There are also plots of our customary land and farms that had been surveyed and assessed but yet, the compensation payment has never been paid to us. Although we had lodged complaints on the matter to the authorities, no further action has been taken to remedy the situation.

Thus, many of us have not received a fair amount of compensation since large portions of our customary lands are located within the areas disputed by the authorities. We have had to start our lives in Sungai Asap in the most difficult of circumstances. Clearly, an injustice has been committed against us, long before the resettlement operation actually took place.

Land allocated in Sungai Asap is insufficient and unsuitable for farming

The three (3) acres of land allocated to each family in Sungai Asap are not sufficient to allow us to continue our traditionally sustainable farming practices. In one or two years, we will no longer be able to utilise these plots of land for paddy farming, which produces our staple food, as the fertility of the soil will certainly degrade after repeated cultivation. In the long run, the size of the land is also not sufficient for equal distribution for our children's inheritance.

In addition, a large portion of the land is also unsuitable for farming. Many of our plots have not been able to produce the yields we hoped for because their soil is of poor quality and mostly sandy. Furthermore, some settlers have also not been able to farm on the allotted plots because they are located in inaccessible and very distant areas.

Also on the rise are conflicts and misunderstanding among communities and individuals. These discords occur as a result of the competition for any available arable land in the area, including the ones that belong to the State.

Many residents are experiencing food shortage

Due to the scarcity of arable land, limited job opportunities and the low wages for our labour in Sungai Asap, some of us today are experiencing food shortage, especially in terms of protein and vegetable supply. There are even families at the Uma Ukit and Uma Penan longhouses who have to subsist on a diet of rice with sweet potato leaves or salt daily or those who are able to afford only one meal a day.

Most of us have also spent all of our compensation money because we were forced to use them to purchase food.

The houses in Sungai Asap sold to the us at RM52,000 per unit are exorbitantly and unreasonably priced.

Many of us cannot afford to settle the payment for our new houses since we have just been forced into a cash economy at Sungai Asap.

Furthermore, the materials used to build the houses are of inferior quality and their construction was also done with poor workmanship. The size of this letter would not be sufficient to list our dissatisfaction with the quality of these houses sold at such unaffordable prices.

We are also baffled by the exorbitant price of our new houses, as we understand that the price of a unit of a low-cost house in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor is only between RM25,000 and RM40,000.

Furthermore, our homes at our original sites, which are sturdier, larger and are built of higher quality materials were valued at prices much lower compared to the houses at Sungai Asap, which cost RM52,000 although these are much smaller and of poor quality.

Payment of the compensation for the old houses has never been made

We have never received the payment for the compensation for our old houses even though their value has been assessed. We were informed that all of the said money would automatically be used to offset the payment for our new homes, without taking into account whether or not we wish to move to Sungai Asap.

This is clearly wrong because such an action by the authorities has directly denied us of the right to choose the location of our new homes.

Limited job opportunities and source of income

The job opportunities available nowadays are only based in the oil palm estates. Most workers there receive only around RM15.00 a day - this would add up to about RM300.00 per month. This amount of income is certainly enough to place the family of the breadwinner concerned below Malaysia's poverty line. Our people who ended up taking these jobs have been doing so unwillingly in pressing circumstances that leave them with no choice.

Lack of basic facilities

Various basic facilities that were promised to the Bakun-affected communities before they were resettled have not been provided today. These include the below:

a. There is no secondary school in Sungai Asap. Our children still have to travel very far to receive their secondary school education.

b. There is no public transportation, for example a bus service, for the residents. Everyday we have to hire private vehicles to move around. These private service providers charge us a high price for their service.

As for the children in primary schools, if their parents are unable to afford their transport fares, they are forced to board at the school and have thus been separated from their families at such a tender age. In our old homes, our children used travel to school by boats or on foot.

c. The roads in Sungai Asap are also not completed - they are not tarred, dusty, dirty, filled with puddles and potholes, uneven and especially dangerous to motorbike riders.

Bills for water and electricity supply

Many families in Sungai Asap are presently unable to settle their electricity and water bills that have been accumulating since several months ago. We have also received warning letters demanding that we settle the bills. Failure to settle these bills would inevitably cause our electricity and water supply to be cut off. When access to water supply is cut off, this would certainly cause adverse impacts in our lives. To make things worse, we are also unable to utilise water from the rivers in Asap and Koyan as domestic sewage from our bathroom flows into them.

