Interview: Life after the loggers

Jelan Asoh a.k.a. ‘Papa’, is 81 years old. He is the deputy chief of a tribal longhouse settlement near Belaga in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo – an area that used to be primary rainforest, but has been extensively logged since the 1970s. His settlement has also been affected by the construction of the controversial Bakun hydroelectric dam project 30 kilometres upstream on the Balui river

Interview by Daniel Palmer and Maja Kardum
Image by Maja Kardum
Translation by Hamdani Louis

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DP: Thank you for talking to us, Papa. You are now 81 years old. The area must have changed very much since the loggers came here in 1978. Can you tell us about life in the longhouse when you were young?

Papa: Life was much harder in those days. It was difficult to find or grow enough to eat, we had no clothes and no schools. We had to visit the forest every day to hunt, and to process sago palms for food.

Our houses were built of bamboo and held together with strips of rattan, as nails weren’t available. The roofs had to be re-thatched on a regular basis with leaves from the forest, which was a lot of effort. Of course, everyone worked as a community, helping each other.

DP: How does that compare with your settlement now?

Papa: We had a big fire in the last longhouse that destroyed the whole building. Now we live in more modern buildings of wooden planks and tin roofs, which were partly paid for by the government.

DP: How did logging affect life in the longhouse?

Papa: Logging has made life easier. Now many villagers have jobs as foresters or tending oil palms, so we can buy some food and important things like tools and clothes from the town – even televisions. However, if we need wood for building, the big trees are now far away.

DP: Do you still rely on the forest for your livelihood at all?

Papa: For some things. We like to hunt wild boar and other animals. We use dogs and guns for that. But we also have dry paddy fields in which we grow rice, as well as gardens for vegetables. The paddies are a lot of work: we have to burn a patch of forest clear every two or three years, then plant, harvest and thresh the rice.

DP: Apart from boar, do you have any large animals left in the area?

Papa: There used to be many crocodiles in the river but now they are gone. A long time ago, there were still elephants, rhino, wild buffalo, tigers, orang-utan and bears too. Apart from the dangers, they used to make life harder by raiding our crops. The elephants used to have a real taste for the bananas, I remember.

DP: There is now a logging road that reaches the town of Belaga, just an hour’s boat ride from your longhouse. How did you travel and trade before that?

Papa: Before the loggers built that road, we used to have to travel to Kapit by boat, which was a week’s journey. It was important to go, though, as we would trade gum and other forest products with the Chinese traders that had settled there. To get to Bintalu on the coast, it was a two-week walk, but now we can be driven there in three hours.

DP: The government is building the huge Bakun hydroelectric dam only 30 or so kilometres upstream of your longhouse. Has the project affected the village?

Papa: The construction has brought problems and the local people do not want the project to go ahead, however we feel powerless to stop it. Many people have had to move away from the rising waters, others may have to move because of health problems caused by contaminated water. We also have fears that the dam will collapse.

Many of the river fish have died off, we think because of the submersion of ipo trees in the rising waters – the toxin of which can be used for blowpipe darts. That happened about six months ago and the fish levels have still not fully recovered.

The river is also at an unnaturally low level as they fill the basin behind the dam, making it much more muddy than it should be, which again affects the fish and also makes it undrinkable. We have to use a tiny stream from the hills for all our drinking water, but in the dry season this is not enough for the village needs, and this year there has been a drought.

DP: Does the dam offer any benefits?

Papa: The government promised a good water supply when the dam is built, but this may take a long time to arrive. Right now it is a struggle for the village. The power generated in the dam is to be sent to the big cities in peninsular Malaysia, and also to be sold off to Indonesia and Brunei. In our longhouse, just a short boat ride downstream, we only have power in the evening, provided by a diesel generator. One thing we are glad of is that, before the dam project, we used to suffer devastating floods and the village would be destroyed. Now Bakun will control the river and make flooding a thing of the past.

DP: You are well known for your skilled wood carving and, with other village members, created the two totem poles that now stand outside the Malaysian National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, but there aren’t many carvings around the longhouse. Nor does the longhouse seem to be creating any new carvings. Why is this?

Papa: Most of our old carvings were lost in the fire in the old longhouse. I’d like young people to learn to create new ones but since they mostly have jobs, they don’t have time to learn the skills. Another factor is that the best wood for carving comes from the belian tree [also called ironwood], but since the loggers came there is little belian left.

DP: Your tribe, the Kajaman, and other tribes too, converted to Christianity in the 1970s. Has that had a big effect on your lives?

Papa: Yes, in the old days we were animist. We would rely on signs from spirits in the forest to make important decisions. For example, if we were going out to hunt but a bird flew past in the wrong direction, it was a bad sign and we would have to abandon the hunt. Or if an eagle was circling clockwise it was a good sign and meant ‘go hunting’. Life is simpler now.

Also, in the days of my father, the Iban tribe would come from the south to raid the village and hunt heads. Even during world war two, the Japanese occupiers would send the Iban against us. But now we no longer fight each other.

DP: How do you feel about the future of your community?

Papa: I have some concerns. It is easy now to buy things, but before we could get everything from the forest for free. What happens if the jobs run out? It would be impossible to go back to the old life, wouldn’t it?

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Note: This interview was conducted a couple of years ago when we were in Borneo. Papa must be 83 or so by now