Showing posts with label Baram. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

It’s A Misconception To Think Sarawak Chief Minister Is Really Retiring

By Barry Porter and Manirajan Ramasamy. Published by Bloomberg News on 10 February 2014.

Abdul Taib Mahmud plans to retire as chief minister of Sarawak, after running Malaysia’s commodities-rich eastern state for more than three decades.

Taib, 77, intends to inform Sarawak’s head of state to of his intention to resign, Malaysia’s official Bernama news agency reported, citing the chief minister. The decision comes seven months after the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission formed a multi-agency task force to expedite investigations into claims of graft. Taib has denied corruption allegations, and press reports say he may seek to become the state’s governor.

During his 33-year rule of Malaysia’s biggest state, Taib’s government handed out concessions for logging and supported the federal government’s mega projects, including construction of the country’s largest hydroelectric dam. Oil palm plantations spread as loggers rolled back the frontiers of Borneo’s rain forest, home to nomadic people and rare wildlife such as orangutans and proboscis monkeys.

Some stocks linked to his relatives fell after the Berita Harian newspaper first reported on Feb. 5 that Taib planned to retire as chief minister and become the state’s governor. Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd. (CMS), a construction and building materials maker, rose 3.8 percent today after declining 8.6 percent last week after the report.

‘More Powerful’

“It’s a misconception to think he’s really retiring,” said James Chin, professor of political science at the Malaysian campus of Australia’s Monash University. “When he moves up to governor, he becomes even more powerful. Certain things need his signature. He appoints the chief minister. All mining leases must be signed off by him.”

Taib and his allies control 25 Sarawak seats in Malaysia’s national parliament. That’s enough to ensure the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition falls from power should they ever choose to switch support to the opposition, said Chin. Prime Minister Najib Razak’s alliance was returned to power in May 2013 by its narrowest margin since independence in 1957.

Taib told Bernama he would step down from his current position by the end of this month. He is Malaysia’s longest-serving chief minister, in power longer than Mahathir Mohamad, who retired after 22 years as prime minister in 2003.

Important Role

“Taib is not really gone from Sarawak politics,” Ibrahim Suffian, a political analyst at the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research, said by phone. “From behind the scenes or even as the new governor, he will play an important role including handling economic issues. Most important now is who will be Taib’s successor.” Opposition parties have made some inroads in Sarawak in recent years, he said.

Taib had doubled up as the state’s finance minister, and minister for planning and resource management, according to his official website. He’s also president of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu, or PBB, and state chairman of Barisan Nasional, Malaysia’s ruling political coalition headed by Prime Minister Najib Razak.

PBB met at the weekend and gave Taib a mandate to nominate his successor, the Star reported, citing party Chairman Amar Asfia Awang Nassar.

Local media, including the Star, have named three candidates short-listed by Taib to replace him. They are the party’s deputy president Amar Abang Johari Openg, senior vice president Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan and information chief Adenan Satem.

To contact the reporters on this story: Barry Porter in Kuala Lumpur at bporter10@bloomberg.net; Manirajan Ramasamy in Kuala Lumpur at rmanirajan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net

Link:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-10/commodities-rich-sarawak-s-top-minister-to-retire-after-33-years.html

Published by Today Online on 10 February 2014.

But Mr Taib’s influence over the sprawling Borneo island state is likely to remain strong as he is expected to take on the job of state governor, a more ceremonial role than his current post.

His departure will raise doubts over whether a successor will be able to maintain Mr Taib’s political balance between defending the interests of native Sarawak residents, and supporting the national Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. The state is majority Christian in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

Sarawak, the country’s largest state, has been increasingly crucial to the long-ruling BN coalition as its support wanes in peninsula Malaysia. Without the 25 seats that Mr Taib’s party and his allies won in last May’s election, the national coalition would have lost its majority in the 222-seat parliament, likely ending its 57-year rule.

Mr Taib’s party emerged from the election as the coalition’s second-largest party after the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), boosting his sway over national politics.

Mr Taib has short-listed three possible successors, including his housing minister who is seen as having close ties with the federal government and Prime Minister Najib Razak.

