James Masing missed the entire point

By S.M. Mohamed Idris

Utunsan Konsumer August 2001

2001-08-24 | A FEW days after the press highlighted the Bakun-affected natives plight, the Chairman of the Bakun Resettlement Committee (BRC),Datuk Dr. James Masing, responded rather unkindly when the press queried him on the issues raised by the delegation of BRPC to Kuala Lumpur. In return SAM released a press statement to set the record straight.

SAHABAT Alam Malaysia (SAM) deeply regrets the reaction of the Chairman of the Bakun Resettlement Committee (BRC), Datuk Dr. James Masing to the complaints highlighted by the Bakun natives on the plight of various Bakun-affected communities during their trip to Kuala Lumpur last week,where they met with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and SUHAKAM Commissioners and spoke on their predicament at a public forum.

Masing's responses to the various questions posed by the press on the problems highlighted by the people on July 4, 2001 displayed the dismal level of empathy he has for the involuntarily relocated rakyat whose welfare he is supposed to protect.

In an effort to shoot down all the issues that were supposed to be dealt with at the state level but were brought up by the people to the Federal authorities as a result of the State's own difference, Masing was painfully disdainful, shamelessly belittling the affected people in a fit of denial. This directly implies on the degree of community participation in the resettlement process itself. In a more accountable environment, an official in the same circumstance would have at least been open enough to promise an investigation into the complaints.

In responding to the claims of unsettled compensation payments made by the affected residents who had refused to move to Sungai Asap and instead chose to relocate in upstream Balui River, Masing was clearly missing the entire point.

The Chairman of BDC claimed that since these villagers are currently "squatting" on state land, the remaining amount of their compensation money would not be delivered so that other groups would not follow in their steps.

Masing appeared to be oblivious to the reasons as to why some families chose to move upstream in the first place. SAM believes the root of the issue lies in the failure of the resettlement process to fully recognise the rights of the affected communities to be fully consulted on every aspect of the exercise including their economic and social concerns and the choice of the new location itself.

In a State-commissioned study on the social impacts of Bakun carried out by Jerome Rousseau, the Canadian anthropologist himself opposed the idea of

relocating the villagers to Sungai Asap for at least six good reasons, one of which was the villagers themselves had expressed their desire to move further upstream in accordance with the new raised water level.

The report of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) on large dams published in November 2000 recommends that all stakeholders in any dam projects

must participate in the negotiation of outcomes that affect them. It also cautions that adversely affected people should participate in the identification, selection, distribution and delivery of benefits, which in turn should be sufficient to induce demonstrable improvements in the standard of living of the affected people.

Today, the people's refusal to move to Sungai Asap is validated as population pressure and the lack of fertile and accessible arable land, river and forest resources, job opportunities and cheap modes of land transport in Sungai Asap have resulted in the deterioration in the quality of life of the resettled families.

In truth, the State Government's refusal to pay the upstream families their due compensation is nothing more than blackmail and is a way of forcing people to give up their meaningful lives and move on to worse conditions.

Secondly, SAM also takes issue with the Minister's imprudent remark that joblessness in Sungai Asap is a self-inflicted problem as the natives there "are just being lazy".

This statement is not only a sign of condescension on the part of Masing, it is also openly callous. If it is true that the people are so lazy so as to even refuse to work in the oil palm plantations until Indonesian labour has to be employed as a substitute, why did the Bakun Region People's Committee (BPRC) then complain that the people in Sungai Asap who actually work in the plantations are paid a meagre salary that can barely cover their transport fares -- as if they too are some cheap foreign labour?

We would like to remind Masing that the people used to own huge plots of land in their original homes that provided them with both food and a steady income. Back then, they also industriously supplemented their livelihood with the sale of forest produce, fish and handicrafts. Today, with only 3 acres of land for each family, they are suddenly expected to be cheap labourers in private plantations and work under unrewarding and oftentimes even hazardous conditions.

To make matters worse,Masing also described Bapa Bato' Bagi, the articulate and esteemed elderly Chairman of the BRPC and Chief of the Uma Baloi

Ukap Longhouse as being influenced by NGOs. Bapa Bato is one of the few communal leaders who has been firmly standing by his people who refuse to move to Sungai Asap despite his more economically and socially advantageous position. Such a statement simply implies that a man of Bapa Bato's stature is not able to think for himself.

We are incredibly appalled at Masing's temerity to insult his own people with such a patronising arrogance, resorting to the fashionable vocabulary of the colonial era.

Finally, when questioned on the RM52,000 house, Masing tried to divert away from the issue once again, citing the 4 percent interestrate housing loan for the residents and a five-year payment deferment period as proof of the kindness of the Government.

However the real issue voiced by the people is the logic of being forced into a debt of thousands of ringgit as a result of an involuntary resettlement scheme. In addition, the new houses were also constructed using inferior building materials with poor workmanship and are smaller in size compared to their old houses.

Certainly with more than 1,500 families in Sungai Asap, we believe that at least RM70 million will soon be made from the sale of these houses.

It is high time that the Chairman of the Bakun Resettlement Committee put a stop to his act of refusing to acknowledge the people's plight.

In view of all the revelations above, SAM believes that SUHAKAM's visit to Sungai Asap at the end of this month is critically important to provide us with an independent and comprehensive investigation on the living conditions of the people at the Bakun Resettlement Scheme.

Meanwhile, we sincerely hope that Datuk Dr. James Masing as Chairman of the Bakun Resettlement Committee will stop dismissing every complaint from the people in Sungai Asap and start to seek real ways to settle their grievances.

S.M. Mohamed Idris President,Sahabat Alam Malaysia JULY 13, 2001