WAY FORWARD: Liwan shows the Murum Resettlement Programme to The Borneo Post at his office at Bagunan Baitulmakmur in Kuching.
KUCHING: Belaga assemblyman Liwan Lagang is confident that the stalemate between the state and the Penans over the Murum hydroelectric (HEP) dam could be settled within the stipulated time.
He said he would meet up with the Murum Penan Development Committee (MPDC) soon to discuss their demands so that works on the project could be continued.
The Penans of Murum had erected blockades to the site of the Murum Dam on Sept 26 and lifted them only after they have reached a truce with Liwan in Bintulu on Oct 5 after which they came over here to meet up with Deputy State Secretary Datu Ose Murang on Oct 8.
However, the negotiation ended up in a stalemate and they have given the state government two weeks to meet their demands, failing which, they will resort to erecting the blockades again.
To this, Liwan who was officially appointed a member of the Murum Resettlement Committee at the State Cabinet meeting on Thursday, said the government from now would only recognise MPDC as the official vehicle of the Penans to air their grievances.
“We will only deal with the MPDC and not with other groups. So we are confident to achieve a settlement soon,” Liwan told The Borneo Post here yesterday.
When he was informed that an online news portal reported that the Penans were still manning their blockages to the Murum HEP site, Liwan said, if indeed the report was true, then the Penans had not kept their promises.
“We cannot deal with them if they don’t keep their word. This is my advice to them: if they are serous in the negotiation, they must keep their word.
“We are open to negotiation but the Penans must not be too demanding. There must be rules to abide with and there shouldn’t be any confrontations, otherwise, we will only go backward,” he said.
Liwan added that the proposed engagements with the Penans would be continuous dialogues with them so that they would be part of the development of the project.
The Assistant Minister of Culture and Heritage believed that the demands made by the Penans had been consistent since the agreement was reached between them and the government four years ago before the Murum HEP project got started.
One of the demands was the RM500,000 cash compensation for each family which Liwan revealed was just a starting point or basis for the Penans to negotiate.
“They know about the experience of the Penan Takun in Sg Asap Resettlement Scheme, where there was only one longhouse when we move to there from Balui.
“After two years of moving to the resettlement, their electricity supplies were cut off because they cannot afford to pay (the bills).
Liwan added that after the government had decided to subsidise those using below RM20 of electricity per month, he met up with them and to re-connect their electricity supplies again.
“This is a lesson from Sg Asap Resettlement Scheme which the Murum Penans are worried about. So the amount of cash could still be negotiable,” added Liwan.
Other demands made by the Penans are: 25 hectares of land for each of the 300 families affected by the dam; 30,000 hectares of land to each of the nine villages; education fund for their children; community development fund and the right of land which are not flooded (islands created) by the dam.
The eight Penan villages affected by the dam are Long Wat, Long Luar, Long Tangau, Long Menapa, Long Singu, Long Malim, Long Peran, Long Jaik and one Kenyah-Badeng village at Long Umpa.
Murum Dam is the second mega-dam project after the Bakum dam. It is located about 70km upriver from Bakun HEP dam which has started transmitting power since August 6, last year.
The Murum HEP project is now about 70 per cent completed. It has a power generating capacity of 944 MW. Works on the project commenced on October 1, 2008 and it is expected to be completed by end of 2013.