“I think the big question is what happens over the longer term, whether his successors will develop minds of their own,” said Mr Ibrahim Suffian, head of the Merdeka Center polling firm.

Mr Taib, who travels by Rolls Royce and private jet, has been under pressure to step down amid a growing focus on alleged timber corruption in the state.

Environmental groups say that under his rule, Sarawak — which accounts for a quarter of the world’s tropical log exports - has lost 95 per cent of its virgin forest. Sarawak officials say 84 per cent of the state is forested although this includes massive oil palm estates planted in place of forests.

UNDER INVESTIGATION

Mr Taib has been under investigation by Malaysia’s anti-graft agency since 2011 and is regularly accused by activist groups of enriching his family through his control over awarding huge infrastructure contracts.

Ms Clare Rewcastle-Brown, who has long been a critic of Mr Taib and who runs the Sarawak Report website, said Mr Taib was merely “moving upstairs” into the new role and would maintain his overall influence on state affairs.

“He will never willingly give up power as it would be too dangerous for him and threaten the business empire he has built up across Sarawak,” she said.

Mr Taib is presiding over a US$100 billion (S$127 billion) plan to harness the state’s rivers into 12 dams by 2020 and transform it into an energy hub that can power smelters built by Japanese and Australian firms and also light up the rest of Borneo island.

Shares in Cahya Mata Sarawak, owned about 40 per cent by Mr Taib’s immediate family, snapped three days of losses to rise 2.5 percent today on expectations Mr Taib will still have a say in how the state awards infrastructure jobs.

Timber companies such as Ta Ann Holdings and Jaya Tiasa that benefit from logging licenses awarded by Mr Taib rose 2.3 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively.

All the counters outperformed the broader market which inched up 0.4 per cent. REUTERS

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

20,000 natives affected by Baram Dam to stay put

By Sulok Tawie. Published by The Sun Daily on 18 September 2012.

Over 20,000 natives, who will be directly affected by the construction of the proposed Baram Dam, will not go anywhere to be resettled, SAVE Sarawak's Rivers Network (SAVE Rivers) president Philip Ngau told reporters yesterday.

He said these natives are from 26 longhouses, above the dam site at Long Keseh, along the mighty Baram River. "A few thousand more natives from the longhouses located downstream of the dam will be indirectly affected," he said on the sidelines of a public forum on dams to be constructed in Sarawak and native customary rights land.

Ngau, whose longhouse, Long Laput, is not directly affected by the dam, said resettling these 20,000 natives will cause untold problems and miseries to them. "Where do these people go?" he asked, stating that the affected natives had not been told where they would be resettled. "Even if they have been told where to go, they have insisted that they will stay put, regardless," he said. Ngau said SAVE Rivers has asked the natives to stay put.

Borneo Research Institute of Malaysia (BRIMAS) director Mark Bujang said that it is unlikely that the government can solve the problems to be faced by these 20,000 affected natives. He pointed out that the problems faced by the people affected by the Batang Ai dam in Sri Aman Division and the Bakun Dam in Kapit Division have not be resolved.

Over 10,000 people, affected by the Bakun dam, have been resettled at the Sungai Asap resettlement scheme, but many have moved out. "The Sungai Asap Resettlement scheme is 50 % empty because many have left to go elsewhere or returned to the original places above the Bakun dam which are not submerged by the rising water," Bujang said.

"There are also others who built floating houses at the Bakun lake. There are 40 families from formerly from Long Jawe living on the floating houses. They have moved out of Sungai Asap," he said, stating that a few hundreds more families planned to build the floating houses at the lake.

Long Jawe is one of the longhouses submerged by the water of Bakun dam. According to Bujang, Sungai Asap is not a place to reside. "The government allocated three acres of land to each family. Even then the land is not suitable for farming because of the nature of soil," he said. "So, you can't plant padi or cash crop like rubber," he added. Bujang said that the state government has not been definite on when the construction of the Baram dam will start.

The RM4 billion dam, when completed, will generate 1,200MW of electricity. The dam will have a catchment area of about 41,200 hectares or 412 square kilometres of forested areas. Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB), the state government-owned power supplier, is currently conducting comprehensive tests on the stability of the rock structure on the dam site.

