But Critics See Little Value in Project Far From Population Centers : Malaysia to Build Borneo Power Dam
International Herald Tribune
March 2, 2001
Thomas Fuller

Malaysia has revived plans to build a massive hydroelectric dam in the remote jungles of Borneo, a $2.4 billion project that was shelved during the height of East Asia's economic crisis three years ago.

The government decided Wednesday to build the Bakun dam to its original specifications: more than two football fields tall with a generating capacity of 2,400 megawatts, increasing the country's current energy capabilities by 20 percent.

The dam is to be one of the world's largest, flooding an area of rain forest the size of Singapore. Nearly 10,000 indigenous people have already been displaced.

Since the idea of harnessing the Rejang River was first studied three decades ago, the Bakun dam has been one of the country's most controversial projects.

Critics say it makes little sense to build a huge electricity-generating dam so far from major industries or population centers.

There are no major cities within hundreds of kilometers of the dam; Malaysian Borneo is rural and largely poor, producing timber, pineapples and oil.

"I can't think of any good reasons why people would want to go ahead with this," said Kua Kia Soong, director of the Malaysian human rights group Suaram, which has campaigned against the dam.

"It's yet another Mahathir administration grandiose scheme which is totally misconceived and implemented at great cost," he declared.

Before the postponement of the project three years ago, the government of Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad had proposed that underwater power lines would carry electricity from the dam 600 kilometers (370 miles) under the South China Sea to the well-populated and more affluent Malaysian Peninsula.

But Leo Moggie, Malaysia's energy minister, said Wednesday that the revised plan did not include the undersea cables and that the electricity would be used on Borneo instead.

"Once completed, Bakun Dam will spur more industrial development and investment in Sabah and Sarawak," he was quoted as saying in a local newspaper, referring to the two Malaysian states on Borneo.

Analysts say the dam has been revised partly to provide work for the country's flagging construction industry, which was badly hit by the economic crisis.

But without undersea cables delivering power to the peninsula, critics question whether the dam's electricity will be much use to Borneo.

"Where's the market?" said Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the Democratic Action Party, which is a member of the opposition. Mr. Lim said that Borneo had only "rudimentary" power needs that could be served by small power plants.

Once completed, the dam will more than triple the electricity generating capacity of Sarawak, the state where it is located.

Mr. Lim and others say that the timing of the revival of the dam suggests that politics played a big role in the government's decision.

Statewide elections are due sometime before September in Sarawak, and the infusion of cash provided by the Bakun project could help ensure that the federal government retains control over the state.

"This is money politics on a grand scale, promising the people that there will be a mega development project," Mr. Lim said.

The federal government has not announced how it will finance the dam, which will cost the equivalent of 10 percent of Malaysia's total annual federal budget.

This year the Finance Ministry has already projected a 16.1 billion ringgit ($4.2 billion) budget deficit, a shortfall that could worsen if the economy slows further, as many economists predict.

The Malaysian finance minister, Daim Zainuddin, said the government would "fully fund" the project.

"We have some funds coming in," he told reporters, without elaborating.

The government has already paid out more than 1 billion ringgit in compensation to Ekran Berhad, the company that had been working on the project before it was postponed.

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