“Taib assured the community leaders that the government would ensure that those affected by the dam construction would be moved to resettlement areas with better facilities and living condition than their present area.
He urged them to speak up against propaganda spread by NGOs with agendas that do not serve their interests.
“I speak frankly, most of them are paid… the considerable funds they raise don’t go to the Baram natives but back to their operations in Switzerland and England, with only a bit going to Baram. Do the people of Baram want to be tools of these outsiders? ”
The chief minister also cautioned the leaders that if they let other people speak for them they would eventually become powerless to stand up and defend themselves.
“Your only chance is the dam. Without the dam, you will stay like now, with only small returns from forestry, oil palm and fishing,” he said.
When Taib and his timber mafia cut the forests of Sarawak they told the people it would make them rich. It made HIM rich.
When he destroyed the whole land with plantations he told them this was ‘development’, which would make them rich. It made HIM rich.
Now he sees a new opportunity to make further billions, by harnessing the fresh rivers and using their power to create electricity for filthy polluting factories that other countries do not want in their territories.
Foreigners will invest in the factories, foreigners will work in the factories and the money will be made from sales abroad of the products. And it will make Taib richer still (bribes and shares and contracts).
When a handful of concerned onlookers point this out and support the local people, who are already quite rightly protesting, Taib accuses them of doing it for money!
Sort out your relatives, Mr Taib, who are destroying Serumba Mountain and all the other precious habitats and let the local people decide for themselves for once if they want your greed and corruption.
And if you fear us so much you have to speak so against us, WHY NOT SUE SARAWAK REPORT?