Don’t sabotage road project, Masing tells longhouse residents
KANOWIT: The people here are advised not to make any attempt to halt the construction of Nanga Ngungun/ Nanga Jagau/ Nanga Semujan road when the project reaches the implementation stage.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing said the purpose of the project was to provide road linkage to the original settlers of Ulu Sungai Ngemah who yearned to return to their original home.
“The road is not built so that others can take timber from the area. With the road, the original settlers of Ulu Sungai Ngemah can return home to the land and property which they left behind many years ago.
“It is the people who will suffer the consequences if the project is halted by any attempts to prevent its implementation,” he said when officiating at ‘ Mangkung Tiang’ ( house-warming) and launching of Tagang system for Pang Junan People’s Association ( PJPA) at Nanga Pang in Ulu Sungai Ngemah here, about eight hours by longboat from Kanowit, recently.
Masing, who is also Minister of Infrastructure Development and Transportation, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had announced a RM50 million-allocation to build the road when he visited Nanga Ngungun in March last year to honour the people who had sacrificed for the nation during the communist insurgency in the 1970s.
The original people were relocated to resettlement areas, namely Nanga Jagau and Nanga Ngungun in Kanowit and Nanga Sekuau in Selangau, leaving behind their longhouses and land.
“I told the prime minister that if the people did not make the sacrifice, he and I would not be standing here today as the people’s leaders, and Barisan Nasional (BN) would not be the government of the day.
“I said to him that it was his father the late Tun Razak who relocated these people then. Now that we have achieved peace and with him as the prime minister, it is his turn to bring them back to their original settlements.”
He said the Nanga Ngungun/ Nanga Jagau/ Nanga Semujan road would not be less than 30km long and would be a standard R1 road to be built under the army’s ‘Jiwa Murni’ programme.
He estimated the cost to be around RM15 million per km if built using Public Works Department’s R3 road standard making the overall cost of about RM500 million.
“I told the prime minister again that if the people did not relocate, the government could have spent RM2 billion to RM3 billion to defeat the communists then.
“I know that RM50 million is insufficient. But if BN wins again in the coming election, we will set aside more funds for the road to make it better,” he said.
Kanowit MP Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang, Ngemah assemblyman Alexander Vincent, PJPA chairman Entili Garaji, PJPA patron Penghulu Ambrose Pengiran Sampai, Kanowit police chief DSP Daniel Benjamin, Kanowit Information Department head Donny Minggu Ling and Special Affairs Department (JASA) coordinator for Ngemah, Jelani Ajang were also present at the function.