From Malaysiakini 16th June 2000

by Kua Kia Soong

The renewed attempt by the Sarawak state government to revive the discredited 2,400 MW hydroelectric project is a chronicle of never-ending folly.

At the recent Sarawak State Assembly on May 12, the Deputy Chief Minister Dr George Chan opined that the capacity of the Bakun dam should remain at 2,400 MW.

The misconceived nature of the project has been demonstrated time and again ever since the 80s and the government should not assume that Malaysians are suffering from collective amnesia.

When the Bakun Dam project was first proposed, the government talked about having ample power for energy-consuming and also highly polluting aluminium smelting works in Sarawak.

The initial project for a 2,400 MW generating capacity in the 1980s was justified by the fact that the surplus energy was to be transmitted across the South China Sea by the world's longest undersea high-voltage cable, 640km long.

This was discredited by critics not only because the cost was exorbitant (RM10 billion) but also the terrain was risky and it would incur unacceptable loss of energy through the long distance of transmission.

The whole project was couched in secrecy and to this day, the feasibility studies done by the Sama consortium are protected by the Official Secrets Act.

My attempts as an MP in Parliament from 1990 to 1995 to gain access to these documents were consistently denied.

Among other studies, the anthropological studies would have revealed recommendations by anthropologists how not to displace the 10,000 indigenous peoples from the area until the last moments of flooding the Bakun area.

All Malaysian experts employed in the feasibility studies had to sign an oath of secrecy.

This project was abandoned during the economic recession of the mid-1980s although Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad announced just before the UN Conference on Environment and Development at Rio that it was "proof of Malaysia's commitment to the environment." (NST, June 13, 1990).

During the mass arrests and detentions under "Operation Lallang", apparently to defuse the "racially charged atmosphere", at least two NGO activists were detained without trial for their anti-Bakun dam activities earlier.

With the upturn in the Malaysian economy during the early 1990s, the government announced the revival of the Bakun HEP project.

To cushion the expected protests, the energy minister announced in Parliament that it would not be one large dam but "a series of cascading dams" and that it would be a privatised project.

But before long, it was announced that the dam would be a massive 205-metre high concrete face rockfill dam flooding an area of tropical rainforest the size of Singapore island (69,640 hectares).

The state government maintained that the project would ensure that Sarawak can become the powerhouse of Malaysia.

It would attract foreign investments with the establishment of an aluminum plant, pulp and paper plants, steel mills, high-tension and high-voltage wire industry and the development of a tourist resort at the reservoir.

In 1994, the contract for the 2,400 MW Bakun Dam project was awarded to Ekran without an open tender being called. In March 1995, the first of four EIAs was approved and work started on site clearance for office construction, an airport, reservoir and diversion tunnels.

When the Asian financial crisis struck in 1997, the project was put on hold for the second time. Concerned NGOs and indigenous peoples of the area were relieved that at least they could remain in their ancestral homes while the project was suspended.

Meanwhile, Ekran had subcontracted another Ting Pek Khiing company, Pacific Chemicals to harvest 1,000 hectares of forest and extracted 79,000 cubic metres of timber within the Bakun area.

Then on Sept 7, 1998, the federal government offered to pay Bakun HEC RM811 million to take over its assets and liabilities in order to enable the federal government to take over the project.

More than half this sum was intended for reimbursing Ekran for the expenses incurred in management and implementation of the project.

In the process, it has cost Malaysian taxpayers a total of RM950 million as a result of the government's decision to take over the project, including RM390 million to Ekran; RM436 million to financial institutions; RM24 million to the South Korean company doing the diversion tunnels, Dong Ah; RM100 million to equity holders of BHEC whose shareholders are Ekran (42.6 percent), Sarawak government (25.3 percent), Sesco (12 percent), Khazanah Nasional (6.67 percent), Tenaga Nasional (6.67 percent), and EPF (6.67 percent).

