B.P. ON THE RADIO

Borneo Project members have been on the radio twice in recent months.  The first interview was on the nationwide program Democracy Now.  You can listen to this interview on the web if you go to www.democracynow.org/archive/index.html.  Click on August 25th, then click on the title "The Real Survivors" to hear this five- minute piece.  There was a more detailed hour-long interview on Bay Area station KPFA on September 1st.  We hope to have excepts from it on our website soon.

BORNEO GLIDERS GRACE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

"Wild Gliders of Borneo" is National Geographic's October 2000 cover story.  It contains extraordinary photos of gliding lizards, snakes, frogs and other creatures.  Most are endemic to Borneo, and some were documented on film for the first time by author Tim Lanan.  In addition to the magazine, make sure to check out the National Geographic website, which contains a multimedia version of the article. (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0010/feature4/index.html)

SAHABAT ALAM MALAYSIA FACES NEW PRESSURES

One of our partner organizations in Malaysia, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM), is facing intense criticism for assisting blockading Penan communities.  The many negative commentaries in the Sarawak media are typified by the article “Penans Used by Groups to Serve Political Ends.”  This article claims the Penans were “used all along by so-called activists and NGO's, such as Sahabat Alam Malaysia.”  So many articles of this ilk have appeared that SAM was forced to issue a press release in response.  We applaud SAM for standing firm in the face of such daunting pressures.  In the past, the SAM office has been ransacked twice, and five SAM staff have had their passports confiscated without explanation.

FRIENDS OF MALAYSIA WIN RUPPE AWARD

In the past two years, the Borneo Project has developed a vital relationship with the Friends of Malaysia, an organization of returned Peace Corps Volunteers. The Peace Corps gives out the annual Loret Miller Ruppe Award for the affiliate best demonstrating continuing community service at home or overseas. The Friends of Malaysia were this year's co-winners, largely for their support to the Borneo Project's microhydro work.  Thank you, Friends of Malaysia, and congratulations!

MALAYSIAN ACADEMICS CRITICIZE ACTIVISTS

The Sixth Biennial Borneo Research Conference was held in Kuching, Sarawak this July.  Academics who displease the Malaysian government are not granted further research visas, so a disappointing number of presentations merely supported government positions.  An example was a paper called “Identifying the Problems in the Implementation of the New Concept of Native Customary Rights Land Development”—the new concept being massive oil palm plantations (see page 5).  One of the major “problems” cited was, “interference by an NGO, Sahabat Alam Malaysia.”  The paper goes on to ominously note, “When SAM people came to the longhouse, they were accorded a VIP reception.  There were merry makings, and they stayed there up to three days.”  We hope that such “problems” continue!

BLOCKADERS FACE COUNTER-BLOCKADE

The blockades mentioned in this issue’s cover story are not the only current blockades in Sarawak.  The Penan from the Long Tanyit settlement in a remote part of the Belaga region have also been manning a blockade since mid-August.  Information on this blockade is sketchy because these Penan have had little contact with local non-governmental organizations, have never blockaded before, and the logging company erected a counter-blockade to cut off the village’s communication with the media.  In so doing they also cut off their access to medical facilities, schools and stores.

BAKUN DAM: BIG OR SMALL?

The Sarawak state government announced in September that it wants to boost the size of Bakun Dam from 500 megawatts (MW) to 2,400 MW.  The dam was originally designed to run at 2,400 MW , but was cancelled in 1997.  Bakun Dam was resumed a few years later at the much-reduced 500 MW size.  Power in Asia Magazine describes the larger size as "unrealistic [according to] many observers and engineers."  Most experts agree that there would be no demand for the extra energy produced by a 2,400 MW system.  The final decision on how large the dam will be is still coming. At either size, the dam is not due to be completed for years.