SAVE Rivers

MIRI – Save Sarawak’s Rivers Network (SAVE Rivers) doubts that the Iban communities in Baleh are aware what more be receptive to the proposed Baleh Hydro-electric Power (HEP) Dam as claimed by the Iban community leader, Temenggong Datuk Kenneth Kanyan as reported in the Borneo Post dated 29 February 2012. From the mega-dams conference organised two weeks ago by SAVE Rivers, four participants from Baleh clearly stated that they were not fully aware about the proposed dam project and have registered their objection to it. From SAVE Rivers’ research, the residents of Nanga Antawau, Baleh are only aware that the Baleh Dam Access road is going to be build through their village and not much information was given by the authorities about the pros and cons of the proposed dam. Furthermore, the feasibility studies are still ongoing and the State Government has yet to approve its construction. SAVE Rivers would like to ask Temenggong Datuk Kenneth Kanyan whether: there i...

(KUCHING, SARAWAK / MALAYSIA) Dema Tega Sdn Bhd, a construction company owned by the family of the Malaysian Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry, Jacob Dungau Sagan, has received public contracts worth over 63 million Malaysian Ringgits (USD 20 million) over the last five years. This has been disclosed by the Bruno Manser Fund today. According to the Swiss NGO, more than half of the projects are connected to a rural water supply system funded by Malaysia's Federal Government and commissioned by the Public Works Department of Sarawak, Malaysia's largest state on the island of Borneo. Jacob Dungau Sagan, a native Kenyah MP from Sarawak's interior, is a staunch supporter of the 1,000 MW Baram dam, one of twelve major dam projects in Sarawak. It is believed that corruption is the main motive behind Jacob's support for the controversial project that would drown 26 villages in his constituency and force 20,000 indigenous people to give up their n...

Reward for a compliant politician: Milisha Holdings' Belian concessions in Sarawak's Middle Baram region (KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA) Jacob Dungau Sagan, Malaysian Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry and Member of Parliament for Baram (Sarawak), has been caught red-handed in a timber corruption scandal that is likely to become a major embarrassment for the Malaysian government under Prime Minster Najib Razak According to confidential documents published today by the whistleblower website, Sarawak Report, Jacob Dungau Sagan and his wife and daughter are the secret holders of three timber concessions in Sagan’s parliamentary constituency of Baram in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo. Sagan’s concessions, with an estimated worth of several million dollars, are specifically licensed to harvest Belian (Borneo ironwood), a particularly rare and sought-after South-East Asian tree species. Belian has been classified by IUCN, the International Union f...