Link: http://www.thesundaily.my/news/492875

Related report: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/209262

Sekumpulan kira-kira 50 Orang Asal dari Baram mengadakan protes di hadapan bangunan sekretariat negeri Sarawak di Kuching semalam, membantah projek mega empangan yang akan menenggelamkan rumah panjang mereka. Mereka daripada 18 rumah panjang di Baram Hulu dan Tengah juga menyerahkan petisyen yang mengandungi lebih 1,000 tandatangan kepada Pejabat Ketua Menteri Sarawak.

Petisyen itu menyuarakan tentangan mereka terhadap rancangan membina empangan mega di Baram yang akan membanjiri kawasan tersebut seluas separuh saiz Singapura, serta menenggelamkan tanah nenek moyang mereka, rumah dan ladang-ladang di situ.

Dalam satu kenyataan semalam, Preiden Jaringan Orang Asal seMalaysia (Joas), Thomas Jalong, yang berasal dari Long Anap, Baram, berkata empangan itu akan menjejaskan kehidupan penduduk asal tempatan.

"Empangan akan pasti menenggelamkan tanah nenek moyang dengan lebih 20,000 penduduk dan dalam proses itu, ia akan mengakibatkan kami kehilangan rumah kita," katanya. Dengan itu, katanya, mereka secara tidak adil akan kehilangan tanah mereka, sumber mata pencarian dan rezeki, dan menghadapi masa depan yang tidak menentu,

Menurutnya, tanah itu bukan semata-mata sahaja menjadi sumber ekonomi bagi komuniti Orang Asal tetapi penting kepada identiti sosial, kebudayaan, kerohanian dan politik mereka.

12 empangan mega dirancang

Sementara itu, Rangkaian Selamatkan Sungai Sarawak (Save Rivers), sebuah gabungan yang dibentuk untuk menentang pembinaan 12 empangan mega yang dirancang bagi Sarawak, berkata bantahan itu diadakan untuk mendesak kerajaan mematuhi Deklarasi Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu mengenai Hak Orang Asal.

Presidennya, Peter Kallang berkata kerajaan negeri Sarawak perlu menghentikan semua kerja di atas jalan akses ke empangan kerana ia sudah pun menjejaskan masyarakat Orang Asal. Malah, wakil Jawatankuasa Bertindak Lindungi Baram, Philip Jau berkata perancangan untuk pembinaan empangan Baram tidak pernah telus.

"Mereka tidak bertanya rakyat pandangan mereka mengenai rancangan membina empangan tetapi sebaliknya telah memulakan kerja mengukur jalan masuk ke projek itu," kata Philip.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Sarawak: Land Of The Filthy Rich & Destitute

Exclusive Taibs Foreign Property Portfolio

Published by Sarawak Report, June 15th, 2010 GMT.

Twin glass towers and a swish shopping complex at Preston Square in downtown Ottawa form just part of an enormous foreign property portfolio controlled in Canada by the family of Sarawak Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, according to our exclusive investigations.

These buildings alone are worth at least one hundred million dollars and generate a healthy rental income from some of Canada’s top corporations, including Xerox, Adobe and Sun Life, who rent office space and retail outlets. Numerous Canadian Government Ministries are also listed at the building.

The Preston Square development lies at the centre of the major Canadian property empire run by the developer Sakto, which was founded in the early 1980s by Taib’s college-aged son Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, his daughter Jamilah and his brother Onn Mahmud. It continues to be managed as a ‘family business’ by his now son-in-law, a Canadian, Sean Murray.

Shady Truths In 'Fancy' Sarawak

Published by Free Malaysia Today, 20 June 2010.

Chief Minister Taib Mamud has for years promised the people of Sarawak that in return for their land and destruction of the rainforest they would receive a future bathed in wealth and prosperity. He promised them a modern standard of living comparable to advanced countries.

But what is the evidence of this?

Sarawak which is the richest state in Malaysia has the poorest population. More than 60% of the population are said to be statistically living in poverty.

Over the years the poor have gotten poorer and hungrier without their lands to live off from.

In contrast the people around Taib and his friends have become richer, living a life in splendour that would have amazed Rajah Brooke himself.

