Tebedu villagers, unhappy with their headman for signing an agreement with a logging company without their knowledge, demolishing a bridge on an access road constructed by the company to stop it from gaining access to their land.
Armed with hoes and a chainsaw, villagers from five Bidayuh villages close to the Sarawak-Kalimantan border in Tebedu, 150km from here, staged their own Easter "uprising" yesterday by toiling the whole day to demolish a wooden bridge on an access road constructed by a logging company to stop the company from gaining access to their Native Customary Rights (NCR) land to extract logs there.
The villagers of Kampung Temong Bengan, Kampung Tepoi, Kampung Temong Putah, Kampung Temong Mura and Kampung Temong Mawang in Tebedu, about 150km from Kuching, are turning on their respective village headman whom they accused of signing a "secret deal" with the company and pocketing the money the company had paid as exgratia and compensation payments.
The villagers toiled for hours to demolish the bridge knowing full well that the company could just send a bulldozer over and in a couple of hours, replace the demolished bridge.
"Today (yesterday) is only symbolic," declared Mani Marin of Kampung Temong Putah, the leader of the protesting villagers.
"Tomorrow, we will take them to court."
