First published in The Nut Graph

By Koh Lay Chin

 EIGHT hours in a four-by-four, and no sleep. One is forced to pay quite a bit of attention to flashing scenes of logging roads outside. These lead to Sarawak's hinterland where the Penan communities and other indigenous groups live.

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I had been unable to get a flight on a small plane from Miri into Long Banga, a rural village located in the state's remote north-east and not too far from the Kalimantan border. This meant there was only one other way — around eight hours on windy and rocky roads to get to my destination. It was mid-September 2009 and I had been invited to visit Long Lamai, a Penan settlement an hour's hike through the forest from Long Banga.

It was near impossible to sleep, of course, with our heads bobbing helplessly from the bad road conditions. But that was not the only unpleasant part of the journey. We passed by stretches of oil palm, so neatly arranged they were out of place in the wild greenery.

"We want to be like Semenanjung now," my friend said wryly. Later, there would be logging trucks. So many of them that I stopped counting after the eighth truck. They roared past, carrying loads of cut trees.

The sight was distressing. As were the areas

 that had already been logged and the swathes that looked like the trees had been slashed and burnt to be replaced with something else

State of affairs

It was impossible to look at the bareness, with its brown and black remnants, without feeling angry. The roads, the driver told me, are built by logging companies. The government does not maintain these roads because they effectively belong to the companies. Still, the state government could take over and make these roads official state roads. There could be proper roads, street lamps and public transportation. But where are they?

Read the rest of the article at The Nut Graph

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