120 folks made homeless in an hour as their longhouse is torn down by the government for MARDI projects
Bintulu:
Residents of Rumah Nyawin, a 12 door longhouse belonging to 120 inhabitants could only look on in horror as their longhouse was reduced to dust in an hour. 300 enforcers from the police, Land and Survey Department and the Public Services Department came at about 0745 on Thurday accompanied by more than 20 vehicles including two excavators. The men folk were out earning a living leaving only the elderly and children in the longhouse.
Kidurong assemblyman, Chiew Chiu Seng couldn’t believe his eyes and was in a state of shock when he surveyed the scene at Rumah Nyawin. He said these residents are human beings. Sending so many against so few only shows the inability of the authorities to deal with the people amicably.
Pics courtesy of the Borneo Post : 120 people will be housed here for six months.
The people elect the government which they hope would protect them and not take away their rights and properties. We have so much land. This is inhumane. It is bullying. They were here even before Mardi came into the picture. They just need a bit of land for the longhouse and do cropping and farming.
The authorities have the law on their side as the residents have been given eviction notices. The residents too have made an appeal before this.
Bintulu Deputy Police Chief :
They will have a temporary shelter. We will transport their belongings for them.
Sobbing elderly woman 1 :
If they demolish your house, how would you feel?
Sobbing elderly woman 2 :
Where are we going to stay? This is our only home.
Man 1 :
If I were to follow my feelings, I would turn violent, but we are not irrational animals. We are citizens.
Elderly woman 3 :
All our rice and other food items were still in the longhouse. How could they do this to us? We built this house for years.
Sympathiser from a nearby longhouse :
Even criminals have been pardoned, so why can’t they have a sense of mercy for these people?
Middleaged man :
The whole family is given a room ( 9ft by 10ft in size ). It will be lent to us for six months and after that how………
It had been their home for more than twenty years. Residents there were helpless and outnumbered. 12 heavy trucks were also brought in to remove the residents’ belongings and dumped it at Rumah Tumpangan Bumiputera that used to be the Bintulu Scouts’ Federation building near Jalan Sibiyu here.
The belonging were simple strewn about and many had difficulty sorting out which belonged to who. It is believed some belongings were still left in the longhouse when it was torn down.
The land will be used by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute.( Mardi )
A longhouse was hit by a landslide in Kapit. Help was soon forthcoming. Longhouses have been burnt down before. They have rebuilt them again through scrimping and help from the general public through donations from the public. The longhouses are rebuilt on the same piece of land.
In this particular instance :
How are these people going to pick up the pieces of their lives? Was there no other better solution? Is the government so ignorant as to be unable to fathom the difficulties these people will face? Why were they unable to move out?
They have been removed from their only home, built through sweat and tears and away from their only source of income. In an hour, they have been relegated to a status nearing destitute.
The final notice was dated Oct 4th, 2006 signed by the Bintulu Land and Survey Department’s superintendent, Roslan Putit.
Some background info on this case – a must read submitted by Anthony Wong
10 comments Bengbeng | Rumah Nyawin
i googled it for the background info.
http://borneoproject.org/article.php?id=624
the article said there ws a reprieve. the longhouse was supposed to be destroyed in nov06. The case has gone to the courts to decide. Everyone thought it would take ages as with any court case, but it seems the longhouseresidents were deceived, judgement must have been made without anyone knowing, and now the bulldozers came in stealth. it is sad this. I wonder what the law is on who owns indigenous land.I have a friend who lives in an orang asli land, and it seems in west malaysia, the govt has the right to take over orang asli land as it sees fit. the land do not belong to the orang asli, but to the govt. Their village was flooded under a dam built to supply water for KL,the govt just took it, and relocate their village upstream. I am surprised the sarawak govt did not give these residents a new place, unless they did and the residents dont want it because any land given is usually not as nice.
Thanks Anthony. I am sure readers will find what you googled just as interesting to them as it is to me
Boy am I glad, discovered another fellow kopitiam taukeh (boss). Guess we visit some of the same people too like ah nel and bernard the SP doc. I like you “longkang” looks like your kopitiam more high class than mine, nice, nice, will definitely come back for the ghost stories.
hey Firehorse : Perhaps we should set up an association for cyber kopi tiam taukeh
But I Kopi Soh only lah, just now want to leave comment the box say “Please add 9 and 0″ I looking up and down all over where got, then simply press “submit” button, got word scream at me “PLEASE ANSWER QUESTION” wah scare me lidat.
Oh by the way taukeh, since I am here ady, I know I will be visiting your blog a lot, (becoz got ghost stories) can I link you?
I wonder why the houses in the background look like in an urban setting… near dewan suarah perhaps? What does MARDI want to do with the land?
It is a 12 door longhouse at mile 32, bintulu bakun road..just a km from the Bakun junction. The pic u see i assume is taken in front of the old scouts headquarters in town to highlight their situation
OIC. And they dumped their belongings in the field. Ish.
[...] – Comprehensive entries at mylongkang.com (a great source!); see especially the first post. [...]