Kampong Mumong () or simply known as Mumong, is a residential

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

Kuala Belait Kuala Belait (KB; Jawi: ) is the administrative town of Belait District, Brunei. The population of the town proper was 4,259 in 2016. Kuala Belait is officially a municipal area (), as well as a village under the mukim of the same name. The t ...

, the principal town of

Belait District Belait District (; Jawi: دأيره بلأيت), or simply Belait (), is the largest as well as the westernmost district in Brunei. It has an area of and the population of 69,062 as of 2016. The administrative town is Kuala Belait, located at ...

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

. It comprises the original Mumong settlement, as well as the Mumong

public housing estate Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

of the

Landless Indigenous Citizens' Housing Scheme Public housing in Brunei comprises government development programmes which aim to provide ownership of land or homes to the citizens of Brunei. They are managed by the Housing Development Department (), a government department under the Ministry of ...

. However, it officially consists of two village subdivisions, namely Mumong 'A' and Mumong 'B', which are under the

mukim A mukim is a type of administrative division used in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The word ''mukim'' is a loanword in English. However, it was also originally a loanword in Malay from the Arabic word: (meaning ''resident''). The clo ...

Name

The name Kampong Mumong is believed to come from a type of

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

yam plant called Mumong. Many of these plants grow along the

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

(Mumong River) which in the past was often used as a base to place boats for the purpose of going upstream or downstream to the sea.

Geography

Mumong is located in the eastern part of Kuala Belait. It is surrounded by the suburb of Pandan to the north and north-west, the settlement of

Panaga Panaga is a coastal settlement on the north-east coast of the island of Borneo, in the Bruneian district of Belait. Officially known in Malay as (sometimes ), it is a village-level subdivision under Seria, a mukim or subdistrict of Belait. The s ...

to east, and

Belait River The Belait River ( ms, Sungai Belait) is a river in Belait District, Brunei. It is the longest of the four main rivers in the country. History During World War II from 1941 onwards, the whole of Brunei was under Japanese occupation until 19 ...

to the south. Mumong comprises the original Mumong village as well as Mumong Landless Indigenous Citizens' Housing Scheme; they make up the eastern and western parts of Mumong respectively.

History

Mumong was a small Malay village on the banks of the

further upstream from Kuala Belait on the way to

Kuala Balai Mukim Kuala Balai is a mukim in Belait District, Brunei. The population was 31 in 2016. Geography The mukim borders Mukim Seria to the north, Mukim Labi to the east and south, the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the west and Mukim Kuala Belait ...

. The development of

at the turn of the century as the district capital and the construction of Jalan Singa Menteri and Jalan Tengah to like Kuala Belait to Seria saw the village grow south of Jalan Singa Menteri to become mainly a commuter community serving Kuala Belait and Seria towns. The construction of the Seria Bypass in the 1980s further encouraged more settlement of the area as it provided a second link from the village to Kuala Belait and Seria. The government of Brunei has also continued to improve the area with the construction of the Mumong Resettlement Area, a Landless Housing Scheme area located to the west of the kampong. Other infrastructure constructed in the kampong includes the Mumong Youth Centre and Sports Complex in the 1990s which also serves the communities in the vicinity of

and

, and the Kuala Belait Sewerage Treatment plant. Mumong also lends its name to the Mumong Telephone exchange area, although the physical location of the exchange is in Kampong Pandan.

Administration

The area of Mumong is officially administered as two villages, namely Mumong 'A' and Mumong 'B' (formerly known as Mumong Utara and Mumong Selatan respectively), which are the third- and lowest-level

administrative divisions of Brunei The administrative divisions of Brunei mainly consist of ''daerah'' (districts), ''mukim'' (subdistricts) and ''kampung'' or ''kampong'' (villages). They are organised hierarchically, with ''daerah'' being the first level and ''kampong'' the thir ...

. They are among the subdivisions within Kuala Belait, a mukim (subdistrict) in Belait District. Mumong 'A' comprises the Mumong public housing estate, as well as the nearby government residential area; Mumong 'B' makes up the Mumong village settlement. The two areas are also designated as postcode areas, thus having the

postcodes A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...

