The Bengoh Dam's Impoundment will flood Ulu Bengoh and its Bidayuh Villagers. Our film investigates why the voters there did not use their vote to voice objection. On the way many interesting and weird happenings to share with all...
The Semban's ladies who wear copper rings on their limbs from young perform a unique dance called the Eagle Dance for visitors. But since they will be evicted to make way for the Bengoh dam soon they may dance their last dance-at least in their ancestral home, very soon as well. The other villagers don't have such tradition. It means that when these ladies stop the whole tradition may come to a halt. The eviction does not help. Actually the village itself is 200 meters above the dam's reservoir and at least 2 km away-giving rise to suspicion that this could be just another of the hundreds of land grabs around the state! Worse their houses are said to be converted into tourist homestay props! Come to watch the Bengoh film to find out how ridiculous the whole thing could be!
While there are increasingly more people coming to know the plight of the Bengoh villagers due to the construction of the Bengoh dam there is a need to find out how the public/outsiders can most meaningfully lend them a hand. During the filming process the villagers showed great interests to instal mini-hydro generators for their new houses constructed at higher altitudes to avoid the dam. The crews were not able to document the potential sites for the mini-hydro generators yet-but the enthusiastic villagers told me recently that they are willing to send photos of the potential sites/waterfalls to me at the 1st week of October. So the much spoken about mission to deliver mini-hydro to the interior folks has heated up again. In fact the hope is not just for these 3 affected villagers which had constructed new homes at higher altitudes-but to also extend to all other suitable villages in upper Bengoh.
The Bengoh film started from a question which ask: why the oppressed voters of Bengoh don't use their ballot to voice their unhappiness-as all voters are so entitled? It is not apparent that the question is actually loaded-the question's implied background is urban and mostly West Malaysian oriented! The making of the film actually become an experience to try to see things from another point of view: if you step into their shoes would you vote differently?
After the completion of Bengoh dam there will be 12 more other giant
dams to be built by the state government across the state, not to count
the biggest Bakun dam which is a Federal project. There is a need to
monitor the dam development as we found out in the Bengoh dam case: the
people are seldom consulted; elected representatives and government
departments are mobilised to bulldoze the projects through with threats
and inducements; dams are built over the size that are really needed to
give extra benefit to the builders-who are all closely linked to the
Chief Minister of Sarawak; environmental destruction not factored in the
dam design-with the EIA and SIA not required by laws to be made public
etc. So if the public cannot make the government accountable on the dam
buildings in Bengoh and Bakun,the same negative trends will extend to
the rest of the 12 dams in Sarawak-multiplying the agonies and
dissatisfaction caused by the over-sized Bengoh dam and also Bakun dam! What can the desperate people do??? Can the government dam up the people's dissatisfaction forever after they dam up the water?
The assumption of giving more rural representatives to the rural areas and voters is that the bigger number of representatives will allow these representatives to speak out for the rural folks who face under-development in all aspect of their lives. However the reality seems to be the opposite in Sarawak! Far from speaking out for the rural folks who voted them into the legislatures the representatives become more the speaker of the government to the people, and worse, filter out many allocations to the rural areas such that it gives an original meaning to the `trickle down' theory in economics! Let's look at the evidence -which is coming out in a new film on rural Bengoh!
How do you persuade the villagers to give up their ancestral lands so that infra structures meant for other people can be built where these folks have lived for generations? The Bengoh dam make a good case study of how hard sell `works'! The villagers were united not to go at the beginning-but slowly their resistance was worn down by a combination of segmentalised breakthrough, cash inducement and more other promises which are not even confirmed at the time of the promises were made! Let's look at the 3 step strategies here:
Hard sell involved to remove the original inhabitants of upper-Bengoh?
STEP 1: From the villagers' information the government as the instigator of the dam project first targeted the 10 civil servants families in Kampong Taba Sait-the village closest to the main road. Once the civil servants are overcome (possibly with inducement of promotions,or threat of sacking?) they were probably turned into the government's tools to push other members of the villagers to fall in line. Given that civil servants are held in high esteem by the local community the roping in of these civil servants were strategic for the dam instigator. And this is definitely not the first time the government utilise the civil servants to push even unpopular government projects onto the people! Other than this group of village families the chiefs of the villagers were probably given loads of carrot and stick treatment to get these government salaried headmen to toe the line. (Already numerous headmen elsewhere were sacked after the state elections where they were accused of supporting the opposition!)
The Taman Tun Abdul Razak resettlement housing is supposed to be ready last year-but???