Honourable Tan Sri and Datuk Seri, we view these issues very seriously as they have severely affected our daily lives today and will continue to do so in the years to come.

The problems above that have trapped us in very difficult circumstances clearly show that there have been flaws, errors and failures in this large-scale resettlement project with regards to its planning, approach and implementation.

Thus, in view of all the aforementioned issues, we would like to appeal to you to kindly exercise your authority to ensure that appropriate actions will be taken to fulfil our following requests and recommendations.

Payment of part of the compensation withheld
The authorities informed us that 70 percent of the compensation due to us for the loss of properties and lands at our old homes would not be paid to us as long as we refuse to move to Sungai Asap.

We believe that these two issues involve vastly different kinds of rights and they must not be associated in a manner that can be used against us. We are entitled to be fully compensated as the residents who have moved to Sungai Asap because we too have lost our lands and properties in our ancestral home. At the same time, we also have the right to choose the location of our new home and must not be forced to move to Sungai Asap. The issue of the payment of compensation money should be viewed as being independent from the issue of our refusal to move to Sungai Asap.

Compensation for our houses and payments for moving and inconvenience

Those of us who have moved further upstream are also entitled to receive compensation for our old homes as we, too, have been deprived of our homes just as the residents who have moved to Asap.

Furthermore, those who have moved from their original homes to a site of their choice and not to Sungai Asap, have also been deprived of payments for moving and inconvenience.

This is gravely unfair to us.

Public facilities have not been developed
We are also now facing several difficulties, as our new homes are not provided with basic infrastructure like clinics and schools, which were available previously.

To put it simply, it is clear that these issues are a form of coercion that is used against us to force us to move to Sungai Asap. This oppression must be immediately halted. We would like to stress that our decision to move further upstream is based on rational arguments that have been completely ignored by the authorities.

Compensation for Bakun-Tubau Access Road

For your information, the development of the Bakun-Tubau Access Road, which is a Bakun-related infrastructure project, has encroached onto lands over which the residents of the Uma Sambop Longhouse in Belaga hold native customary rights.

The affected areas are firstly, from km 36 to km 43 and secondly, a 4-km stretch from the exit at km 36 to Sungai Asap. Our land was taken without our consent in 1997 and our crops and properties, including houses have been destroyed by the development of this road.

However, we have not been compensated until today.

Fruit trees cut down by the banks of Belaga River.

In 1997, workers from the Department of Land and Survey surveyed the plots where we plant our fruit trees, along the bank of the Belaga River. These trees were later felled.

Following our complaints, we were called for a discussion by the authorities in 1998 and we were told the operation was carried out to provide a "bank reserve". However until today, we are not clear as to the purpose of this bank reserve, and whether or not it is a Bakun-related development.

We have also not been compensated for this loss.

Encroachment on our lands by oil palm plantation

When the Bakun Resettlement Scheme was being constructed in Sungai Asap, many oil palm plantations were set up in the area surrounding Belaga, purportedly to provide job opportunities to the relocated community.

In 1996, one of the companies, which we believe belongs to Ekran Berhad, has encroached onto the lands on which we exercise native customary rights. Until today, we have not been paid any compensation for this loss.

Depletion of resources due to population pressure

Since the Government relocated around 10,000 persons from the area surrounding the Balui River to Sungai Asap, this has adversely affected the local communities in the neighbouring areas and the residents of Belaga generally.

The Uma Sambop Longhouse is only around 12 km from Sungai Asap and as we have mentioned above, the residents of Sungai Asap were provided with inadequate and for some, infertile and inaccessible land for their use.

Due to the pressures that stem from a lack of resources in Sungai Asap, some of them today have begun to search for land outside the resettlement area to farm, inevitably encroaching upon the land owned by the Uma Sambop Longhouse.

This puts us in a difficult situation. We are fully aware of their present hardships but clearly our rights to our land are also now in jeopardy.

If we directly confront them, this would certainly lead to unpleasant conflicts that may have ugly consequences. However, if we continue to remain silent, surely our interests will also be at stake.

In addition, the population pressure has also contributed to the depletion of river and forest resources in Belaga. In our area today, it is getting more and more difficult to obtain meat from hunting, fish from the rivers and rattan from the forest.