people of Gual Periok had to use their own motorcycles to travel to Cabang Haji Bedol at the highway junction, approximately 5 kilometres away, or to Kampung Tok Deh, which was 3 kilometres from the centre of the dead town of Gual Periok.
Indeed, such circumstances placed Gual Periok in a position of isolation and exclusion from the vibrancy of the surrounding areas. Here, we invite anyone who cares to come and see for themselves the condition of Gual Periok town.
From another perspective, Gual Periok seems to have lost its leaders—there is no longer an influential figure known at the state or national level. In the past, Gual Periok had Haji Wan Ibrahim Salleh, Penggawa Haji Ali, Penggawa Jaafar, Haji Isa, Haji Bedul, and Che Mat Che Omar. But now, none of them remain. They have all passed away.
The people of Gual Periok now seem lost, searching for leaders who can inspire them, provide them with a sense of purpose and ideals, and act as their spokespersons so that the hardship and declining condition of Gual Periok may be addressed and defended. There are no longer any activities capable of stirring the hearts of ministers and prominent figures of the state to come to Gual Periok.
Today, we, the generation of Gual Periok residing in Kuala Lumpur, have begun to realise, now that we have gained a little ability to breathe and stand on our own, that it is we who should step forward and look after the fate of our own village.
We must not allow Gual Periok town to collapse and disappear because of the limitations and helplessness of its own residents. Today, we rise to ensure that Gual Periok lives again, and that Gual Periok is given the same opportunities, in step with the nation’s progress towards becoming a developed Malaysia in the year 2020.
Here, we do not need to blame anyone for allowing Gual Periok to be left behind by the currents of development. We do not need to blame others for failing to defend the interests of Gual Periok until the town became quiet and lifeless. Instead, we ourselves must realise that, in truth, it was our own hands that have all this while allowed Gual Periok to become a kampung bunian—visible from within, yet unseen from the outside. This has caused the eyes of those passing by to turn elsewhere, overlooking the plight of Gual Periok town and its people.
We realise that our cries over all these years have failed to reach the ears of outsiders because we are bunian. Our cries and our suffering have gone unnoticed because we are bunian. Even the footprints we have left behind have remained hidden from view because we are bunian. Therefore, it is the responsibility of us, the children and descendants of Yayasan Gual Periok, to rise and find a way to defend and change our own destiny, having realised that we are not a weak people and that we still have the means and ability to stand on our own feet. Finally, we appeal to all concerned and caring parties to rise together with Yayasan Gual Periok. For the sake of the people of Gual Periok, give the people of Gual Periok the opportunity to become equal to everyone else.
We believe that it is not because those who care have ignored the people of Gual Periok all this while. Rather, the truth is that those who care have simply been unable to hear the cries and messages revealing the true condition of Gual Periok. Therefore, with this revelation and disclosure, insyaallah, the plight of the people of Gual Periok will receive the attention it deserves with the emergence of Yayasan Gual Periok.
Amin Ya Rabbal ‘alamina.