Long Gone Phase 2

Modeled after the Long Gone Phase 1 in Bakun, Long Gone Phase 2 in Baram is well under way.  It was reported that 25% of Baram's Murum Dam was achieved by the end of 2010.  One wonders how much has been achieved at this point in time, 2012.  Sarawakians expect to see a multiple of beautiful Islands popping up as the Murun Dam is completed and impounded, as can be seen in Long Gone Phase 1, Bakun.

Long Gone in Baram; A watery grave

Long Na'ah, Long Liam, Long Tebangan and all the small villages with the prefix "Long" will all be united as "Long Gone", a watery grave in Baram.

Extract from http://stop-corruption-dams.org/campaign_update?show=5

(BASEL, SWITZERLAND) The Bruno Manser Fund has today disclosed an exclusive map showing the extent of the proposed Baram mega dam whose realization is bound to cause a social and environmental disaster in Malaysian Borneo. The proposed 1000 MW Baram dam is one of twelve dams authorities in the Malaysian state of Sarawak are planning to build following the completion of the 2400 MW Bakun dam.

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According to the map based on intelligence and calculations by the Bruno Manser Fund, the 162 meter high Baram dam would flood a rainforest area of 412 km2 (41'200 hectares) and at least 26 indigenous villages, causing the displacement of up to 20,000 Sarawak natives.

The dam is being planned by the Sarawak state government and Sarawak Energy, the implementing agency, in violation of international transparency standards. While the Sarawak government has started legal procedures to extinguish native rights for an access road to the dam site, the affected communities are deliberately being kept in the dark over the extent of the dam plans.

The proposed dam would cause havoc for the Kenyah, Kayan and Penan culture in the upper reaches of the Baram river, one of Borneo's great rainforest streams. Many of their villages would be submerged and would literally cease to exist.

Traditional longhouse communities in the dam's downstream areas would also have to face drastic changes and pollution of the riverine ecosystem, affecting river transport, fishery, irrigation and access to drinking water.

 According to information obtained by the Bruno Manser Fund, the following villages and longhouse communities would cease to exist upon construction of the dam:

 Village / Longhouse Culture
 1 Long Na'ah Kayan
 2 Long Liam Kayan
 3 Long Tebangan Kayan
 4 Long Anyat Kayan
 5 Ba Keluan Western Penan
6  Long Beku Western Penan
 7 Long Luding Western Penan
 8 Long Item Eastern Penan
 9 Long Dilo Eastern Penan
 10 Long Lutin Eastern Penan
 11 Long Kawi Eastern Penan
 12 Long Segayang Eastern Penan
 13 Ba Abang / Long Sepatai Eastern Penan
 14 Long San Regional Centre (mainly Kenyah)
 15 Long Tap Kenyah
 16 Long Selatong Dikan Kenyah
 17 Long Selatong Tanjung Tepalit Kenyah
 18 Long Apu Kenyah
 19 Long Julan Kenyah
 20 Long Julan Pelutan Kenyah
 21 Long Anap Kenyah
 22 Long Palai Kenyah
 23 Long Silat Kenyah
 24 Long Selawan Kenyah
 25 Long Je'eh Kenyah
 26 Long Makabar Kenyah

 Downstream villages and longhouses that are to be negatively affected by the dam plans include the regional centers of Marudi and Long Lama as well as the villages and longhouse of Long Keseh, Long Pila, Long Laput, Kejaman, Long Pelutan, Uma Bawang and others.

 The Bruno Manser Fund calls on the Sarawak state government and on Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) as implementing agency to halt all further works on the controversial project and immediately release all official studies on the planned Baram dam.

Hypocrite

Hippopotamus statue made of concrete = Hypocrite

Never label others, even after you know what they're made of.  

Because you could be dead wrong.

Sarawakians are stupid, but Happy New Year anyway

The New Year came in a cozy setting for me.  I attended midnight mass at St Francis of Assisi Cheras, Batu 9 and proceeded to a fellow Sarawakian New Year Party at a condo in Bukit Jalil.  It was rumah panjai style all the way.  With Wild boar soup, spiral fresh water cockle cooked with tapioca leaves, pulut panggang, babi kicap, ikan panggang portuguese style, ikan masin goreng and even ayam masak coca cola.  That’s right, coke cock, if it was a rooster that is…

They were pushing strong brew beer as the ai’ pengayu while the karaoke set faithfully played popular Iban songs.  We sang and we danced till 2am.  That was when I decided to make a move.  But not before I was forced to sing a song… ‘sambil nyanyi, sambil minum’ the captain said… oh well…

As I reach home, made myself comfortable and browsed facebook for a while, I am bombarded with news about UPSI students uprising and how some of them were locked up while others brutalized, I become very angry and puzzled at how the government is handling some issues with utter stupidity and childishness.  They are trying to enforce control over well informed academics.  Just because UPSI is a teacher’s training university they think they have the same control just like any government institution, considering how they already have control over the teachers in Malaysia. 

