Sarawak state minister of land development James Masing’s performance of the traditional Dayak miring ceremony in Ulu Baleh yesterday was the clearest signal yet that last month’s logjam on the Rajang River was a man-made rather than a natural disaster.

Some ministers in the state government had tried to blame rising water levels and heavy rains for the calamity that struck stretches of the Rajang and its tributaries.

As evidence mounted that the livelihood of the peoples living along the banks and in the affected towns of Kanowit, Kapit and even Sibu, were affected, some state officials, with the exception of Masing, tried to attribute the disaster to nature’s caprice rather than to human folly.

NONE Critics of the government would not hear of it.

They blamed indiscriminate logging in the upper reaches of the Baleh and Rajang rivers for the disaster which saw log-ponds, which are huge stockpiles of old logs not readily marketable, sweep into stretches of the Baleh and Rajang rivers.

Also, landslides swept massive stocks of glue that is used in plywood manufacture into the rivers, blanketing the surface with a sticky substance that got stuck in the gills of fish causing suffocation.

NONE The fish stocks were vital sources of protein and livelihood for Dayak living in longhouses along the banks of the rivers.

The loss of food and income worsened a sense of deprivation felt by the community over encroachments by logging and plantation companies on their Native Customary Rights (NCR) land.        

As state government officials squirmed in chagrin at the disaster’s apparent confirmation that indiscriminate logging in the upper reaches of the Baleh and Rajang rivers had stripped the landscape of its natural buffer against nature’s periodic lashes, Masing was the only minister to call the logjam an ecological disaster.

Offer of appeasement

Masing is the Parti Rakyat Sarawak state assemblyperson for Baleh, one of the areas affected by the calamity.

                 

According to Dayak custom, the performance of the miring is imperative as appeasement of the gods when some wrong has been committed against man and nature.

james masing Masing, who holds a doctorate in social anthropology, is positioning himself to be leader of the Dayaks, ahead of Alfred Jabu, a deputy chief minister in the state government, who is widely derided in the Dayak community for toadying to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud.        

Last month’s logjam on the rivers Baleh and Rajang over a 250-kilometre stretch brought river traffic to a halt and destroyed fish stock, particularly along a 50km stretch between Kanowit and Kapit.

The disaster attracted international press comment and focused attention on a perennial issue in Sarawak - forest denudation by logging and plantation companies.