Bakun resettlers stage protest over decade-old road issue
By Joseph Tawie, Free Malaysia Today
KUCHING: Bakun dam resettlers, fed up with deplorable road conditions caused by logging trucks over the past decade, staged a demonstration last week.
More than 100 of them stopped several logging trucks laden with logs from using a public road at the Bakun Resettlement Centre in Sungai Asap, Belaga, on Wednesday.
Burdened by lack of economic activities and other woes after moving out of their ancestral lands, they took matters into their own hands after complaints to the government and timber companies were ignored.
Led by Dr Ellie Luhat, chairman of Bakun Community Safety committee, the resettlers came armed with banners and posters, one which read: ‘Government built, tycoons destroyed: We, rakyat suffer. What the hell?’ Another read: ‘Illegal logging makes Bakun road a death trap’.
Ellie said that the action of the timber companies using the public road for their own interest had caused massive damages, huge losses and brought untold suffering to the people.
“What they have done is tantamount to destroying what government has done for the resettlers and their action is wasting government money and fund.
“We give them two weeks to repair the road,” said Ellie, pointing out that their protestation is just the beginning of further action and battle.
Describing the timber companies’ action as vandalism, he said: “There will be more demonstrations. We don’t have anything here and will do what we must to rectify the situation.
“We want to help the government solve the decade old problem,” he said, adding that he had met with several political leaders including Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak over the matter.
