Sarawak - Interviews Simon Jau, 30, of Uma Lahanan I feel so unsettled, like I am at the end of a road. I hope that we will be freed - to go home. The Government asked us to move to Asap, we obeyed. We are under a Government and we honour them. They promised us that everything would be good in Asap. But now, promises have been breached, so we would like to have our customary rights on our old lands (that won't be inundated) back. In our customs, these rights are real. The authorities shouldn't be stressing on their rights only. To begin life here, things should have been done step by step so that we could learn. But the way we were asked to move, it was as if there were an emergency. Ahh, now you take this car, now you take the bus. Now, in Uma Lahanan, I'd walk here and I'd knock into other longhouses like Uma Jawe. I'd walk there, I'd knock into Uma Bawang. Knock, crash. I'm so sorry if my words are unrestrained. But here, I really feel caged. We still need to return to our old home to look for food. We look for game, fish, coffee. Where is the change? Where is the facilitation from the government? People need to eat to live. I really feel like we have been ordered around. If only half of my fellow villagers dared to stay, I would have stayed back home. In terms of fish and meat, the supply is less. In the future, the paddy field might be infertile. Job opportunities are there. RM8 a day - in the old house, I could easily find RM20 a day if I sold my produce. Here, my wife would go out to gather vegetables and what can she find? Pebbles? The Government's laws are there. The longhouses have their laws too. We too have our rights. The better way would have been to allow us to choose our new place communally. Who is the Government? A Government belongs to the people. The Government cannot pawn its people just like that ... this so-called modernity is a burden.