Joseph TawieThe Sarawak government took away their forest and land to build dams but left the community in Sungai Asap with ‘chicken feeds and crumbs’, claims an assemblyman.
KUCHING: The government has failed to look after the needs of more than 10,000 people who were resettled in Sungai Asap as a result of being displaced by the Bakun Dam.
Said Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian: “It’s shocking… there is no public toilet in Sungai Asap despite the fact that there are markets and shops. I was shocked when told about this.
“I asked an elderly woman who was selling vegetables where I could pee. She told me that since there is no public toilet, I could pee in the bush.
“She warned me that I might step on someone’s urine or human waste.”
Bian, who is Ba’Kelalan assemblyman, was also stumped at the sight of 17 Penan families staying in a chicken coop belonging to one Tajang Laing.
“When I asked them why they were here, they told me that they have to send their children to school in Bakun, some three hours ride from Sungai Asap.
“That is the nearest school. No wonder there are so many kids running around and not going to school.
“The government has failed to plan properly about what should have been done following the construction of mega dams such as Bakun, Murum and Baleh,” he said.
He pointed out that the government had got the best out of the people, taking away their land, forest and flooding the whole area in the name of national interest but left the victims with with “chicken feeds and crumbs”.
“The Penans asked for schools, the government gave them oil palm plantations, and when they asked for clinics, the government gave them dams.
“I think the government has completely neglected the people,” he said after chairing the state leadership committee meeting.
Meanwhile, when asked about support for PKR in the rural areas, Bian said: “We have received 1,700 applications to join the party for the months of September, October and November. The bulk of this came from Julau with 525 applications, Selangau (521), and Baram (131).
“This is a very a good indication of the support and the interest of the people in the party. The response from the ground is very encouraging as indicated by the recent visit of Anwar Ibrahim [PKR de facto leader] to Saratok and Kanowit.” he said.
Hornbill Unleashed 
Dams and more dams and the dubious SCORE are just excuses for the paramount thief minister Taib Mahmud to steal more timbers and awarding his family companies more projects. For example, by just announcing the Halal Hub project in Tanjung Manis, Taib Mahmud alienated 17,000 acres of State land which might have also encroached on NCR land to his cousin, Norah Tun Abdul Rahman Yacub. Few hundred thousand natives shall be displaced and whose NCR land taken away when all the 12 proposed dams were allowed to be materialsed.
Comment by Bidayuh Headmaster — November 13, 2012 @ 10:06 PM |
The dams are made for timber extraction nothing else. We have blackouts, blackouts and blackouts though we dams, dams ,dams. Damn it all!!!
Comment by professor dee — November 13, 2012 @ 12:25 PM |
Those damned dams were built to damn the natives to eternal poverty and destruction by flooding their lands forever. Why else build and continue to build damned dams without making life better for those displaced? Of course more money for them, their chinese masters. And those descendants of criminals from ustralia who conspire with them will also make tons of money out of the sufferings of the natives. Well, damned the natives!…. sounds like ethnic cleansing?
Comment by brian — November 13, 2012 @ 9:29 AM |