Everything has been taken from the once fabulous interior of Sarawak and given to the rich businessmen from the coastal cities.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Behind The Baram Blockades

Over the past week, there have been numerous reports about the blockades by several Penan communities in Tutoh-Apoh, Patah, and Baram, Sarawak. The blockades were to halt the transportation of logs by several logging business groups.

These groups have been harvesting timber within the traditional territories of the surrounding villages in the above-mentioned places.

According to community representatives, the blockades were set up for several interrelated reasons. Firstly, with the advent of large monoculture plantations, the people's forest resources are in a state of acute decline.

If logging had devastating impact on affected communities, plantations would be worst off. Clear-felling operations entail the total destruction of the people's land and forest resources, including their communal water catchments.

Secondly, this impending deforestation disaster is certainly linked to the lack of land rights of the native communities to their traditional territories. For years, the communities' numerous applications for their village forest reserves to be gazetted into Communal Forest Reserves have never been approved by the state.

The people maintain that logging has failed to produce meaningful benefits to local communities and has instead, over the years severely compromised their quality of life. They point out that local people even miss out on employment opportunities, as companies seem to prefer to hire Indonesian labour.

The people also stress that their efforts to negotiate with the companies and their agents have often been futile. The protestors are determined not to give in into any intimidations or threats to dismantle the barricades unless their demands are met.

Foremost, they call for all logging and plantation operations to be halted on their land, a call, that if left unheeded, may lead to significant food deprivation and widespread malnutrition among the people.

Equally important, the people also want their Native Customary Rights (NCR) to be fully recognised, and that they be allowed to exercise self-determination with regards to any development plans that may affect them.

In our view, all the demands above certainly require an urgent comprehensive response at a policy level from the Sarawak state government.

We find the statement attributed to Sarawak's Rural Development Minister James Masing in an AFP news article published on Aug 23, which describes the Penan communities as "good storytellers" and that their land rights disputes "were often aimed at wringing more compensation from companies" as most regretful.

Similarly, we find the insinuations about the communities' blockades by state assemblyperson Lihan Jok equally unacceptable. Lihan was quoted by Utusan Borneo on Aug 30, suggesting that the blockades appear to show the Penan communities are uncivilised, this despite the fact that many are highly educated.

In fact, the latest blockades leads to questions about the sustainability claims of the Sarawak timber and plantation industries. Many Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports of the projects in the area seem to suggest that plantation development is necessary in Sarawak due to the depletion in timber resources in the state.

However, timber harvesting for Dipterocarp forests within the Sarawak PFE supposedly operates under a 25-year cutting cycle. If it is indeed true that timber has been largely depleted in just 30 years since large-scale logging commenced in the state, Sarawak should no longer claim to be practising sustainable forestry management.

We believe that the Sarawak state government has also failed to take full cognisance of our judicial decisions on native rights. The Federal Court in 2007 has ruled that native rights owes its existence to native customary laws and not to any modern statute or legislation, while affirming that individual and communal native rights have equal legal force. Our Appeals Court has affirmed that such rights cover both cultivated and forested areas.

SAM is of the view that the continuous occurrence of land rights protests in Sarawak is a result of the absence of a participatory and consultative demarcation process of native territorial boundaries in Sarawak.

Such a process should incorporate the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) mechanism and a set of substantiation procedures designed to yield corroborative evidence to support each native land rights claim.

Given all the facts above, we call on the Sarawak state government to fulfil all the demands made by the blockading communities and exercise restraint in dealing with the protest.

In our view, unless Sarawak halts further forest conversions in the state and subsequently establishes a consultative demarcation process which takes cognisance of the full stature, nature and extent of the NCR as ruled by our judiciary, any sustainability claims made on both the timber and plantation industries in Sarawak must be treated with great caution.

S M Mohamed Idris is the president of Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM)

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Crisis In The Land Of The Indigenous People

The first time I heard of Baram was when I received an email from my friend, Lana, the director of CREST. There have been floods in the district of Baram, near Miri, Sarawak. She was sourcing for volunteers for the crisis relief team and for finance to help the villagers affected by the floods. “This really is not the right time,” I thought as I glanced at the files in my office. Writing a cheque to CREST should be enough on my part. I could not get a good night’s sleep since then. So I volunteered to join the relief team.

