For the past five days the people of Long Panai in Baram have struggled to battle terrifying flood waters that have risen above the stilts of their longhouses to wash into their living quarters.

And what of their Baram MP Anyi Ngau and their Mulu YB Gerawat Jala, themselves  both safely ensconced in their luxury homes in Kuching?

“We have heard nothing  from either of them. Our rice supplies and fresh water are running out” confirmed one retired teacher who managed to reach one of the few arms of the media who seem ready to report on such matters, Radio Free Sarawak.

So, once again, the people of Baram have been deserted by those supposed to represent them but who have turned hirelings instead for the loggers who control GPS, which has in turn stepped up the relentless quest to strip out every last piece of saleable timber in this remaining forested region of the state.

Just yesterday, as these villagers were sinking under the waters of a river that now swells regularly beyond its traditional boundaries thanks to the effects of that logging and to accompanying climate change, the Taib family owned Sarawak Tribune, reported that the State Government has decided that it wishes to pull out of the internationally supported Upper Baram Forest Area Project.

The Forest Department of Sarawak is quoted as having announced its request for the termination of the project at a meeting of the Steering Committee owing, it said, to “ongoing challenges and disruptions in project implementation.”

Those challenges would appear to include the angry objections by locals and international sponsors of the project about recent illegal logging in the area (using unlicenced immigrant workers) which the above Forest Department has been condemned for doing nothing about.

Naturally, the companies involved in this destruction an area supposedly protected by an agreement between the ITTO (International Tropical Timber Organisation), the Sarawak Government and NGOs who have funded the project through voluntary donations, have proven to have links to powerful timber barons.

When Sarawak Report enquired of the Swiss Bruno Manser Fund about the Forest Department’s latest bid to cancel the protected area (funded largely by them) they confirmed they had been given no warning.

“We learnt [of the demand to cancel] from the media minutes before the second project steering committee started. There was zero communication and transparency.”

So nothing new there.

Back down stream, the residents of Long Panai are well aware that the forest clearances and increasingly hot weather that is bringing storms are behind their problems. This is the 7^th such flood the village has experienced  over the last year.

Today, there had still been no sign of help and another villager, John Bara, spoke to the radio station to express his concerns. He confirmed the long houses in the Batang Baram Main River have not yet been flooded, but the 2 tributaries of Baram, Tinjar and Tutoh, are currently flooded, namely Long Panai (Tutoh River) and Long Loyang (Tinjar River).

In general, floods are becoming more frequent. Floods, landslides and unusually heavy rains have become a new phenomenon in Baram. We the people of Baram believe that it is due to massive logging for over 5 decades, coupled with commercial oil palm plantations and sand mining along the Baram river. For example in Long Ekang (Peter Kalang’s longhouse) landslides along the river bank toppled the Long Ekang church and now Long Ekang’s longhouse is just waiting to be washed away by landslides. This all happened because of human greed. The solution – stop logging and also stop granting commercial palm oil licenses. Long Ekang is a clear example. There is extensive sand mining and palm oil plantations up to the longhouse area – it is worked by the Pelita Ekang Banyok plantation company – in collaboration with the villagers. Maybe the villagers will get money. But their longhouses were submerged/washed away by mud floods/collapses and soil erosion. I appeal to the government to help the flood victims, because the people are watching you. The people will judge you during the election”.

Those in Long Panai are now resigned to the fact that owing to the regular uncontrolled swelling of the river caused by logging, dredging and climate change their village needs to be moved in its entirety to higher ground.

They have begged their representatives to help find the funds from the state government that ought to be dripping in wealth accrued from the very logging that has destroyed their homes.

Yet, not only has that proposal been ignored, nothing is being done to meet the immediate needs of the local people in this disaster.

The local teacher, Madeline Jok, who said she was standing up to her knees in water as she made the call to RFS, complained that none of the village know the whereabouts of YB Gerawat from whom they have still heard nothing during their plight of the past five days.

“He curried support at the last election to gain his victory, but when we’re in this kind of trouble, he doesn’t appear at all. Three blocks of long houses in Long Panai with 132 doors are currently flooded on the ground floor and residents have had to drag their goods upstairs. If the water rises again. We don’t know where to run.”

“There is no heart to help us”, the schoolteacher observed.

The villagers have filmed their plight and have managed to Whatsapp the material out to show the extent of their plight, which supporters have placed on Facebook. So far they have heard nothing back.

The fleets of transport and rescue helicopters available to the bigwigs of the GPS political class have plainly had better matters to attend to.

 “We request YB Gerawat, the welfare department and related parties to come and send us food aid. Because in a little while our rice supply will run out. Not only were our lives threatened, our livestock and farms were flooded. In peninsular Malaysia when there is a flood disaster. Aid is quickly received and cash aid also given to residents to ease the burden of flood victims.”

was the parting plea from the villagers’ broadcast on Radio Free Sarawak.

However, the truth, as everyone knows, is that the loggers who are eyeing the remaining timber of Baram want nothing more than to see the pesky native people who seek to live there disappear under the waters of the rivers they have caused to swell.

And it is those loggers who pay the election expenses of the GPS party and those absent local representatives.