Sarawak power company, the Sarawak Energy Bhd, has been nominated by Swiss environmental watchdogs, the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), for the dubious 2014 Public Eye award.
The award honours the world’s most despicable and shameful company of the year during the 2014 World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos in January.
BMF’s Executive Director, Lukas Straumann, said SEB’s conduct combines gross disregard for the environment and indigenous peoples with massive corruption.
“We believe the Malaysian power supplier is one of the top contenders for the Public Eye award.”
According to the Public Eye’s official website, the award is a name-and-shame campaign by Greenpeace and the Berne Declaration against alleged disregard for corporate social responsibility.
It is held annually in Davos, Switzerland, as a parallel event to the World Economic Forum, which is scheduled to be held in January next year.
The two worst companies of the year are elected by an independent jury and a public vote.
The contenders’ conduct is scrutinised by the renowned Institute of Business Ethics at the University of St. Gallen.
The nomination has been endorsed by Sarawak’s SAVE Rivers Network as well as by the Borneo Resources Institute (Brimas) an indigenous non-profit organisation in Sarawak, Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), International Rivers, the Borneo Project, Rainforest Foundation Norway and Tasmania’s Huon Valley Environment Centre.
“They deserve the award,” PKR Sarawak state assemblyman See Chee How said when asked for his reaction to the nomination.
“They qualify from the way they do things,” See added.
He said SEB started the construction of the Murum hydroelectric dam even before the environmental impact assessment (EIA) study was completed and even before consultation with the affected Penans started.
The construction of the RM4 billion dam displaced 353 Penan families with a head count of over 1,350.
They are now being resettled in two areas – Metalun and Tegulang – between 35km to 50km from their old settlements along the Plieran, Danum and Seping rivers.
See claimed that even now, the Penans are not aware of the details of their relocation and compensation.
He claimed the Penans are being resettled in Kenyah native customary rights (NCR) land.
“This has angered the Kenyahs,” he said.
The Kenyah is a small Orang Ulu ethnic group.
“They just bulldozed their way, which is objectionable to a lot of people,” See added.
He said since SEB has the monopoly on power supply, the company has also been cutting electricity supply arbitrarily to consumers alleged to have stolen electricity.
“This has seen a slew of cases taken to court over the way SEB calculates how much these consumers have to pay to get their electricity reconnected.”
SEB plans to build at least 12 hydroelectric dams in the state’s interior.
Murum, the first of the proposed 12 dams is already completed and the impoundment of its reservoir began last Saturday.
The Murum dam, some 70km upriver from the mammoth Bakun dam built by the federal government, has the capacity to produce 944megawatts of power.
The 12 dams is estimated to flood at least 1,600sq km of rainforest and displace tens of thousands of indigenous people.
SEB has been in the news often on account of its work at the Murum Dam: workers receiving very little pay and angry indigenous people who are blocking construction work at the dam site in a bid to receive fair compensation.
Local non-governmental organisations have also repeatedly filed complaints with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission against SEB’s Norwegian chief executive officer, Torstein Dale Sjøtveit, for unduly favouring companies controlled by Sarawak chief minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud in the award of contracts.
DAP has recently announced an online campaign to press for the sacking of Sjøtveit.
Next month, an independent jury will decide whether SEB will be shortlisted for an online vote open to the international public.
The awards will be made in January when the world’s political and economic leaders meet up in the Swiss mountain resort for the economic forum. – September 23, 2013.
Previously…
Sarawak natives protest as Murum dam begins to fill
