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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2013 INTERNATIONAL In Borneo jungle, natives stand up against Malaysian dams LONG KESEH: With a grimace on his sun- “We don’t want the dam and will do family of illegally running indigenous bronzed face, Borneo tribal chieftain whatever we have to do. If they bring a people off ancestral lands and plunder- Lenjau Tusau glares down a dirt road that dam, I bring a spear,” said Daniel Jalong ing Sarawak’s rich resources, charges he vanishes into a rainforest mist, on alert Manok, 49, one of dozens of Kenyah, denies. Swiss environmental and human for what he views as a mortal enemy. Kayan and Penan people manning the rights group the Bruno Manser Fund Evoking their past as feared headhunters, Baram blockades. Scores of Penan, upset (BMF) last year estimated his wealth at Malaysian indigenous men and women with relocation terms, have blocked $15 billion, citing financial records, which in traditional longboats knifed down the access to the newly completed Murum would make him Malaysia’s richest per- Baram river in Sarawak state on October Dam 120 kilometers away since authori- son. Sarawak’s first mega-dam-the 2,400- 23 to chase off surveyors and road- ties began filling it in late September. megawatt Bakun facility, one of the builders at the site of a proposed dam. Eight were briefly arrested in early world’s largest-went online in 2011 after They now man two blockades on November and dozens remain defiantly decades of delays plagued by corruption roads into the remote region, the latest in their homes, despite rising waters. and mismanagement. front in a battle against a colossal plan to Tribes who depend on jungles and Locals say it has destroyed the Balui convert Malaysia’s largest, wildest state rivers for survival say Sarawak’s once-rich River ecosystem, and many relocated vil- into an industrial powerhouse. “We will rainforests are already rapidly disappear- lages accuse authorities of shabby treat- not leave. Our life is here, our culture. The ing due to decades of state-backed log- ment. A joint statement by 80 leading land, rivers, and rocks belong to us,” said ging and expanding plantations. Data Malaysian NGOs this month accused Taib Lenjau, 70, whose ear lobes droop from published in the US journal Science this of “cultural genocide” and “systematic tribal piercing. Occupying northern month showed Malaysia lost 14.4 per- and disastrous environmental destruc- Borneo island, much of Sarawak is a jun- cent of its forests from 2000-2012, the tion”. Bakun’s capacity alone dwarfs gled landscape crossed by untamed world’s highest rate. In the 1980s, the Sarawak’s current 1,000-megawatt con- rivers. State authorities are pushing plans nomadic Penan were swept aside when sumption, but Sarawak Energy insists all to build as many as a dozen hydroelectric they tried to block timber companies by Bakun and Murum output has been sold LONG KESEH: Villagers sort vegetables at the second blockade camp near the dams-Sarawak already has three-hoping seizing roads into interior regions. to prospective industrial investors. proposed dam on the Baram River in Long Keseh, in Malaysia’s Sarawak state that cheap electricity will lure foreign But Baram residents say a new resolve Suggestions of massive oversupply are on the island of Borneo. — AFP industrial investment to the underdevel- has developed as a budding native “ignorant or malicious”, it added. Taib’s Usang, 63, said logging has severely has been made on whether to build the oped state. activist movement has grown, spreading office did not respond to a request for depleted the forest’s bounty. The Baram, Baram dam. Billions of dollars in such investment the anti-dam message through visits to comment. clear in his youth, runs brown due to log- But activists say the company-whose have been committed, the authorities remote areas and word of mouth. Some Indigenous activists say the Baram ging-related erosion and fish are scarce. chairman is Taib’s cousin-has a history of say. “The state has not only the right, but key activists are also using social media dam would flood an area half the size of Many villagers make ends meet by misleading communities and shutting the duty to develop the state’s resources to project their concerns abroad. “We Singapore and displace 20,000 people working for timber companies or in out dissenting voices, which Sarawak for the benefit of present and future gen- trusted the government,” Lenjau said in including villages like Tanjung Tepalit. cities. Nyurang, who travelled to Murum Energy fiercely denies. Instead of dams, erations,” state-linked Sarawak Energy, Kenyah through an interpreter. “But there The Kenyah community