MIRI - Long San, a village in the interior of Baram, may have to depend on the mission clinic forever to cater to the medical needs of its residents.

“Our cries and grievances just fall on deaf ears …. where is the action from the authorities responsible for this?

“This is not a light matter for it concerns our health in the event we may fall sick due to lack of proper facilities in the clinic to treat us,” a villager Anthony Lawai voiced out to The Borneo Post yesterday.

Lawai, 75, a former Baram District councillor, claimed he had written letters of appeal to the State Health director three times previously, with copies to former a Baram MP and Baram District Officer.

“But, none cared to reply, very uncaring and just ‘make dunno’,” he lamented.

Long San, situated in Long Akah district, is a village of about 2,000 Kenyah folk, and was also the hometown of Temenggong Oyong Lawai Jau, the first paramount chief of the Orang Ulu community.

The villagers and those from other villages and even workers from the timber camps nearby depend on this Catholic Clinic, built in 1958, manned by three nurses and two medical assistants, but lacking in many facilities to cater to the increasing population.

Lawai estimated it takes about six hours’ drive from the village to the city.

To a question, Lawai said his appeal was highlighted once in The Borneo Post in 2011, but no action was taken by the authorities concerned.

He claimed that he also brought the matter to the health officer here, but was told that the programme to build a clinic in Long San had to be called off citing claims that it was a low-lying area and would be flooded due to the Baram Dam.

“If that’s the case, why didn’t the authorities find a solution for an alternative location,” Lawai questioned.

Where was the ‘People First, Performance Now’ slogan of the government, he concluded.

source:the borneo post