WTF man… my father is a retired Maktab Perguruan lecturer and he’s a hardcore opposition through and through because he doesn’t like how the country and state is run.  We went to practice our right to vote during the recent Sarawak election; my dad, my mum, my younger sister and me, all voted for the opposition in our constitution, Lambir. Yeah, we are family indeed.

The sentiment is strong in Sarawak but it was not enough to bring substantial changes to the mother of all fuck ups there.  This is because there is not enough alternative media penetration throughout the state.  Plus we all know that the rural areas are BN’s ‘lubok undi’.  They are able to reach because they are using the country and state’s resources to manage the expensive logistics.  Don’t even get me started about the ‘free handouts’ and lavish promises.  They have managed to buy blind loyalty from ‘orang kampung’.   Some villages even chased out the oppositions’ campaign troupes because they were severely ill informed and extensively brainwashed.  In Sarawak, Taib and BN has the upper hand of doing it the ‘old school’ way, so to speak.

But I always wonder, there has been many court cases, even criminal cases of land grabbing by timber companies, burnt and demolished rumah panjang and damned dam promises unfulfilled; both for Bakun and Batang Ai.  How is it that people are still not bothered by all these act of crimes?  Or are they too few to be noticed.  Does this mean that there is much more to grab, rob and steal before any of the neighbors smell something rotten?

I know we’ve all read somewhere that Taib told the media that Sarawak people are often under privileged because they are stupid.  When I meet people in KL and tell them I’m from Sarawak, they’ll say “Owh.. Sarawak.. You still have that criminal running the state don’t you”, “How is it that he is still in power?”, “You should kick him out already” and “What are you? Stupid?”

And these are people from all walks of life; students, technicians, engineers, lawyers and businessmen in KL.  As much as they are amazed at our colorful cultural diversity and signature unity, they are completely puzzled with the fact that we are still run by a tyrant.  As if we are a band of stupid naive natives from the deep forest of Borneo. 

And here we are trying to uphold our pride and legacy of beautiful culture and tradition.  Let me tell you this, keeping Taib and BN in power over Sarawak is certainly not one tradition that I’m about to uphold. We should work hard on getting rid of this curse.  

I’m not going to stand and watch as people repeatedly say Sarawakians are stupid.  It was not easy last year, or the year before but we are making progress every year.  And for this new year I’m pushing on.  I’m making a change and I’m hell bent on influencing everyone I meet. 

I will not be a Bidayuh who would settle to say ‘Sarawakians are stupid, but Happy New Year anyway’.

Umobile Connect Failed

Don't believe anything the mobile broadband providers tell you.  They seem to program the system to run like dandy candy within the money back guarantee period.  After that, you're basically fucked.

I started with celcom broadband for mobility while still subscribed to streamyx at home, which by the way runs like dial up.  Everything was really good the first few days.  I was mighty impressed.  Then after a week, the line keeps disconnecting.  I keep on reconnecting and sometimes fail miserably.

Now I'm on Umobile.  It impressed me like hell the first week; that's the money back guarantee period.  Now it keeps disconnecting too.  Sometimes it gives me Service Unknown'.  It's been barely a month and I'm screwed.  I keep getting 'Connect ailed' pop up message, complete with that irritating chime sound.  For some reason, this happens after midnight. I guess that’s when their technicians go to sleep. 

I'm still using it in the same geographical location, I still use the same computer and I turn it on the same way and I still plug the USB into the same fucking hole...

So tell me, what is the fucking problem? Do they move their transmission towers after midnight? 

Fuck U’mobile.

P/s: I'm not angry, I'm just fucking pissed!

National Feedlot Corporation, Where's the meat?

I've heard too many excuses and half baked rationalization for the mess that is NFC.

