Vernon showing water collecting under Jugir Longhouse, which leads to the breeding of mosquitoes.
KUCHING: The 10 families of Jugir Longhouse in Betong, which was burned down in 2003, are still waiting to be resettled.
According to PKR Betong branch chairman Vernon Aji Kedit, when the incident happened 12 years ago Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Numpang, who is their assemblyman, promised to resettle the residents by giving them a grant of RM65,000 per family.
Vernon also claimed that Betong MP Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Ebas, who is a federal minister, had also promised to assist the residents.
“Twelve years have passed but to date, nothing has been done to rebuild the longhouse as promised. The residents are still living in a makeshift longhouse with five additional doors to accommodate the growing population of this small community,” he said in a press statement yesterday.
Vernon, who is state PKR information chief, said upon investigation with the authorities, he was informed that the delay in rebuilding the longhouse was due to ‘local disputes on land compensation’.
“The blame was squarely thrown back to the longhouse residents, that it is their fault that their longhouse has not been built due to their local disputes.”
He said although there is clean water supply from the Public Works Department (PWD) to the current “temporary site of the makeshift longhouse”, there is no electricity connection to the grid.
“There is a Sesco transformer, only 400 metres away connecting electricity to a single bungalow near the site of the temporary longhouse, but when I asked I was told that Sesco has yet to extend electricity because ‘the longhouse is temporary and we will only extend electric cables to the permanent longhouse when it is built’.
“Where is the logic when PWD can extend water pipes directly to the longhouse but Sesco cannot erect a few electric poles just 400 metres away from its transformer to the longhouse?”
In the absence of electricity supply, Vernon said the longhouse folks had to install their own generators to generate electricity and the cost of buying gasoline to run the generators could go as high as RM250 per month per family, just for basic electrical usage.
He said the residents complained that due to the terrain of the land, water collects under the longhouse and this leads to the unchecked breeding of mosquitoes.
“They have reported the matter to Majlis Daerah Betong but to date, no action has been taken.”
Vernon said it was shocking that this was allowed to happen in Betong for so many years, questioning: “Does it take the government 12 years to settle a simple ‘local dispute over land compensation’?”
He said if the cost of compensation is not acceptable to the residents, the government should negotiate and pay them what they are entitled to, and not drag its feet on this matter.
“I believe that if there is political will and sincerity to resolve the matter, the longhouse would have been built many years ago. Instead, there seems to be no political will or appetite to help the residents, let alone rebuild their homes, judging from the situation now.”