BELAGA: An insult – that’s how Penans view the “gift” of a wooden bridge as a farewell present from a multi-billion ringgit company after it left Bakun.Penan chief of the Lusong Laku settlement, Penghulu Jati Jarang, said his people felt hurt and humiliated.
“Kami orang miskin, tak pergi sekolah, tapi kami bukan bodoh. Ini towkay-towkay, jangan cuba nak buat kami malu. (We may be poor and uneducated but we are not stupid people. Don’t shame us like this),’’ he said in an interview at his longhouse yesterday.
Jati also said his people were disappointed with Sarawak government leaders for not ensuring the timber towkays gave back to the natives what they had taken from the land through logging activities.
“This has been our home for hundreds of years,’’ he said.
“Before the logging, we lived peacefully. We had enough food to live on our own in the jungle.
“These logging companies have destroyed our lives. Now, we are always short of food. Many of us cannot find jobs and we have no income.”
Jati said the Penans do not accept the “wooden bridge’’ and want more from the company.
“Before the logging, we lived peacefully. We had enough food to live on our own in the jungle.
“These logging companies have destroyed our lives. Now, we are always short of food. Many of us cannot find jobs and we have no income.”
Jati said the Penans do not accept the “wooden bridge’’ and want more from the company.
The Penans, he said, want the logging giant to repair the Lusong Laku longhouses that are in a bad shape, repair the logging roads and tar them, replace the wooden bridge with another iron bridge that can withstand floods, provide fertilisers and seeds and compensate the Penans for the massive destruction to the land and rivers caused by the logging operations.
The logging giant left Bakun because of the impending flooding of 64,000ha of land for the RM6bil Bakun hydro-electric dam’s reservoir.
Jati said some 300 Penans almost got into a violent confrontation when the company dismantled the iron bridge it had built to facilitate its logging operations.
The bridge was the only access across the Sungai Linau for 3,000 Penans and other natives.
The company has since replaced it with a rickety-looking wooden bridge that is just big enough for a small vehicle to pass through.
The logging giant left Bakun because of the impending flooding of 64,000ha of land for the RM6bil Bakun hydro-electric dam’s reservoir.
Jati said some 300 Penans almost got into a violent confrontation when the company dismantled the iron bridge it had built to facilitate its logging operations.
The bridge was the only access across the Sungai Linau for 3,000 Penans and other natives.
The company has since replaced it with a rickety-looking wooden bridge that is just big enough for a small vehicle to pass through.
The bridge was constructed on the day The Star published a story of how food aid could not be sent to Lusong Laku because the iron bridge was no longer there.
Jati said the wooden bridge was completed a few days after the food aid mission (organised by the Miri Catholic Church) was highlighted.
“This wooden bridge is weak. It will be swept away once the floods come and the water level rises. We want a better structure,’’ he said.
Jati said the wooden bridge was completed a few days after the food aid mission (organised by the Miri Catholic Church) was highlighted.
“This wooden bridge is weak. It will be swept away once the floods come and the water level rises. We want a better structure,’’ he said.
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