Bengoh villagers filed claim of NCR land ownership on dam site!

Back in 2009 the Bengoh villagers from Kampong Rejoi and Kampong Bojong filed a claim for NCR land ownership on the dam site with the help of land rights lawyer See Chee How under Baru Bian's law firm. The case is still pending in court. The court action shows that the natives are not totally helpless if they unite to take action to protect their ancestral lands. The writ of claim by the Bidayuhs is as attached here. This is not the 1st court action by the natives. In the early days of the Bengoh dam construction the natives of Kampong Bengoh had succeeded at one stage to obtain a court injunction against the dam developer from proceeding with their earth work around Kampong Bengoh-but the success was short lived. See the video here and here.

Why this blog?

Bengoh is a rural constituency within 1 hour drive from Kuching. It was considered a hot seat in the last state election in Sarawak because there is a dam waiting to displace some 1500 residents and probably affecting many times more outside the soon to be impounded area. However the election results showed that there was almost no effect from the hot issue -and the incumbent was returned with almost the same vote as before! What happened? Why the voters did not use their ballot in their hand to express their unhappiness? A group of us who happened to be election watchers during the election decided to make a film while inquiring on this `strange' happening. The film making took us into very interesting and sometime weird journey that we like to share with you in this blog! Actually Bengoh is so beautiful that we are not sure if this is considered when the plan was hatched to submerged it to facilitate the building of a dam here...