Politics of mini hydro in Lacau-hidden story revealed!

Barnie Lasimbang(L) and Niloh(R) in BB Cafe in KK

We published a story of a mini hydro in Kg Abok Mawang, Lachau previously. It was reportedly a story of community self-help and gotong royong. There was more to this story that met the eyes, according to Banie Lasimbang, an laternative energy consultant who has installed more than a couple of dozens of mini hydros before in Sabah and Sarawak in the last decade. The story was shocking: the original beneficiary of the mini hydro project was another kampong (Kg Apin?) -but due to the `generous' contribution by local `YBs' the power was supplied to Kg Abok Mawang-which was as far as the YB's generosity could reach! The people involved ignored the consultant's suggestion to modify the design slightly so that there would be enough power to supply to both villagers!

Fundraising for Bengoh villagers' mini hydro go public!

Joachim Leong recording for a video `Make your vote count'

The Bengoh film finally is exposed to the public in Sarawak itself via a report in Borneo Post today! (See attachment below). It is the only film about Sarawak in the Freedom Film Fest-and made by Kuching born director Joachim Leong, Niloh Ason of Simunjan and also Lee Zhi Eng of Bintulu! A quible by the director on the report is that he did not quite put choice of candidate as `the major' factor' behind the voters choosing a dam-supporting candidate in Bengoh. He clarified that he only said that the factor could be a reason for that happening, in a context where there is little information on how democracy can work for voters benefits.

Update one: public fundraising for Bengoh villagers' mini hydro is now open! If you are interested to donate, please contact organiser through meonet2010@gmail.com

Update two: as of now the gross amount of fund raised is closed to Rm4k!

So: Malaysians -do come forward to show you care to take Bengoh villagers out of the darkness that engulfed them thus far!

Truth on Bengoh emerge from Auditor General's report!

Re-settlement site still not ready for Bengoh folks.

Earlier there was a report that the government selected re-settlement site was not suitable-but now fuller details from the much missed report reveal more problems with the dam: cost over-run!

Acquisition, resettlement send Bengoh cost spiralling


Sarawak's yet-to-be completed Bengoh Dam could cost an additional RM60.57 million, according to the 2010 Auditor General's Report.

PETALING JAYA: Severe delays in the construction of Sarawak’s Bengoh Dam could send costs skyrocketing by an additional RM60.57 million, warned the 2010 Auditor-General’s Report.

Scandal:Auditor General report exposed Bengoh re-settlement site as `unsuitable'!

Kg Semadang re-settlement area has just been started-but its unsuitability could have been known 2 years back!

According to the Auditor General's report just released at Parliament the government's re-settlement for villagers displaced by the Bengoh dam has been found to be `unsuitable', as quoted by journalist Sulok Tawie. The disclosure is scadalous: the AG report is usually dated 2 years back; so why is the developer still proceeding with the building of the new re-settlement scheme at Kampong Semadang while the `unsuitability' of the site has already been known 2 years back? Are they forging ahead following the same pattern that they had been building the dam ie keep the villagers in the dark?

Raising fund for Bengoh's mini hydros-1 DVD at a time! !

A `dream' for Bengoh folks?But you can help them make it come true! Will you-fellow Malaysians-to liberate fellow citizens from darkness lietrally and figuratively?

This next week will see us going to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah to screen the Bengoh film, while promoting the voter education and voter observation programs to Sabah. No where is too far for us to promote the DVDs and voters rights!

We will have a screening of the Bengoh film according to the following details:
Date: Oct 26th(Wednesday)
Time: 7.00pm
Venue: Celyn Hotel, next to City Mall
Programs: *Talk on `Why election observation for coming 13th General Elections?'
                *screening of `Ulu Bengoh Darom Piin'
Speaker: Ong BK, MEO-Net National Coordinator
Entrance: FREE-bring all your friends!

Sales and collection from our DVDs cross RM3000.00 mark today! Gross total stands at Rm3017.00 as of now.

Ever wonder why there are not many mini hydros in Sarawak's interior?

