Natives affected by Murum dam project want RM500,000
-The Star- KUCHING: Some 300 Penan families who will be displaced by the Murum hydro-dam project have demanded RM500,000 each in compensation to be resettled.
Additionally, they want the state government to provide free basic amenities like concrete houses, piped water and electricity supply, a clinic and a school in the resettlement scheme.
Adequate and suitably-sized farm land must also be allocated to them.
Their list of requests was submitted to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) during a dialogue in Bintulu late last year, according to a Suhakam report on the Murum project and its impact on affected indigenous peoples, made available to the media last Saturday.
The Penans, numbering more than 1,000, also want to be relocated to Ulu Pleiran.
However, state authorities have approved Penyuan as the proposed resettlement site.
Suhakam commissioner Dr Mohammad Hirman Ritom Abdullah said the authorities should not repeat the mistakes it made in the relocation of Bakun villagers from 15 longhouses to Sungai Asap.
Penyuan is about 20km from Sungai Asap, where more than 10,000 villagers, including 30 Penan families, affected by the Bakun hydro-dam project were moved about a decade ago.
He said one of the problems faced by the Bakun resettlers was that the farming land allocated to each family was not suitable for cultivation or was too far away.
He added that the Penan resettlers in Sungai Asap also had insufficient access to amenities and limited access to employment and other income-generating activities.
“As they are unable to adapt to resettled life, some of these Penans have returned to the forest,” he added.
