SARAWAK will continue to build “cheap” Jiwa Murni roads to expedite rural connectivity, even as the rural folk questioned the policy in light of the near total destruction of one such road connecting Marudi and Ba Kelalan within five years.

Deputy Chief Minister James Masing, when asked on the heavily criticised Marudi to Ba Kelalan Jiwa Murni road in Kuching today, said what is important to the state government is to make as many rural villages accessible as possible in the shortest possible time.

“I prefer Jiwa Murni roads to be done to create connectivity. What is important is to create the connectivity.”

He said if the government had opted for quality, this would have meant having the more durable Public Works Department R3 standard roads – roads with a minimum lane width of 3m and were designed for a maximum speed limit of 80km/h – which will take time to fund.

Jiwa Murni roads, built by army engineers with a fast and easy method – by compacting the soil, spreading a thin layer of crushed stones over it before sealing it with tar – costs about RM3,000 per km, Masing said.

In comparison, the R3 standard road costs between RM10,000 and RM15,000 per km.

A rural lawmaker of the ruling government, however, called Jiwa Murni roads a “waste of taxpayers’ money”.

Dennis Ngau, BN’s Telang Usang assemblyman in Baram, said after “more than RM100 million” spent on connecting Lawas and Marudi to the Lun Bawang settlement of Ba Kelalan in the Bario Highlands, the people there are back to where they once were – with a dusty, dirt road during the dry season and a muddy rut when it rains.

He blamed overloaded timber trucks and palm oil fresh fruit bunches (FFB) carrying four-wheel drives and tractors for damaging the road.

“The Jiwa Murni road is only good for the kampung (village) where there are no heavy vehicles. It was not designed for such heavy vehicles,” Ngau told The Malaysian Insight.

The road was requested by one of Ba Kelalan’s favourite sons, Dr Judson Sakai Tagal, the former assistant minister in chief minister’s office who was killed in a helicopter crash on July 12, 2004.

Boyce Ngau, who had just returned from Ba Kelalan, described the road built five years ago is now back to where it began.

He said villagers who use the road are “grumbling but nobody is listening”.

Masing, who is also the state’s transport minister, said the Ba Kelalan road would be repaired but did not say when as the road is federally funded.

When he did say is that the government would build barriers along the road, similar to the ones they had along the Bakun road, to deter timber trucks from using it.

“That will stop the big lorries. We must be very strict on who uses the road. Jiwa Murni road not for timber trucks and oil palm FFB-carrying lorries.

“It is not for heavy laden vehicles. Only for family saloon cars.”

Masing said if the lorry drivers destroy the barriers like they did on the Bakun road, “we will continue to put them up until they accept the rule of the game”.

He also said the Road Transport Department and the police would be ordered to patrol the road. – September 7, 2017.