the Lee Hua Sawmill was the centre of social life in the 1960's. Ramin brought in a lot of wealth to the local people. In fact at the height of the sawmill business, there were at least 200 people working day and night, using the machinery to make planks and other sewn timber .
Tug boats, even big ships were berthed at the jetty.
Paradom jetty, just next to it was a popular boat stop. Many people from Bintangor and further in land, would even come out to use the ferry , as a shorter route to Sibu.
This was how busy it was.
But when the Communist trouble started to bubble and the people were in trouble. Many were harrassed by the jungle people and the armed forces also did not give the people any peace. Lots of villagers started to move away out of fear. A few who were informers were brutally killed.
One such case was a man who was recognised as an informer and he was killed by the guerrillas who pushed a 7 inch nail into his head. He was left to die on the road side and no villager dared to move his body.
The people's livelihood was seriously disturbed by the curfew hours.
And slowly, the sawmill business came almost to a halt.
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