Transcription
We want to preserve a river. We want to preserve our forests. We want to preserve our land.
Force displacement is actually a cultural genocide. It's clear the water resources are highly valuable. Big dams are not the answer. So what's the alternative? This is really about where we want to go as a human community.
Displacement of indigenous people from their lands has been a common practice in Malaysia for over half a century. In recent years, tens of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes and lands and moved into resettlement areas to construct the first of many hydroelectric dams. Out of those 40 to 80 million people, more than half are indigenous people. So dams really are an instrument of destroying indigenous cultures. And as you pass through the lake here, I'll tell you the spots where the villages have been. So much so, one of them is here. The first, no house, who Veronica Donny, I don't mock me when I villainy nada Goomer on to second up top are having no matta all in up today kahill at the park.
Before being displaced, indigenous communities in Sarawak primarily depend on forests and rivers for food, shelter, medicine, cooking, and drinking. When they were in their own original place of living, they were cash poor, but they have everything they need: food, shelter, and all the rest of it to support a way of life. Mucha pan de la manzana Nene per mole asaram young burton de la serena di Roma Pancham Lodi balama smart warm to gamma gamma to sue da a pasta. We have thought that we needs are here. We have the land. This is the most important thing. You have learned. You live now. Let you die.
When dam building companies and governments begin to resettle indigenous communities, they make many promises, including better housing and farmland, schools for their children, and adequate monetary compensation. Once moved to their new homes, families discovered that their lives are far from what was promised. So very little of the power from the ST grid actually makes it to rural communities. You can see the transmission lines running right overhead, and that community is not supported at all by them. They're taken out of their villages and thrown into some shoddily built housing, often lousy access to water, no access to electricity, even though they may have lost their land to provide electricity for other people. And there's just a litany of broken promises and broken lives.
The argument is often made, "Oh, these indigenous people, you know, they're living in the past, and we're doing them a favor by bringing them forward into the modern world." But it should be their decision what sort of life that they lead. And it's not up to some government bureaucrat or corporate dam builder to say, "Okay, we're going to take them from a way of living no, we don't like and put them into a way of living that we think they should live in." I terminada mogra na ha ha p da da po popopo kannada come.
It's definitely not healthy to drink, swim at extreme anymore. At the time, some kind of disease, you know, from the water. What we call over here, we go pinching tickles, and its scientific name is something like Madonna says, something like that. And some people died because of that, and some people are going to get 26 and they didn't recover and have to live with it. The same communities that were promised improved living conditions, employment, sufficient farmland, and education are now living in poverty and sickness in their new settlements. Na na na na kama London stove I met for and demanded GT not abandon look Amanda about it Lord that but not not to have enough food that I want a anak sekolah they get en una vomited and after school I another loss halekulani no a holic on medium na minha irma la hermana. They're so many people. I want less crowded. No place to go. There's no big river like this where can you go fishing? Some people, you don't know how to use a motorcycle, you know, don't know how to use a motor car, and so they cannot go anywhere. Likes you put them in the jail. Even if they say you compensate them, I know, but you've taken away the source of livelihood. I think they might be able to survive five, ten years down the road, but not beyond that. These very simple measures are think twice. We have example, Bacuna Murum Dam. The affected people, these people in Bromley must think twice before they SF.
The government does not need to remove indigenous people from their homes. In Sarawak, small-scale, decentralized energy solutions are feasible and logical alternatives to mega hydro projects that will protect the rights of indigenous populations and generate sustainable energy. There are a number of resources like micro hydro and solar and even small-scale biomass that could actually supply energy in a robust way in these communities and at lower costs than diesel. Societies that are discussing major investments in their energy systems don't look back to 1950s type technologies. Rather, look for urgency. What's the grid of the future going to look like? And it's pretty clear in the US and Europe, particularly, and no changes humming elsewhere also, that it's going to be it's going to be a mix. It's going to be a lot more small, localized generation sources. It's going to be a lot more diversity in sources, so solar and wind, geothermal and biomass, and micro hydro where you the right resource for that.
Well, I think we need to go back to the basics. That this is when our forefathers established this country, it was based on the principles of democracy. And over the years, especially after 1969, we have sidetracked from from that objectives and also from from the intentions of our forefathers. So it's time for us to go back to our basic principles. And in a democracy, basically, is the rule of the people. And people have the say in charting the future of this country.
We have petitioned the government, and we have collected about 10,000 signatures of the people of Baram against this dam project. But the government seems not to listen to these voices of the people. That is why we come up to this idea to put our blockade. With this blockade, I think who knows that we are against this project. Since October 2013, local communities have prevented construction of the Baram Dam through organized and direct actions, including blockades, protests, and building awareness in Sarawak. This is the moment to make change happen. Join the people of Baram and choose a brighter future for all Sarawakians.