On 16 March, we took a flight from LCCT (KL) to Miri airport. There were 4 members in this team. All except me were men. Being a rose among thorns has its advantages: my “brothers” carried all the heavy loads including my baggage (kononnya nak tunjuk macho), nobody complained (at least I did not hear of any) when I hoarded the bathroom, I was given the front passenger seat and I have a room all to myself throughout this trip.

From Miri to Kuala Baram, we travelled by taxi. The road is straight and newly tarred, thanks to SHELL. Then we took the express long boat to go up the river. For the next 4 days, we travelled from one village to another: Marudi, Long Ikang, Long Lama and Long Bemang; on the river by a small motor boat and on land by a Toyota Hilux 4WD. Purchased and distributed the relief supplies to the villagers. When we travelled on the river, I remained on the lookout for crocodiles. To my disappointment, I spotted only a five feet basking under the sun throughout this entire trip. The ones I saw in the JB zoo were larger than that. No, I am sure that I did not miss anything. Believe me, we had to take a small boat that was only slightly wider than my hips and had to cling on to both sides for our dear lives. I paid my utmost attention to the waters around us.

The villagers (mostly Kayans, Ibans and Penans) did not ask for much, only for what is necessary to survive the crisis and to move on with their lives.

Tok Kampung of Long Ikang was once a brave warrior. However, he could not protect his village from the floods. He looked so defeated and resigned to fate. He was grateful to the churches that contributed when we arrived with the relief supplies for his people. We were told that the river has changed. It used to be clear, deep and teeming with marine life. The massive logging, quarry and clearing of the land for palm oil plantations have eroded the lands. This caused the soil to be flushed by the rain into the river. Years of accumulation of the soil has raised the level of the river.

Tok Penghulu of Long Bemang informed us that the floods were more frequent in the recent years. There were 10 times last year. Our government has sent representatives to estimate the extent of the crisis. Each family has been given RM50. That was a month ago.

Contrary to what I have learnt in my Form 3 Geography, the long-houses are no longer made of wood or bamboo. They are about 100 units of modern concrete buildings joined together to form a long-house. If an estimated value of each unit is RM20,000, then a long house will cost RM2,000,000. Therefore, it is unrealistic and impractical to expect the people to shift to higher grounds. Most of the villagers are farmers and fishermen, hence, could not afford to build another long-house. The massive logging and quarry activities together with deforestation are choking the river and robbing the livelihood of these indigenous people. The increasingly frequent floods not only damaged the long-houses but also destroyed the padi and the fields.

The whole eco-system in this district has been brutally jeopardised. Even the wild animals are dwindling in numbers. That was why I could not spot anymore crocodiles. The greed of human beings in the name of “development” has no bounds. When will enough be enough?

When we left for KL on 20 March, I was caught in a dilemma. On one hand, I could sleep peacefully knowing that I have done my part. On the other, there remained so much to do...

Today is Earth Day, the annual celebration on the 22^nd of April all over the world. It is intended to inspire awareness for the Earth’s environment on a daily basis; to promote a sustainable environment and to protest against environmental pollutions. How do you and I play our parts? Here are some suggestions:

Cultivate the habit of recycling,
Cut down on petrol, electricity and water consumption,
Call on our government to recognise and protect more lands as reserved lands for the indigenous people,
Protest against the industries that cause pollutions,
Boycott the product(s) or investment(s) of those industries,
Apply more pressure on our government and legislators to promote and enforce eco-friendly legislation, and
Set an example for the next generation.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Guess: What is it? Earthquake?

Rodeo cum roller coaster ride in a Toyota Hilux 4WD from Long Lama to Long Bemang, Sarawak. Two hours journey. I felt as if my head was jerked from my body and I suffered slight concussion. But it was fun!

The same vehicle broke down on the return trip to Long Lama; at 8.30 pm, in the middle of the jungle, in the midst of a thunderstorm. Our heroes, the driver and team leader had to walk in the rain for more than an hour to get help. 3 of us were left in the vehicle in pitch-dark. The thunder ceased after a while but the lightning continued to flash. I was comforted. God knew I was afraid, so He lit up the sky.