is set in a ver- and Bakun to view conditions there, said Nyurang wants government investment. which is spearheading the dam cam- is a change of our mindset, how we view dant Baram valley several hours many felt tricked and promised jobs at His village has no electricity, school, or paign, said in a statement to AFP. But the world, the land and the rivers.” At a upstream from the blockades. Bakun did not materialize. “If we have to road access besides the logging roads environmentalists believe the project road blockade on a stunning ridge-top, Dominated by a huge longhouse the size move, it will be the end of us,” said along which huge trucks laden with threatens one of the world’s last great Baram protesters rail against authorities of a city block, it has a Catholic church, Nyurang, whose longhouse quarters fea- giant trees thunder toward the coast. rainforests at the heart of Borneo, an between joyous bursts of native song volleyball court and landscaped walk- ture the mounted skin of a clouded leop- Neither Sarawak Energy nor the govern- island shared by Muslim-majority and dance. Their ultimate target is ways. Residents fish and hunt game and ard, wooden Kenyah war shields and a ment has indicated their next Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. Sarawak’s all-powerful chief minister for tend paddy fields, oil palm, and other wide-screen TV. “I don’t know if I can hold steps.”Whatever millions they give, I To members of Sarawak’s mostly the last 32 years, Taib Mahmud. small-scale agriculture in surrounding the community together somewhere don’t want it. Money vanishes, land does Christian tribes, their culture is in peril. Opponents accuse Taib, 77, and his forests. But village chief James Nyurang else.” Sarawak Energy insists no decision not,” said Jalong.—AFP Britain’s Cameron ‘turns page’ on Dalai Lama row UK tries to deepen economic ties LONDON: Britain has put a diplo- a meeting with the Dalai Lama, he should raise the issue of Tibet Both men declined to discuss matic rift with China over the Dalai whom Beijing deems a separatist. with the Chinese. “It’s clear from the Dalai Lama, focusing instead Lama behind it and Prime Minister China summoned the British this poll that only a handful of on what they said was the huge David Cameron has no plans to ambassador to protest at the time, British people believe trade with potential for enhanced economic meet Tibet’s spiritual leader again, saying the meeting had “seriously China is more important than ties. Osborne announced less strin- a senior source in his office said interfered with China’s internal human rights in Tibet and that they gent rules for Chinese banks oper- ahead of a visit by the British affairs”, urging Britain to “correct expect Mr Cameron to act like a ating in London in a push to make leader to Beijing. Instead, Cameron the error”. statesman, not a salesman,” Eleanor the British capital the main off- will use a three-day visit to China shore hub for trading in China’s next week, his first since the Dalai currency and bonds. He also Lama rift, to focus on deepening opened the door to Chinese trade ties with the world’s second investors taking majority stakes in largest economy, taking with him a future British nuclear plants. The delegation of around 100 business source said British exports to China people. had increased by 20 percent in the “This visit is forward looking. We first six months of this year, while have turned a page on that issue,” inward investment by China was at said the source when asked its highest level in decades. whether Cameron would raise the The timing of Cameron’s trip issue of Tibet during his trip. “It’s was good, the source said, because about shifting UK relations up a it came soon after China’s commu- gear and looking to the future.” nist leadership set new long-term Foreign trips often pose a public policy priorities which included relations problem for the British opening up the economy further. PYONGYANG: US citizen Merrill Newman reads a written apology for his alleged leader as he has to balance his poli- Xavier Rolet, the chief executive of crimes both as a tourist and during his participation in the Korean War in cy of helping Britain win what he the London Stock Exchange, is Pyongyang. — AFP calls the global economic “race” expected to travel with Cameron. with speaking out about any The business delegation is also human rights concerns. NEW DELHI: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama laughs as he talks expected to include Andrew Witty, N Korea showcases detained It is a circle he has sometimes on Wisdom Of Compassion organized by Apollo Hospital in New Delhi, the chief executive of found hard to square and cam- India yesterday. — AP GlaxoSmithKline.