Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has promised RM27 billion to begin construction on a 1,663km highway across Borneo, although a similar highway was completed in 2008. Journalist Joe Leong posits that rather than using tax payers’ money to built a new road, what is needed is the repair and proper...
One day before the one-year anniversary of two blockades against the Baram dam, fifty police officers and ten forest authorities arrived at one of the blockade sites, dismantling it. Hours later, the protestors had erected a new blockade and negotiated a three-day grace period. The indigenous protestors told the officers that the...
The village of Makroman was a thriving agrarian district until 2007, when coal companies began mining in the village, polluting the air and water with toxins. These coal companies have been negligent in many ways, including refusing to fill unreclaimed mining pits, a danger to passers-by. Despite the negative environmental...
Sixteen years after the creation of the Sungai Asap dam resettlement, reporter Hanna Hindstrom interviewed a Penan woman living in this community. Layo revealed the ways in which her life drastically changed as she and her family were forced to move from their homes to make way for the Bakun dam. Read on to learn about how her...
Date: 4th September, 2014 PENGHULU’S STATEMENT IS NOT THE PEOPLE’S VOICE Miri: Villagers from Baram were angered by a statement from their community leader, Penghulu Paul Kalang which was published in the Borneo Post on 4th September 2014. They all voiced out their disappointment that they are being sidelined in...
BRUNO MANSER FUND, BASEL / SWITZERLAND 07 August 2014 – for immediate release Malaysian lawyers slam Sarawak dam resettlements The Malaysian Bar Council finds a series of basic rights violated at the resettlement sites of the Murum Dam and attests Sarawak Energy a lack of interest in the resettled people....
Date: 18th August 2014 Baram Community Members Testify at Launch of Human Rights Fact-Finding Report Kuala Lumpur: A blockade to resist a hydroelectric dam in Baram in the Malaysian state of Sarawak marks its 300th days today on Monday 18th August 2014. As an event for the occasion, a group...
Originally published in Counter Punch by Amanda Stephenson Sarawak, Malaysia, is located on the island of Borneo, the third largest island in the world. Sarawak is home to thousands of endemic species, forty indigenous groups, and one of the largest transboundary rainforests remaining in the world. The state is also suffering...
Massive dams in Sarawak, Malaysia, threaten to flood over 2,000 square kilometers of the world’s oldest rainforests, displace 10,000s of indigenous people, and aggravate climate change, writes Amanda Stephenson – all to generate electricity that no one wants. Sarawak, Malaysia, is located on the island of Borneo, the...
Massive dams in Sarawak, Malaysia, threaten to flood over 2,000 square kilometers of the world’s oldest rainforests, displace 10,000s of indigenous people, and aggravate climate change, writes Amanda Stephenson – all to generate electricity that no one wants. Originally published in The Ecologist by Amanda Stephenson Sarawak, Malaysia, is located...