If you buy a piece of property you can pay 10% deposit and then you are given a certain period to finalise complete payment and paperwork to acquire the property in your name. If you fail to come out with the payment the deposit is forfeited and you will not be able to touch the property-it remains with the original owner.So how does the acquisition of the Bengoh dam sites by the government differ from the normal property transaction that we normally practice?
The government provided some compensation money to the villagers affected in 2008-actually part of them, and promised to finalise all compensation package and payment by middle of last year, where the villagers are moved to completed new housing in Kg Semadang, in a `taman' called Taman Tun Adbul Razak. Now the deal actually did not go this way. After the deposit payment to some of the villagers the government failed to provide for alternative housing and failed to settle the balance of payment. It has been 1 year or more now. So: is the deal still valid?
Pastor Simo and his folks resisted the temptation of compensation money -so their chances of reclaiming their NCR is higher post-Bato Bagi judgement!
The Bato Bagi judgement will reverberate in Sarawak's jungles(if there is any left) for years and decades to come. Put briefly the judgement by the departing Chief Justice is to say that anyone who had taken, no matter how small a portion, of the compensation money from the developer/logger etc their NCR land is gone! Many natives might have been duped into taking some money as `sagu hati' ( appeasement) or donations to the village, not knowing that the money amount to agreement to give up their NCR lands-especially when the agreement to that effect had never been given to them. But there are also likely cases where greed may have tempted these cash-strapped folks. In any case there are also folks who resist the cash offer and make their NCR land claim through the court. The folks from Kampong Rejoi is one such group-who had started a court case since 2009 to reclaim their NCR land rather than receiving compensation under dubious and dangerous circumstances from the developer! If they are successful they can stay on the lands they build their new houses on-which are on higher ground to the Bengoh dam!
There is a great disparity between the expectation on the Bengoh seat before the polling and the results after...why? Face it: the great expectations, in a big part, derived from the media we consume! The mainstream media, while always do cheer leading for the incumbent party that support the dam- that worried the residents to no end, they did concede the Bengoh seat as `grey' eg Borneo Post. But some mainstream media eg Astro Awani which ran a nightly `Focus on Sarawak' talk-show did had a panel of assessors -mainly local academics, who tagged Bengoh as a `hot seat'. So if you read the mainstream media you will get a hint of worry on the part of the incumbent candidate and party as well. When you read the alternative and Opposition media the description of Bengoh is not only `hot seat' but also at the fore front of change for the 6 Bidayuh majority seats! This is helped along by You Tube videos which interviewed local voters in Bengoh's town areas which featured the highly disgruntled voters spewing overflowing local dissatisfaction against the incumbent party. In a background of images of overflowing crowds in the nightly rallies of major cities reported in alternative media who would be faulted for thinking of Bengoh as a sizzling red hot seat? Each side is trying to be the cheer leader of their favorite side, leaving the truth, welcomed or not, to be exposed only on the polling night!
..the beginning of the road to Sarawak's vast interior!
I came across a party chief in a certain town who told me that his team will set a limit to campaign to where cars can reach because his party members cannot go further than that. I was stunned because there are many constituencies in Sarawak where the car's reach is only a minority of the constituencies! Beyond that the campaigners need to walk, take boat, or if they afford, fly in! Of course not many campaigners, except those from ruling parties, can afford to fly in with a helicopter. So they need to walk, hike, and take boats to those outlying areas where the voters are scattered. In researching about Bengoh constituency for making the film we can confirm that Bengoh is one such constituency! While some folks may say that the voters in each kampong (village) is too small for the campaigners to give them much priority the truth is-the combined number of voters in all these kampongs are significant!
The `developed' city of Kuching is a mere 45min drive away from Kg Bengoh, the entry point to walk-only Bengoh villages. Yet the `development' boasted by the rulers of Sarawak had left this part of Sarawak in a time capsule of pre-car days: traveling is only by walking, carrying of goods is only by human hauling, carrying of the sick and the young to klinic outside is also by human power. As though to supplement a `period' film some of the houses are still using candles and kerosene lamps-officially estimated at 10% but reality may be more.There is no air-con or fans-so heat could be killing at times, especially when there is no wind. A state that afford over half-a billion Ringgit state assembly building somehow, cannot afford to spread a bit of its amenities to the communities nearby. At the end of the days it is these humble folks who are asked to give up their ancestral lands-their only possession, so that those who are better off in town can have unending supply of water! Such is the `justice' under the `trickle up' economy! Could Sarawak's politicians who travel in big cars, helicopter and private jets make some amendments to such a blatantly skewed system?