Here's the reported cash movement by NFC

• Menjelang 31 Mac 2009. Rekod kewangan NFC menunjukkan pinjaman pertama sejumlah RM130 juta telah diambil dalam tahun 2008.
• Pada 31 Mac 2009, NFC telah mengambil pinjaman kedua berjumlah RM220 juta yang terus dimasukkan ke akaun Maybank milik NFC.
• dan 6 Mei 2009 NFC memindahkan wang dari pinjaman ini berjumlah RM116 juta ke dalam akaun deposit tetap milik NFC di Public Bank Berhad.

"Tetapi masalahnya setelah kesemua wang tersebut dikeluarkan BARULAH perjanjian dilakukan pada 2010," kata Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Kira-Kira Wang Negara (PAC) DS Azmi Khalid


Numbers don't lie as highlighted by this article. It's a helpful explanation of the mismanagement in NFC.

NFC, WTF? Where's the meat?

According to the article...

...........................

The NFC’s main goal is to raise 130 satellite farms that stand as feeders to the main slaughtering unit. Since the project's conception in 2008 till 2010, the total number of satellite farms set up amounts to zero.

This has forced NFC to start importing cattle from Australia, just to meet their target of 8,000 heads of cattle. Yet, from 2008 till 2010, only 5,742 heads have been slaughtered. For the span of two years, the total number of cattle brought in by NFC was 8,016; with 5,742 slaughtered and brought to market. Mohamad Salleh claims this as a success but he fails to tell the public that the goal for NFC was to raised 60,000 heads by 2015.

National Feed(Shit)-a-lot Corporation

2008 till 2010 equals 8,016 versus 60,000 by 2015. The math prove that there is no way NFC will meet their target at the rate they are going; unless cows can grow out from acacias trees or there are 51,984 heads of cattle stashed away in some hidden luxury condo that we don’t know of. Yet!

This was what the AG was pointing out in its report. Based on the numbers and initial projections of 60,000 heads by 2015, the actual output for NFC was 3,289 for 2010 itself which is 41.1%. For the NFC to be classified a success, in the next 4 years (2011-1015), NFC has to import 12,994 heads of cattle per year!

Where is the breeding program - the heart of the project?

One Menerung or One Merenung?

And this is where the mess is evident. The Entrepreneur Development Program that has the goal of producing 130 satellite cattle farms has stalled, even-though it forms the main thrust of the project for which the public funds were allocated for. There is no clear nor immediate action by NFC to create a breeding program.

The aim is to be self-sustaining, thus the idea of importing cattle from Australia does not do justice to this goal. This was clear when land allocated for the feeding and cultivating a stock of cows is still very much an acacia tree nursery. Are there no plans to clear this land of the trees and create fodder for the cattle as stated in the initial outline for the project?

The answer is neither yes or no since there is no operational structure to check against. A visit to the NFC website proves futile, since there is nothing to suggest that there is even a team assigned to the task of land clearing and fodder planting.

This was the debacle the AG's report was pointing to. Public funds have been allocated to the project, yet there is no proper or systematic plan drawn up by NFC that would ensure that Malaysia will be the biggest hub of halal meat production in the region.

................ Malaysia Chronicle

So, National Feedlot Corporation, stop feeding us bull shit and give us our meat!

Human Rights Defender Case Settled

.
But the damage is done.

I came across this public apology while having breakfast this morning at the pantry.  Indeed it is backdated and I seldom browse the classifieds section.  Fortunately there was no other reading material available.

I am afraid to comment further for fear of being sued.  This is how human rights issues are treated in Malaysia.

The case has been settled back in August, as reported here and quoted below.  Do spend some time to explore this case.

Begin Quote:

25/8/2011 - Settlement Reached - Case Ends

This morning, parties re-visited the question of settlement, and finally a settlement was reached, and the court recorded the settlement.

In short, parties shall withdraw the action both in the High Court and the Court of Appeal, Charles Hector to pay RM1 as damages, RM1 as cost and also cause to publish in the The Star and Nanyang Siang Pau, half-page advertisements within 21 days, a statement agreed upon, which is also part of the entered consent judgment. (We shall post the exact wordings of this statement, if and when we get it, at a later date)

* The cost of half page adverts in a newspaper, with national circulation, is very high  - estimated about RM22,000. For Star, it will be about RM12,000 and for Chinese Daily, it is about RM10,000. Help is needed to raise this money, and we hope that you could send the monies urgently to the Defence Fund set up by ALIRAN (details at the top of this Blog page)

Posted by In Defence of Charles Hector at 20:34

End Quote