When the economy revived last year, the Malaysian government announced that the Bakun HEP project would be resumed albeit on a smaller 500 MW capacity.

But despite the fact that the design for the downsized dam had not been prepared and the fact that the area to be filled would not be as big as the initial size, the Sarawak government went ahead with the forcible displacement of 10,000 indigenous peoples.

By August 1999, "Operation Exodus" had been completed. A fact-finding mission was organised by the Coalition of Concerned NGOs on Bakun to investigate the grievances expressed by the displaced indigenous peoples.

Their findings which reveal a litany of unacceptable housing standards, short-changed victims, inadequate facilities and appalling compensation payments can be seen in their report, "Empty Promises, Damned Lives" (Suaram, 1999).

What has happened to these 10,000 indigenous peoples can only be described as ethnocide. They found out, among other scandals, that this largest resettlement scheme in the country did not possess a certificate of fitness!

On April 18, deputy PM Abdullah Badawi said: "A new national energy policy is being drawn up to include the usage of solar and wind power as alternatives to traditional sources.

He said the use of renewable energy in the next five years was expected to save the government RM1 billion through reduced infrastructure and fuel costs." (The Star, April 18).

In the recent Sarawak State Assembly on May 12, the deputy CM in justifying the 2,400 MW Bakun Dam said: "The federal government had been encouraged to promote heavy industries in Sarawak requiring substantial energy consumption to take up available power capacity from the Bakun dam."

Obviously, the new National Energy Policy has not been transmitted across the South China Sea to Sabah/Sarawak Malaysia or else the new policy does not entail responsible energy demand management.

The current energy consumption of the whole Sarawak state is only 500 MW. The state is already generating 700 MW from existing sources and still has capacity for expansion of up to 1,000 MW, well sufficient for the needs of the state. Meanwhile, the forecast for energy consumption growth in Sarawak is expected to drop from 9.8 percent this year to just 5.6 percent in 2010 (NST, June 5).

We know that energy cannot be stored, which makes the Bakun project totally unnecessary.

Anyone familiar with the social formation in rural Sarawak can see that the best way to help the indigenous peoples is through mini hydros, renewable energy sources built in situ to power the long houses and small industries.

The rural people have no objections to better infrastructure, better transportation systems, better schools and health facilities. When have they ever opposed such development?

Malaysians may like to know that in March this year, ABB the former contractor of the Bakun project and perhaps the world's most important supplier of hydropower equipment divested from its power business and sold off to Alstom, an English-French company.

This month, ABB announced its new focus on alternative energy technologies such as wind and solar energy. The company expects a huge market for energy alternatives in the future.

This turnaround was mainly due to the study by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and the Berne Declaration in 1998 which forecast a shrinking hydropower market due to increasing social and environmental protests and the lack of public and private finance.

It is worth noting that ABB's president Goran Lindahl is a member of the World Commission on Dams which will submit its much-awaited report at the end of 2000. The demise of the hydropower industry is only a matter of time.

Aluminium smelting is one industry that the developed countries like to dump on South countries because it is highly toxic and it consumes voracious amounts of energy.

It is surprising that Malaysia, being the outspoken critic of such practices by the developed countries would allow this on its backyard. Who will gain from such investments?

The proposed Alumina Refinery in the Similajau forest reserve at Bintulu will be operated by the Australian-based Comalco, costing RM4 billion.

The detailed EIA on the project shows lack of adequate information about the project and public participation.

The project involves the acquisition of a large area of agricultural land of the villagers in Kampung Kuala Nyalau and will contribute air pollutants such as sulphur dioxide as well as toxic algae bloom.In conclusion, the debt the nation owes the Bakun indigenous peoples still remains to be counted.

The folly we let ourselves to be led into by misconceived monumental projects such as the Bakun Dam ever since the 1980s is as tragic as it is comical.

Malaysian taxpayers should stand up and in no uncertain terms say "No" to the Bakun project.

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