Sarawak Public Utilities Minister Awang Tengah Ali Hassan, who is also Second Minister of Resources Management and Environment, has been severely criticised for wrongly blaming innocent Bidayuh natives for the delay in the implementation of the Bengoh Dam.

“Either he is ignorant of the real situation at the dam or he deliberately wants to cover-up the delay as the contractor is Naim Cendera,” Sarawak PKR vice-chairperson See Chee How said today when responding to a statement from the minister.

Naim Cendera is the contractor for the dam and the company is closely related to leaders of the dominant ruling party in Sarawak, the PBB.

See said Naim Cendera and the Public Works Department, which supervises the project, have major disagreements over the payment for the water project.

Awang Tengah ( left ) in a media conference yesterday put the blame on the native villagers for filing native land rights claims and opposition party members for instigating these villagers not to accept resettlement, thereby delaying the impounding of the Bengoh Dam water reservoir.

“From the statement that was made by the minister, it is clear that he and the state government were misinformed and misled on the implementation of the project,” said See, the Batu Lintang assemblyperson.

“While it is true that the affected villagers have filed legal action for their ancestral land in Upper Bengoh to be declared as native customary rights land, these villagers have not in any way hindered or impeded the construction of the Bengoh Dam, nor did they make any attempt to inhibit or hold back the impounding of the water reservoir.

“On the contrary, the native landowners fully realise the importance and significance of the public purpose this Bengoh Dam water reservoir project serves.

“They did not make any attempt for an interim injunction to stop the dam building works, and they have fully resettled themselves outside the reservoir area even before the dam was completed,” said See, who is the natives’ legal counsel.

'Baseless accusation against the defenceless'

He added: “It is unfair to point fingers at the native Bidayuh villagers who are living in the Upper Bengoh region and have no access to newspapers unless, their relatives bring the papers to them, usually during weekends.

“The baseless accusation against these defenseless indigenous communities is most unreasonable.

“The delay in the impounding for more than three years was wholly due to the differences and disagreements between and among the government authorities and the contractor.

“The native Bidayuh villagers in the Upper Bengoh villages are blameless. The civil action could have been settled in the instance when the case was filed.”

See pointed out that the state government has documentary evidence, including aerial photographs taken before 1958, to conclusively prove the existence of these native Bidayuh communities and their continuous occupation and usage of their ancestral land in Upper Bengoh.

In view of the misleading statement made by Awang Tengah, See urged Chief Minister Adenan Satem to call for a full briefing by the ministries, departments and the developer involved in the Bengoh Dam project.

This is so that all parties fully understand the problems behind the delay in the implementation of the Bengoh Dam water reservoir project, are able to identify the weaknesses and flaws in the project implementation and undertake the necessary actions to ensure that there will be no further delay.