TROUBLE is brewing in a remote highlands settlement in northern Sarawak, bordering Kalimantan.

Lun Bawang villagers in the Ba Kelalan area have begun blocking the only road across the border to Long Midang in Kalimantan in retaliation against the alleged poor treatment of three Ba Kelalan youths at the hands of Indonesian anti-narcotics authorities.

A source told The Malaysian Insight today, “heavy machinery together with 15 to 20 villagers have just passed” the Border Control Post at the village of Buduk Nur and were headed for the abandoned timber track where they planned to build a mound just 300m short of the border.

With the road choked off, crossing can only be done on foot.

The villagers are resorting to this unilateral action to “punish” the Indonesians by choking them from their source of food and other essential supplies in a lucrative cross-border trade.

Specially modified motorcycles that could haul up to five LPG cylinders, plus essential food items like salt, sugar, cooking oil to house building material like zinc sheets and nails, ply the track daily to haul supplies to Long Midang and towns further inland like Long Bawan.

The Indonesians have found it easier to get supplies from Ba Kelalan than from the town of Tarakan, several hundred kilometres on the coast.

Ba Kelalan assemblyman Baru Bian told The Malaysian Insight one of the youths “was shot in his leg and arm” in an incident that took place at the border on April 19.

Short of condemning the action, Baru said what they did “was not right”.

“My response and advice is for the authorities to step in immediately and investigate the incident. 

“We have the police, the immigration and army representatives at the border and I wonder why it’s the kampung (village) people who took this step to close the exit. 

Baru, PKR Sarawak state chief, however, agreed that the Indonesians stand to suffer if the cross-border trade is cut.

Sources said the families of the three youths were unhappy with what they saw when the youths were held in a police station at Long Bawan – a few kilometres inland from the border.

The source said they then raised their unhappiness with their “penghulu” (communal chief) George Sigar Sultan.

In response, Sultan summoned the villagers of five village, their chiefs and their development and security committees to an emergency meeting where they “unanimously” agreed to block off the road in retaliation.

The source said the villages had already notified the army, the police and the Immigration Department via a letter on April 25. The parties met with Sultan and the various village chiefs on April 28.

The authorities’ plea for the villagers not to go ahead with the action, however, fell on deaf ears.

Ba Kelalan, at about 910m above sea level, 125km from Lawas town and a mere 4km from the border, is a popular travel destination because of its cool climate.  – May 1, 2017.