There is a village which still cling onto their NCR land when Bakun dam was impounded-they built flaoting houses on top of their NCR footprint! Even though they are now locating land to relocate they find their folks who are resettled in Sg Asap-the government resettlement area, are flowing back to their NCR `land’! The resistance to Bakun’s impoundment continue, lest the public may forget:
Uma Jawe residents ready to swap ‘jelatongs’ for longhouse
Posted on July 30, 2012, Monday
FLOATING CHURCH: The floating SIB church at Uma Jawe in a dilapidated state.
BAKUN: The 30 odd families of Uma Jawe, who are currently living in jelatongs (floating houses), have identified a site to build a new longhouse, revealed its village chief Janting Ibau.
He claimed they had obtained permission from the relevant authorities to do so.
“We would like to settle down for good as jelatongs are a temporary measure after our longhouses were submerged when the Bakun hydroelectric power (HEP) dam was impounded on October 13, 2010,” Janting told The Borneo Post at Uma Jawe, about four hours’ boat ride from here, on Friday.
He revealed that although most of the people from his village were relocated to Sg Asap Resettlement Scheme, some villagers preferred to stay behind.
“As they cannot be forced to leave their ancestral homes, they instead built jelatongs and stayed put.”
However, he said after almost two years of staying afloat, they wanted to have permanent houses so that they don’t have to constantly spend time and money to repair their jelatongs.
“Now many people from Sg Asap want to come back as this land is recognised as our NCR land.”
Janting also revealed that living on jelatongs was not something they were proud of as there were a lot of issues tied to it, such as sanitation, school, healthcare and pollution to the environment.
“I must admit that living in a jelatong is not a healthy lifestyle. But what can we do? We now hope that the relevant authorities will assist us in rebuilding our longhouse so that we can settle here permanently.”
Janting revealed that another key reason for his people to come back and to rebuild their longhouses was because of culture shock at Sg Asap.
“Living in Sg Asap is very expensive because we have to buy almost everything. Over here, we can fish and hunt and gather jungle produce easily. Life is definitely cheaper here compared to at Sg Asap, except that it’s too far away from amenities such as school and clinic.”
Janting disclosed that while his two sons were staying in his longhouse in Sg Asap, he and his wife were tilling the land behind their jelatong.
“We will plant paddy this year and we will open up more land to plant fruit trees and rubber trees as well. In the long run, we would be better off again.”
Meanwhile, Wilson Ugak promised the people there that their church, which was floated with oil drums and floating trees after the impoundment of the dam, would be rebuild.
Most of the people of Uma Jawe are Christians of the Borneo Evangelical Church (SIB) denomination.
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MALAYSIA DAY’S JANJI TAK DITEPATI RAKYAT DIBOHONGI
http://borneoherald.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/malaysia-days-janji-tak-ditepati-rakyat.html
What a East Malaysian think on the eve of Merdeka
In the past 55 years and more, they have made us poorer still.
After more than 50 years of “Janji tak diTepati, Rakyat selalu diBohongi”, Iet us say goodbye to UMNO BN. Is this coming GE 13 (PRU 13) the end of BN in Sabah? Sabahans must realise that they have replaced the white men imperialist’s colonialism with brown skin UMNOputras.
In the year 1963, people of Sabah and Sarawak were conned or sweet-talked to join Malaysia; and later still, UMNO either branded them as “pendatang” and now classify them into Bumi versus non Bumi. Even if they were classified Bumi, their status are second class Bumi only unlike the peninsular Bumis (Malays mostly) who are more privileged.
They made a lot of empty promises and until today we remained the poorest in the country. Look how pathetic we are still.
They have even hijacked their own religion Islam and started to call us non-Muslims like as if we are non-humans or subhumans (remember how Hitler’s Nazi Germans treated the Jews and other non-Germanic peoples as Untermenschen) and treated us like second class citizens too like they treated the Chinese and the Indians.
Only the Malays and Muslims (or the Mamak Malays like Mahathir and his other half-Indian crony Nor Yakcop who nearly bankrupted the country speculating Bank Negara forex reserves) are accorded first class Bumi status.
Believe it or not, hotels in Sabah and Sarawak still serve pork unlike West Malaysia. For that matter, hotels even in Indonesia, Turkey and Dubai still serve pork. Only in Malaysia Boleh country, haram food is given a new stricter meaning i.e. ” If as a first class Muslim (Malay) what I cannot eat; you also cannot touch because it is sensitive to us Muslims.
Things had come to a stage that “if we puasa during the month of Ramadan, you not only cannot eat in our presence you should not be handling food or operating any eateries too – just like what we are forbidden to do”.
“If we impose Islamic hudud laws (in UMNOnised Malaysia Boleh country) it also meant the non Muslims must abide by our rules and laws. If you want to stay in my country you obey my rules. Otherwise you balik India, balik Cina.” This is UMNO philosophy whether you like it or not. This is their Ketuanan Melayu country. But where are we supposed to go if we don’t accept their rules?
