Sarawak - Land of the Dammed

If what Sarawak Energy Berhad ("SEB") is scheming to implement for Sarawak together with elements of China's state-owned companies involved in electricity-generation and hydro-electric power plants/dams, Sarawak will have the dubious honour of having the most number of dams in Malaysia (52 dams to be precise), which it does not need.

What does this mean for Sarawakians? Who will benefit from these dams and the electricity generated from them? How will they affect the natives and the wildlife who live in the areas where they are planned to be located? How will they affect the environment and the entire eco-systems of large parts of Sarawak? What will the costs be like and who will bear these costs? What will the profits be like and who will derive these profits?

The frightening conclusion is that the people of Sarawak, especially the natives, will continue to be held hostage and to ransom by Taib Mahmud, the Chief Minister and his family, henchmen and cronies for a very very long time (long even after Taib is dead and gone - he will be dead soon enough, sooner than later).

Take a look for instance at who is behind SEB, supposedly 65% owned by the state government. Why "supposedly"? Because Taib treats state government-owned corporations as if they were his own, and the same goes for his family, henchmen and cronies. As can be seen from its Annual Report 2007, most of the top management of SEB are either related in one way or another to Taib and are active participants in the continuing gang rape of Sarawak:

Hamed Sepawi is a cousin of Taib's, also Chairman of Naim Cendera Holdings Berhad and Ta Ann Holdings Berhad. He is a timberman, formerly with STIDC (the Sarawak Timber Industrial Development Corporation) and holds a Master's degree in Forest Products. Aziz Husain is Taib's brother in law, former State Secretary, now full time mismanaging SEB for the sake of the family businesses. Wilson, present State Secretary, is married to Mohd Leo Toyad's cousin.

J.C. Fong is former Sarawak State Attorney General responsible for drafting anti-NCR and other anti-native land laws for Taib's regime. Idris Buang is Taib's former Chief Political Secretary, also a Director of Hock Seng Lee Berhad (all Sarawakians should know the significance of this). Nordin Baharuddin is Chairman of KUB Malaysia Berhad and also a Director of Scomi Engineering Berhad (all Malaysians should know the significance of this).

Can they really be classified as "independent" directors? Only nominally.

Their secret plans to build 52 dams in collusion with China state-owned corporations involved in dams (especially the Three Gorges Dam project, described by Chinese journalist Dai Qing as "a black hole of corruption") have been exposed previously. Notwithstanding this exposure, we can still expect these 52 dams to become 52 black holes of corruption! That is if there is no change in the state government in the next elections.

Let us have a closer look at those plans.

Click on the above link to get a copy of the PDF document of this Powerpoint presentation.

The Panda Bears and the Orang Utans have now teamed up to rob Sarawak in the name of friendship?






We have the world's largest LNG complex in Bintulu. If we can export all that gas, why can't we use it for local power generation as well? Surely building a state-wide gas pipeline will be cheaper to construct and operate rather than 52 dams? There would also be other side benefits such as the use of gas for domestic households as well. Unless of course there are other reasons why they won't seriously consider this option.


Here we have it, 52 dam sites identified covering a large part of Sarawak. How many natives will these dams displace? Irrelevant. Where will they be resettled and under what allternative conditions will they have to live and obtain a livelihood? Irrelevant. How much forest and wildlife will disappear and become extinct? Irrelevant. How will these dams affect the eco-systems and the environment? Irrelevant. How much money will Taib, his family, henchmen and cronies and their children for generations make at the expense of all other Sarawakians? Now that is relevant!




Increase the use of gas for power generation.

Increased use of gas will decrease the use of coal, which is arguably more polluting than gas.

Do we really need more huge lakes similar to the lake in Bakun which is supposedly the size of Singapore? Aren't we in the least concerend about the environmental impact all these lakes will cause and the environmental damage caused by damming up our rivers?




Who says TPK got all the timber? He must have been in such a hurry that he left some behind. Does this look like half of the area was under shifting cultivation as James Masing said while being grilled on Aljazeera? He wouldn't last long in a court of law. James, you liar! You lied to the whole world for Taib! If you want to lie convincingly, try lie about something that people can't see, touch or feel or where there is no evidence or where the evidence has "disappeared".











Why hydropower? Costs can be as low as 2 sen per kwh (and even for Bakun with the submarine cable, 3.5 sen per kwh). There are virtually no fuel costs and the electricity can still be sold at market rate - profits can be as high as 400% to 500% if the cost savings are not passed on to the consumer. Added bonus is the unaccounted for timber felled during site clearing.


Do you see what I see? Timber, timber, timber! Do you think the natives will get a few sticks at least? No hope lah!

Why China, knowing the level of corruption that goes on in their dam-building companies? Or is it precisely because of that? Does anyone know how much all the timber in Murum is worth?

More timber.

Yet more timber.

No more timber.

Never mind. Still more timber here.

Timber, timber, timber...any for James Masing I wonder? Maybe if he's been a good boy.

Still got timber lah! No wonder there are still logging concessions in the area.

How much timber are we talking about here? Billions and billions of RM worth, all to disappear without a trace.



Yes folks, the timber and the forests will be gone soon enough if they get their way. But they have plans far, far into the future. Dare we think that those plans will have the interest of future generations of Sarawakians in mind? Or are our future generations just going to be consumers of a captive market and victims of a nefarious scheme to enslave them to a system that is designed to be controlled by the descendants of Taib's family, henchmen and cronies? What a scheme!


Yes! Thank you! Thank you! Your continuing loyalty to Taib and the Sarawak (as well as Federal) BN will ensure your enslavement and that of your descendants to future generations of exploiters of his family, henchmen and cronies and those of the Malayans as well.

If you do not wish to see this happen and Sarawak to become Land of the Dammed, influence everyone you know to vote against Taib and his BN regime in the Batang Ai by-election and the next state elections as well.

Do this for the sake of your own future and that of your children and their children, that you and they may live your lives in dignity and free from oppression, tyranny and deprivation caused by the greed and lust for power of a few evil and twisted individuals.

Your destiny is in your own hands.

Sarawakians for Sarawak! Agi idup agi ngelaban!