A 10kW mini hydro installed in Penampang, Sabah 

If you have a chance to travel in Sarawak's interior you will find this familiar landscape: long houses with no electricity supply located next to fast streams or even waterfalls. Why is not mini hyro more popular in such locations? These are the 4 major reasons I had come across why mini hydro, despite its merit and low costs, don't quite make it big in rural Sarawak:

5th screening and discussion on anti-dam campaign: more to come!

Engineer, housewife, geologist, cab driver, construction worker, lecturer etc gathered for the Bengoh film screening last night at Puchong Book Club. (Thanks Cynthia for photo)

Last night there was a small group screening session of the Bengoh film cum discussion on the anti-dam campaign, held at Puchong's Book Club at 4.00pm. 16 persons turned up and a sum of RM154.00 was collected from the group through sales of DVD (12 copies) and donation(Rm10.00). This is the kind of activity that we will keep doing to spread the message where the mainstream media refused to print/air/broadcast. Big sections of the public will miss out if we hope to catch them by a few big scale screenings.No one should be deprived of such information if they want to access it. More groups are also approached to hold small gatherings where we can send presenter to speak to the group about the grave issues involved. Since the screening and discussions are informal, small scale, usually held indoor, there will not be problems which arise from big open gatherings. Also: only in small enough groups like this that effective discussion of issues and members participation can be assured.

Bengoh DVDs to be censored before it can be sent overseas!

DVD sleeve design for the Bengoh film

It was a pleasant surprise to get 2 orders for Bengoh DVDs from overseas. So I enquired about the postage at the Pos Laju and Post Office to find out the poatage so that I can inform the orderers the amount they have to add on to the DVD cost. To my surprise the Pos Laju asked me to obtain a stamp fro the KDN (Kementerian Dalam Negeri/Interior Ministry) before they will process the posting.He tried to reassure me that it does not take long and there is no extra charges to get the stamp. I tried the post office for regular mail. The answer was the same-need a stamp from the KDN. Well, look like there is no way to escape that. I remember that there were some hassles like this when I tried to send an entry to a Japanese film competition before, via a private courier company. Just could not remember how they finally settled it-but the DVD was sent over in time. Now I just have to try my luck personally this time.

Bengoh film sparked off forward looking reflection

This is the response in Face Book from Willie Mongin who was the only candidate who agreed to be interviewed for the Bengoh film-hope the film will spark off more positive forward looking reflection among all parties concerned:

• 
  
• • 
    

    Willie Mongin
    

    Thanks for the highlight. In fact this is known, as I am the one who told them that I did not manage to cover the four villages but we do have our network that moving around in that area. This is why we managed to garnered some votes. Being transparent, we do admit our weaknesses and will formulate a better move next round.
    
    On the financial matter, it is also known and it is not only in Bengoh, it is state – wide as our PKR State Chief has mentioned it just right after the state elections was concluded. For me, I am ready to take any bricks and stones thrown at me and use it to build a solid foundation and wall of struggles instead. In politics, comes what may ! :)
    
    

Lachau residents installed mini-hydro before-why not Bengoh villagers?

Bojong villagers formed committee to oversee mini hydro installation

Our effort to install mini hydro for ulu Bengoh had attracted interests:  a reader of the news about the Bengoh villagers trying to instal mini hydro informed us of a successful attempt to bring electricity to long house folks-in Lachau, near Sri Aman in recent years. If the folks there can do it -why not folks in Bengoh villages? Yet from another friend the location has now been supplied with electricity from SESCO -so the mini hydro is either lying idle or could be sold off? Read on:

Now, they have electricity...self supplied

Saturday, 28 July 2007 Tony Thien (Malaysiakini) For the residents of the 14-door Iban longhouse in Kampung Abok Mawang, located 150km on the Kuching-Sri Aman Road, the one invaluable lesson they have learnt well is about the importance of self-reliance and initiative to make things better for themselves. At the corner of every general elections, they heard promises that electricity from the state utility company would come to the longhouse, situated along the highway, soon. But those promises have remained largely unfulfilled.

Site investigation for Bengoh's mini-hydro return promising reports!