In this series of posts, we show you a contrast of stuff we use in our urban lives against what the locals used and have across our journey. We hope this gives you a better picture of life in rural areas or rural Sarawak.
Rest-stops
Anyone travelling during the festive season, would make a rest-stop along the North-South Highway to grab a drink/bite or maybe a toilet break or two.
Need a break after a long drive on a Highway?
No fear, for the reststop's here! (Pic: Pagoh Reststop)
For the villagers, in between the long treks, they too have reststops!
Villagers put down their Bagans and take the opportunity to exchange stories and news. (Reststop between Kpg Semban and Kpg Bujong)
Another shady rest-stop to catch our breath.
(reststop to Kpg Taba Sait)
Our guide Simou offered us some of his salted fish and rice as we trekked to his village, Kpg. Rejoi from Kpg. Taba Sait at a reststop build with bamboo and covered with a zinc roof.
Not the rest-stop we are used to on our journey north and south the peninsular and certainly a far cry from the offerings we can enjoy along those journeys. Simple, rural reststops just require some creativity with bamboo which they can acquire easily from the surrounding forests. Simply a case of putting to good use what mother nature gives you.
Look out as we make more comparisons between urban-rural (Sarawak - Bengoh).
In this series of posts, we show you a contrast of stuff we use in our urban lives against what the locals used and have across our journey. We hope this gives you a better picture of life in rural areas or rural Sarawak.
Highways
Indispendable Highways (Photo Credit : LDP by Azreey)
In KL, we have all the well acronym-ed highways - LDP, KESAS, KARAK - in fact, enough to make a fun quiz! Imagine a quiz where for RM???, if you can name what these highways stand for...
I digress.
Yet, we do take for granted the level of development which is enjoyed over here. It takes 2 hours + to make a journey to Ipoh from KL or to Malacca for distances around about 200km. Compare this to single lane "highways" such as the Borneo Highway which we travelled on to reach Bengoh from Kuching. In other places in Sarawak, waiting for ferries to cross and journeys of even 100km take times of 2 hours or more!
Here's some video of footage on the Borneo Highway from Kuching to Bengoh our film crew took:
The view of the paved road of from the Bengoh Village to the Bengoh Dam (a few KM from the JKR checkpoint)
Begs the question - Why do Sarawakians (or even Sabahans for that matter) do not enjoy the same level of development as our Western brethren? Surely this is not a question of these states' income as they are states that are rich with natural resources and plantations. Then, the question should turn towards the Federal Allocation or the way these states are spending their allocations?
A frequent reply to this(lack of rural development) is that the cost-benefit analysis does not warrant such development.?Why spend millions for the benefit of the few? (Think Japan and their highways to no where in their zeal to spend more to encourage government spending)
Or even that private enterprises do not want to spend on such areas as they do not get any returns - does the responsibility of providing amenities and roads to these villagers fall back to the government?
Which government - federal or state level?
Yet, can't help but think if there was less wastage in general, could there be more allocation to go around for rural areas?
Look out as we make more comparisons between urban-rural (Sarawak - Bengoh). Part 3 will be related to this - Reststops. Come back to find out more.
After a month of posting on this blog on Bengoh dam there are finally some fiery feedback from some readers! You can see the feedback here and here, from another blog that report the posting here. But the fiery sounding feedback is balanced with many other more thoughtful ones-one of which is this one below-especially good for those legally minded. This piece was from Hornbill Unleashed:
By Zhang ML Bernama reported recently that the “Special Purpose Vehicle”
(SPV) company, set up for the purpose of undertaking the transmission
line project to supply electricity from Sarawak to west Malaysia, has
been purchased by Tenaga Nasional Berhad and Sarawak Energy Berhad, for a
sum of RM16 million. They are each to have a 50% stake in the SPV.
the festive season, would make a rest-stop along the North-South Highway to grab a drink/bite or maybe a toilet break or two.
Villagers put down their Bagans and take the opportunity to exchange stories and news. (Reststop between Kpg Semban and Kpg Bujong)
Another shady rest-stop to catch our breath.
Our guide Simou offered us some of his salted fish and rice as we trekked to his village, Kpg. Rejoi from Kpg. Taba Sait at a reststop build with bamboo and covered with a zinc roof.
Bernama reported recently that the “Special Purpose Vehicle”
(SPV) company, set up for the purpose of undertaking the transmission
line project to supply electricity from Sarawak to west Malaysia, has
been purchased by Tenaga Nasional Berhad and Sarawak Energy Berhad, for a
sum of RM16 million. They are each to have a 50% stake in the SPV.