KA1531 and KA1731 respectively. The community of each village subdivision is headed by a

village head A village head, village headman or village chief is the community leader of a village or a small town. Usage Brunei In Brunei, village head is called or in the Malay language. It is an administrative post which leads the community of a v ...

(). However, at present the village head position for Mumong 'B' is vacant, thus in the interim it is administered by the village head of Mumong 'A' and the position is currently held by Mohd Yusof bin Dulamin. Mumong has also been incorporated into the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

of Kuala Belait. It comprises the entire Mumong 'A' and parts of Mumong 'B'.

Demography

As of 2018, the village has a population of approximately 9,637 people, namely 5,289 males and 4,378 females consisting of multiple races, tribes and religions.

Economy

Like other villages in the country, the Members of the ''Majlis Perundingan Kampung'' (MPK) Mumong 'A' and Mumong 'B' joined hands to implement several projects under the One Village One Product Program (1K1P) such as producing chili sauce, jam, baulu, cordel drink, marble cake and other sweets. In this implementation, the MPK Mumong Women's Bureau is responsible for promoting the product to the public. The special features of their chili sauce products compared to foreign products, according to Dayang Hajah Julia, there is not much difference between MPK Mumong's chili sauce and other chili sauces, but that their chili sauce is produced by themselves without the help of certain machines, while foreign products may processed using special machines. The ''Jem dan Jus Rosella'' economic project was launched on 22 September 2010 by more than 27 participants with a total capital of BND$270, which is by using the equal collection method of BND$10 per person. In order to obtain a continuous supply of Rosella fruit (

Hibiscus sabdariffa Roselle (''Hibiscus sabdariffa'') is a species of flowering plant in the genus ''Hibiscus'' that is native to Africa, most likely West Africa and also found in India especially Maharashtra with local name ambali. In the 16th and early 17th cent ...

), MPK Mumong has already planted Rosella fruit trees in groups in the yard of the project members, in the MPK activity center and in the yard of the villagers.

Transportation

Land

Most of the roads within the kampong is surfaced. However, not all the roads are level to encourage effective drainage during a downpour. The main road passing through the heart of the old village is Jalan Mumong, although this road has been bisected by into two by the Seria Bypass. The Seria Bypass and Jalan Singa Menteri links Mumong west to

and from there to Miri in Malaysia, and east to Seria and from there to Tutong and Bandar Seri Begawan. A road connects Mumong to

- this road bears the name of Jalan Mumong - Kuala Balai, and this is the only road linking Kuala Balai to the rest of the country. This road was only surfaced in the 1990s, and has since seen a large number of industrial developments at the Mumong end. There are no public buses serving the Mumong area.

Water

There are no Ferry services, river services or port services in Mumong. The nearest port is in neighbouring

Kampong Sungai Duhon Kampong Sungai Duhon is a village that is located within the town of Kuala Belait in Mukim Kuala Belait, Belait District of Brunei. The postcode is KA3131. History In 1975, plans were made to relocate the settlers of Sungai Duhon away from th ...

to the west along the

, and the nearest deepwater port in Brunei is Muara Port.

Air

There are no airports in Mumong. Commercial travellers would have to travel to either Bandar Seri Begawan or Miri to catch a commercial flight.

Infrastructure

Housing

Mumong Landless Indigenous Citizens' Housing Scheme () is the public housing estate in Mumong and one of such estates in the country under the programme of its

namesake A namesake is a person, geographic location, or other entity bearing the name of another. History The word is first attested around 1635, and probably comes from the phrase "for one's name's sake", which originates in English Bible translations ...

, which is a government housing programme specifically for the or the indigenous citizens of Brunei.

Miscellaneous

Mumong Sports Complex serves as the main public venue for sports and recreational activities in Mumong and the area around the vicinity of Kuala Belait. It contains a running track, a swimming pool, various sports courts and other facilities.

Achievements

The village was selected to participate in the 2009 Outstanding Village Award Program organized by the

Ministry of Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

where Kampong Mumong was among the 15 villages selected for the final stage by highlighting chili sauce products.

Notable people

* Said Abdullah (1921-2011), penghulu and nobleman

Notes

{{Belait District Populated places in Brunei th:เซเรีย