Waterfall near Kg Rejoi's new settlement

Waterfall near Kg Bojong's new settlement

Looking at the waterfalls near to the 2 villages where the mini-hydro were to be installed: aren't they promising, with plenty of `head' (height of waterfall) and reasonable volume of water in Kg Rejoi's case and plentifull supply in Kg Bojong's case! It appear that producing over 15kW of electricity from both sites together is feasible-especially considering that there are likely to be much more height to the waterfall below the ponds shown here. A crude way to measure the flow rate of the waterfall near Kg Rejoi shows that the big water container filled in few seconds! From these basic information it is possible to work out the energy output, and from there to work out an appropriate turbine design and the dynamo/generator capacity. We are also near to estimating the costs of implementing the project, with the distances of the waterfalls from the new villages already measured. We thank the villagers who took quick action to report back to us, from the last meeting less than 2 weeks ago!

Gross DVD sales & donation for Bengoh's mini-hydro project approach RM2k! More welcome!

Media launch of Bengoh film in Penang

Kg Rejoi's 5-man committee to take charge of the mini-hydro.

Halo folks,
Thanks to the enthusiastic response from the Bengoh film audiences over the last 2 weeks we had collected from sales and donation in KL and Penang a total of RM1911.00 as of today, which will go towards installing mini-hydro for Bengoh villagers, many of whom are still living in the dark literally and figuratively! While we have yet to calculate the costs involved to instal mini-hydro for families involved we are looking at RM35-40k to instal about 15kw of hydro electricity for the villages. So: we have made the 1st step and achieved 5% of the donations required by selling the DVD of the new Bengoh film. Please do your part to bring light to the villagers! The faster we achieve the target the earlier we can instal the mini-hydro generators. Interested folks can also hike up to the site to witness the installation of the mini-hydro.

Anyone interested to donate can write to our email: meonet2010@gmail.com or call me at 013-5900339(Ong BK-producer).

Gross DVD sales & donations   

DVDs sold=126 XRm12.00=RM1512.00     ;

Donations                            =RM399.00                                                                             

                                           =RM1911.00

Merdeka Review: Donate towards mini-hydro for soon-to-be evicted Bengoh villagers!

砂政府将火速建巴勒水坝 反水坝运动须东西马合作 作者／本刊曾薛霏 Oct 09, 2011 03:52:49 pm

【本刊曾薛霏撰述】由于砂州政府面对来自峇南上游原住民的大力发对，因而决定暂时搁置峇南水坝；不过，砂政府将加速建造巴勒水坝（Baleh Dam）。由于巴列河附近涉及的原住民仅约三百人，反对建造水坝人士担心这项计划在面对极少阻力的情况下火速完成。 狄莫迪（Timoti Anak Chundi）昨天在吉隆坡表示，他相信巴勒水坝很快就会进行，因为该地受影响的原住民人数很少，仅200至300人，政府可以轻易地赔偿他们。 不过，他表示，目前只知道政府要在那里建一座可供应1400兆瓦（megawatt）水坝，计划费用估计多达马币20亿元至40亿元之外，水坝的大小、涉及的范围多广、对环境影响的评估、赔偿事宜等皆一无所知。

Film review: `More objective assessment of rural votes needed'-Malaysiakini

More reviews are welcome from the growing viewers of the film! Send it to us at: meonet2010@gmail.com 

勿只一味归咎买票或幽灵选民
选举改革需考虑东马特殊情况

刘嘉铭 10月5日 晚上9点16分(Malaysiakini Chinese section)

尽管净选盟2.0推介“第13届全国大选前落实8项诉求”运动，而政府也成立选举改革国会特别遴选委员会呼应选举改革呼声，但是马来西亚选举观察联盟（MEO-net）观察员黄文强却提醒，选举改革议程不可把东马的地理环境与精神面貌排除在外。

Film review: 'An eye opener' -Malaysiakini

Changing the world, one film at a time

— Hornbill Unleashed @ 12:03 AM

Keruah Usit
The camerawork was admittedly shaky, but a short documentary called ‘Ulu Bengoh Darom Piin‘ (or ‘Upper Bengoh, underwater’ in one of the Bidayuh languages) that premiered at the Freedom Film Fest on Oct 2, was quite an eye-opener.