Road
block 21/1/2016
Road block is the last resort people take to protest
and protect their rights and properties.
I can understand why the rural people resort to road block every now and
then to the menace of those big companies plundering in their territories or
lands.
People are at the mercy of these big companies who are
ever ready to exploit every possibility to reap the most profits and benefits
at the expense of the poor rural people.
These are the common scenes we all witness frequently.
Lately, a big company having a big project near to my
residential area. They wanted to use the
Lorong I live in to transport their building materials to their construction
site so much against our will and interest.
Yes, they had promised us of the repair and
compensation just in case there was any damage.
The leader of the group told me that they came to ask for our consent on
behalf of the municipal council.
Ignorantly, I signed my consent without much thought. I even kindly and blindly gave them my
neighbour’s telephone numbers to him to make the contacts.
He called my left hand side neighbour and repeated
what he had said to me and a lot more. My
neighbour cleverly recorded the conversation.
It was a really interesting conversation about all the good and sweet
promises for the repair of the damage that can tempt people like me easily.
When I realised the fact that I was fooled to signed
the letter which gave the permit to use Jalan, not Lorong, I was really
angry. Hence, by habit, I wanted to tell
the person my piece of mind. Ignorantly
I warned them not to use the road or we would road block it.
After that, of course, I called SMC to request them not to
give them permit to use the road and followed by a letter. Of
course, we were asked to see them. But we could not make it on 18th
January, 2016 they asked us because of the time constraint to the other two. We arranged to go the following afternoon 19th
January, 2016. That morning, I was told
that SMC Deputy Chairman had signed the permit to the said company to my anger.
The thought of road block came to me as no choice if
the said company really attempted to use this short-cut to accomplish their
aim. I can understand why people have hatred
towards the government of the day. I even
had wild thought of rallying Sibu people to boycott the said company and our
consensus of SMC for the permits.
There are other accesses for the company if they
are willing to pay some money to the landowner(s). But they insisted to use the short-cut with 4
units of semi-detached believing the possibilities they could explore, if not
exploit.
That very afternoon, one of my neighbours came to discuss
with us and we found our strong point to stop the company using the said Lorong
as it is the end road. It was linked by
someone secretly.
That afternoon, only two houseowners could make it. The other one called up the engineer
to tell him about his piece of mind and another did not come because he has the business with the said company.
That afternoon, we went there punctually expecting to
meet the Deputy Chairman to the disappointment of my neighbour who believed that it
was better to meet Deputy Chairman but…….
Hence, we went to the engineering section to deal with our problem.
Yes, we met the engineer. He told us the permit had been granted to the
said company. Then, we told him our
point that is big enough to stop SMC to let the said company use the Lorong. To prove the point, he patiently, checked through so many housing plans for the area for
us and the truth revealed itself in the end.
We all went home happily. Out of the office, my neighbour’s son let me
hear the records of the said conversation he took, all the way down the ground
from the 22nd floor. I had a
good laugh hearing the recorded conversation of how the man sweet talked all through
to convince him.
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