Landing at Tawau airport from Kota Kinabalau last night, I met with a friend who was about to board a plane to Kuala Lumpur. He greeted me with a question, “Why prawns?”
Astonished, I asked back, “What about prawns?”
Smiling, my friend, a local Tawau chap explained, “I wonder, why the hell you people of Kunak put up three big, concrete prawn replicas at the Kunak town roundabout? It gave me the impression that Kunak is a main producer of big prawns. So, I went to your wet market, you know… to buy some big, cheap prawns!”
He began to giggle.
The Prawn Replicas Under Construction in Kunak
“You know what?” the giggles turned to big laughter, and said, almost shouting, “I can’t find a single prawn!”
He continued to tease, hurting my feeling and pride “Since you don’t have prawns to offer, I bet your giant prawns represent the Malay proverbs, Otak Udang (Prawn Brain – meaning “fool”) or Udang Di sebalik Batu (A shrimp behind the rock – meaning “to have hidden agendas”).
Embarrassed, I just managed to put up a wry smile. What can I say? He was right. Kunak fishermen do not catch enough prawns to cater even for local consumption.
Disturbed by my friend’s remarks, I phoned the Kunak Pemimpin Kemajuan Rakyat (People’s Development Leader) this morning to find out whether he has any information on how the decision was made to put up the prawn replicas. He told me that neither he nor the local state assemblyman, Datuk Nilwan Kabang, was consulted on the matter.
Personally, I would prefer any of the following replicas:
- Replicas depicting activities of the prehistoric hunter-gatherers that took place in Tingkayu in Kunak District sometime in 30,000 BC;
- Activities of oil palm harvesters as palm oil is the main produce of Kunak; or
- Zalacca fruit to represent Kunak as the first snake fruit propagator in the state.
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