Road construction was a small government activity in the 50's and the Colonial government did not see that it was an essential utility.
By the 60's when Malaysia was formed, it was deemed a necessity to have some roads connection the different towns in Sarawak. However road development was again slow.
The Public Works Deparment had a few more engineers who were locals, graduating from overseas and local universities. And perhaps more machinery were acquired to help the development of roads.
Then came the time that the PWD decided to hire daily paid workers who were willing to stay in the remote parts of Sibu. They could not commute from their homes daily. One of the daily paid workers was my uncle from Nang Chong.
He had to suffer living in very poor conditions by the road side,in the huts quickly put together by the PWD.
At weekends he would return to Nang Chong to see his family.
He told us that he had to wash his dust caked hair at our house before going home. He would then leave his work clothes at our house. As he was very considerate because he would first wash them and dry them, ready to be brought back to his work site at 30 mile Oya Road.
When he came back from the village, he would have some fresh vegetables from his wife and a lot of cooling teas.
It was a difficult period of his life. But later, he and his brother in law started to become road construction contractors and they became quite comfortable.
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