Harapan baru di Kawasan Baru

New hope in a new home
FORMER Sarawak State Minister Datuk Seri Tajang Laing's children in Kuching can now visit him in Belaga in the Kapit Division as frequently as they like. It was impossible to do so until two years ago.
Sungai Asap Longhouse where the 77-year-old Tajang now lives can be reached in about three hours plus - an hours flight from Kuching to Bintulu and 2½ hours for the 190 km drive from Bintulu. Tajang is one of the Belaga residents displaced by the construction of the RM7.9 billion Bakun hydroelectric dam. These residents had to abandon their long- houses to make way for the dam. He was from the Uma Nyaveng longhouse in Bakun.
Until two years ago, the former minister would normally take a short flight from Kuching to Sibu and the following day travel up to Belaga using the 6am express boat that plys the mighty Sungai Rejang.
The express boat would arrive in Belaga at about 3pm or later (depending on the condition of the river). From Belaga, it would take another two to three hours by boat using a connecting express boat to Uma Nyaveng.
In the '50s and '60s it took about a month to travel by ship and longboats from Kuching to Belaga, and in the '70s about a week.
Express boats were the only means of transport to Belaga in those days and commuters, including Tajang, had to put up with the high risks of travelling by river including the possibility of their boat, capsizing at the treacherous Sungai Pelagus rapids near Kapit and the Bakun rapids.
Tajang's daughter Livan, who lives in Kuching, said now she can visit her father as often as she wants due to the better transport system.
'We had to properly plan our trips home to Belaga in those days," she said.
Livan, an executive with a real estate firm, said her father could also travel to Kuching easily now.
'It normally takes him only about 2½ hours by road and he has to continue for 30km on a gravel road to reach Sungai Asap from Bintulu. The shorter travelling time on a good road is good for an ageing man like my father," she said.
The Bintulu-Bakun road was built after the Government revived the multi-billion Bakun project. The road now enables convenient travel for Tajang and 9,000 other ethnic Kayans and Kenyahs who now live in Sungai Asap, some 50km from the Bakun dam project site.
"The road really makes a big difference in terms of travelling for the People of Belaga. I can just fly from Kuching to Bintulu and drive to Sungai Asap in less then half a day, This was unthinkable in the old days," Livan said.
At Sungai Asap, Tajang and others enjoy better basic utilities and amenities such as electricity, piped water and a clinic.
The youths in Sungai Asap have job opportunities in nearby oil palm plantations and at the Bakun dam project site.
Up to 3,000 local youths will be trained to construct the dam by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) collaboration with the project contractor Malaysia-China Hydro Joint Venture (MCH-JV) consortium led by Sime Darby Bhd.
They will be given skilled-training at the project site and will be trained to operate backhoe loaders, wheel loaders, hydraulic excavators, mobile, cranes and learn carpentry, concrete reinforcement and other relevant skills as construction of the dam progresses. After Bakun, these workers will be able to market their skills to other contractors undertaking 'massive infrastructure projects in the country and elsewhere.
Others have become small-time entrepreneurs: many are operating private transport service and have set up shops. A majority of them are cultivating pepper vines, planting vegetables and rearing fish which they hope to sell to migrant workers at the Bakun dam.
State Social Development and Urbanisation Minister Datuk Seri Dr James Masing announced recently that more than 100,000, hectares of land in Belaga will be opened up for oil palm plantations, providing jobs for resettled people.
The Bakun protect itself will also generate employment and income for the people.
The State Agriculture Department is actively helping farmers in Sungai Asap to plant appropriate crops on a commercial basis.
Lian said that before moving to Sungai Asap, the way of life of the Kayan community in Belaga was determined by the climate. 'If it rained, they stayed at home and did not farm or fish. During the dry season, the women spent all their time collecting water from the river for household use.
"But now, with piped water, women have more time to do other things such as sell their vegetables at the wet market and so on.
"And because. they have smaller plots of land now, they have learnt to plant cash crops instead of padi. They can easily transport their cash crops to sell in Bintulu,' she said.
She said the people in Sungai Asap are slowly coming to terms with the sudden change in their way of life.
"They are learning and accepting the concept of the market economy. They now understand that they have to pay for conveniences such as electricity and water,' she said.