Jump into the deep blue sea or take a dive down Mount Kinabalu?
We the natives of Sabah and Sarawak have no say in what they want to impose on the land. They rape and plunder our jungles for its vast riches like it belongs to their great grandfathers. Our so-called native customary rights (NCR) are simply rode roughshod in their pursuit of wanton greed. They demand unquestionable special Malay rights but we get nothing even when we are called Bumi in Sabah and Sarawak. They practised double standards just the same as over in the peninsula.
They have forgotten that the love of money in their greed and corruption is the root of all kinds of evil. These UMNO devils have also forgotten that Malaysia was formed by 3 separate entities: Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak. These UMNO scumbags think that Sabah and Sarawak are merely the 13th and 14th states of Malaya. If that was so why change the name to Malaysia.
They forgot the original agreement was equality with Malaya as a whole. The federation of Malaysia was formed when these three separate countries – Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak – came together to establish a bigger new country. Brunei opted out first and then Singapore left. Look how advanced and prosperous they are now compared to us after we joined Malaysia.
We are going nowhere.
To get around the illegals via the scandalous Projeck M issue, they sent their corrupt immigration and police force here so that we will be subservient to them and not treated as equals. This is exactly how Barisan Nasional operates here: they suppress our indigenous native rights so they can have a free hand to rape and plunder our abundant natural resources for the benefit of the first class Bumi in the peninsula especially the UMNOputras.
We the natives of Sabah and Sarawak remain the poorest of the country as a whole and the most poverty stricken in the land. By keeping us weak and backward they hope we have no means to oppose them in their rampant corruption.
UMNO is the top dog while the rest get crumbs only. It is this total unashamed apartheid policy by UMNO and their BN gang which is destroying us and our country. Domino effect hopefully takes over from here…more to come from Sabah..and likely Sarawak also…what goes around comes around..it’s called karma.
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FEDERAL DEVELOPMENT POLICIES WIPING OUT INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
Forest clearing, dams and oil palm plantations are “developments” sanctioned by the Federal and State Governments. Instead of developing the welfare and advancement of the indigenous peoples these policies have succeeded in wiping out hundreds of sizeable indigenous rural communities in Sarawak. The Bakun Dam “development” is just one sad example not to mention the previous dam projects.
This attack is leading to the diminishing of the their unique communal lifestyle and cultures which should be encouraged to flourish’. It is an angle of genocide which should be seriously looked into by the NGOs working closer with the indigenous people.
An initiative by the Melanau people to defend their community from the sinister “race morphing” through “Malayanisation” was started in the 1980s and this is the interesting view of a writer on this topic.
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MALAYANIZATION PROCESS OF MELANAU TRIBES IN SARAWAK: THE MELANAU SOLUTION IN PREVENTING UMNO INCLUSION IN SARAWAK
In 1990s, the Melanau tribes started to sense the “Malayanization process”. This is due to the decreasing population of the Melanau people where an investigation has been made to find the root of the problem.
From the investigation, it was believed that the process of Malayanization has been going on for 10 years started in early 1980s where certain attempt through the national registration department has changed the identity of Melanau people to Melayu during the registration of the birth.
To cope with this problem, Melanau people started to create their own association by establishing small branches such as at district level and then they reunite the association with another melanau association to form the Federation of Melanau Association lead by Melanau Intellactual & Professionals of the State level (Sarawak as a Country) within the Federation of Malaysia which took about 15 years to success.
Melanau unite among themselves due to the awareness of the importance of protecting their own identity and culture from being stereotyped as Malay (Malaya) which is against their true identity as one of the indigenous tribes in Sarawak.
Through this awareness, it helps to create the awareness to other indigenous tribes and helps them to protect and prevent their race from being turn into Malayanization attempts by the Federal Government for political purpose. From that moment, Sarawak is able to prevent UMNO inclusion to Sarawak until now.
By Abdul Halim Hamdian.
http://despiritofsabahan.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/malayanization-process-of-melanau.html#more
Activists reveal Bengoh villagers puzzling voting trend
By Yam Phui Yee
bengoh_m
http://goodtimes.my/index.php/Community/the-voting-mystery-of-bengoh.html
To whose benefit… the Bengoh Dam will benefit greater Kuching and Samarahan but displace about 1,500 Bidayuhs from their ancestral land. Photos courtesy of Joachim Leong.
In rural Bengoh, Sarawak, 1,500 villagers will be displaced by the Bengoh Dam. They have to give up their ancestral land, relocate and settle for compensation they are not sure is fair and whether it will be forthcoming. Despite faithfully voting in the Barisan Nasional government for years, they still lack basic amenities. But, they still vote for the BN.