Ba’Kelalan, Nov 12, 2012: An angry group of Lun Bawangs has blocked the construction of a Ba’Kelalan-Bario road project, accusing the federal government of failing to listen to the wishes of the community.
The road project, under the Malaysian Army’s Jiwa Murni programme, is already about one kilometre long stretch into the Muda river catchment area when the Lun Bawangs stopped the contractor engaged by the Malaysian army.
“We have told the army’s contractor and its workers to stop constructing the road and to move their heavy machineries away,” Paren Padan said in a recorded statement emailed to the media.
Picture: The Lun Bawangs at the blockade side at Pa'Patar which is near the Muda catchment area.
He said that the contractor had complied with their request and had stopped proceeding with the road projection.
“At the same time, we have put up a blockade to stop any further efforts to construct the road until they (army) have agreed with our requests,” he added.
“We put the blockade because we don’t agree with the route to be used by the army to construct the road because the route is to pass through the jungles and catchment areas of Muda river,” he said.
He insisted that the route to be taken by the army will pollute the Muda river, destroying their padi fields and livestocks.
He said the river is also a source of their water for domestic use.
Paren said that the catchment area is rich in ‘meranti’ and ‘jati’ trees.
Construction of the RM42 million Ba’ Kelalan-Bario road project started on last Oct 1 and is expected to be completed by Sept 2014.
He said the Lun Bawangs have sent letters to the federal government, through Member of Parliament Datuk Henry Sum Agong and Ba’Kelalan State Assemblyman Baru Bian, not to pass through the Muda river catchment area for the Ba’Kelalan-Bario road project.
“Up to now, there is no response from the government,” he said.
Paren said that the Lun Bawang community from six villages had proposed a Belingi-Lepo Bunga-Bario route, which will not affect the water catchment area.
The villages are Punan Kelalan, Long Muda, Long Kumap, Long Langai, Long Lemutut and Buduk Nur, with a combined population of about 2,000.
In 1994, the villagers had to defend Muda river for the same reason, and they managed to halt a timber company from encroaching into the virgin jungle around the area.
Meanwhile, Baru, who is also the Sarawak PKR chief, said he is aware that the blockade has been erected to stop the construction of the road project.
“The army should have listened to the wishes of the local people, but they did not and proceeded with the construction,” he said when met today.
Baru said what the army is doing is illegal because the road project has trespassed into native customary rights (NCR) land.
“I am sure that they are aware of the provisions of Sarawak Land Code that customary rights over the native lands must first be extinguished and gazetted before road project can even start.
“Before the extinguishment is made, the land owners must first be informed through notification which must states the reason for the extinguishment,” he said, explaining that any extinguishment of customary rights over the native lands must be for public purposes, like building of roads, schools and clinics.
He stressed that as far as he knew, the army had not done so to extinguish the customary rights before proceeding with constructing the Ba’Kelalan-Bario road.
Baru, a well-known NCR land lawyer, said he supported the action to halt the construction of the road and may consider filing a court case against the Defence Ministry and other related parties later.
“The people are not against any form of development, but what they want is that any development must not affect their livelihood,” he said.
