The Right to Development versus Indigenous Rights

Oral Statement by the Society for Threatened Peoples
The Society for Threatened Peoples International wishes to bring the alarming situation of indigenous peoples in the State of Sarawak in Malaysia to the attention of the Commission on Human Rights. We are very much concerned about the recent announcement of the Government of Malaysia to revive the huge Bakun hydroelectric-dam project. The controversial project which was shelved in1997 amid the economic crisis in Asia was criticized by a broad coalition of NGO's in Malaysia because of its likely effects on the environment, the need to resettle Bakun's inhabitants and doubts about its viability. The 205-metre-high dam involves flooding of an area the size of Singapore. The Bakun dam will have serious negative impacts on the lives, livelihoods, cultures and spiritual existence of the indigenous peoples of Sarawak. Due to neglect and lack of capacity to secure justice because of structural inequities, cultural dissonance, discrimination and economic and political marginalisation, indigenous peoples in Sarawak will suffer disproportionately from the negative impacts of the Bakun dam. We are extremely concerned that no meaningful participation of affected people in the planning and the implementation of the dam project has taken place until today.

The World Commission on Dams Global Review which has been published recently documented clearly that large-scale infrastructure projects such as dams often have devastating impacts on the lives and livelihoods of affected communities particularly in the absence of adequate assessments and provisions being agreed to address these impacts. The Global Review provided extensive evidence to illustrate that governments , in constructing dams, have often found themselves in conflict with basic principles of good governance.

For decades governments in Malaysia have attempted to impose the cultural values of the unified state in order to devalue the culture of the Penan and other indigenous peoples in Sarawak. Extensive logging continues to be ferocious and the depletion of forest resources in the State is widely regarded as inevitable. About 300 000 hectares of the State's primary forest are logged each year. The indigenous peoples whose livelihood depends on forest resources for survival are seriously affected and deprived of their rights. This has resulted in prevalence of food shortage, malnutrition and abject poverty among indigenous communities in the interior region of Sarawak.

Being aware of these serious impacts we would like to request the honorable Commission on Human Rights to take this information into consideration and to ask the government of Malaysia finally to recognize the Penan and other indigenous peoples of Sarawak as indigenous peoples of Malaysia with a genuine right to participate in any decision on development in Sarawak.