REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NUNUKAN - About 40 percent of people's primary needs like sugar, rice, oil, and gas in Sebatik Island, Nunukan, East Kalimantan, come from Malaysia. Malaysian sugar is whiter, sweeter, and cheaper compare to sugar from Makassar, the inhabitants say.

"The color of sugar from Makassar, Sulawesi, is reddish and less sweet. No one wants to sell it here," the resident of Mantikas Villages in West Sebatik, Karmawati (35 years), said on Sunday.

The price of Malaysian sugar is 9,500 IDR per kilogram, while the sugar from Sulawesi is a lot more expensive. The rice also comes from Malaysia because the cost is cheaper. 

"The rice field area in Sebatik is limited," the inhabitant of Sungai Nyamuk Village in East Sebatik, Juwadi, said.

The Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare Agung Laksono and the Minister of Interior Gamawan Fauzi are reported visiting the island to pay more attentions in order to speed up the local development infrastructure and human resources. The authorities who worked in the outer islands would also get the special incentive, Laksono said.

Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika