International Hydropower Association Accused of Excluding Indigenous Peoples and Supporting Taib’s Corruption
One month before the hydropower World Congress is due to be staged in Kuching, Malaysia, dam-affected communities and
NGOs are criticizing the hydropower lobby organization’s cooperation with the corrupt regime of Sarawak Chief Minister,
Taib Mahmud.
(KUCHING, MALAYSIA / LONDON, UK) The International Hydropower Association (IHA), an industry body that claims to promote
the ‘sustainable’ use of hydroenergy, has come under fire over organizing its upcoming World Congress in Sarawak. The
Malaysian state of Sarawak is infamous for corruption and the disfranchisement of its indigenous peoples. Hydropower is
a particularly hot issue in Sarawak at the moment due to the state government’s plans to displace thousands of
indigenous people to make way for twelve new dams in the Borneo rainforest.
In a letter to IHA director Richard Taylor, Sarawak’s SAVE Rivers Network, together with NGOs from Switzerland and the
US, criticize the industry body for banning the people of Sarawak who are affected by the dam from the World Congress by
levying prohibitive admission fees. Admission to the Congress, which will be discussing issues of the utmost importance
for the future of Sarawak’s native communities threatened by the dams, costs 1950 US dollars.
“By pricing low-income communities out of your conference, you are complicit in denying affected communities a voice”,
the NGOs write. “We, the affected communities and the undersigned supporting NGOs therefore demand that IHA give free
access to the congress to at least 20 affected people and an opportunity to talk.”
Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud is currently under investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
He is known to have abused his political position to grant timber and plantation concessions to members of his family.
Consequently, his family has amassed stakes in over 300 Malaysian companies during his thirty years in power. Companies
owned by the Taib family have also profited from state contracts granted by Sarawak’s state-owned power supplier and
dam-implementer, Sarawak Energy.
Aware of these allegations of corruption against Sarawak Chief Minister Taib, the signatories of the letter criticize
IHA for holding their World Congress at the Borneo Convention Centre, a building complex constructed and run by the
family of Sarawak Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud. While Taib’s sister Raziah Mahmud Geneid is the chairperson of the
centre, Taib’s son Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib is one of its directors.
“It is an absolute scandal that the IHA has chosen the Taib family’s Borneo Convention Centre for their congress”, said
Bruno Manser Fund director, Lukas Straumann. “The congress centre’s operators are the very same people who are the main
beneficiaries of Sarawak’s corruption-driven dam plans. We demand that the IHA immediately change the conference venue.
Otherwise, the IHA will lose all credibility in addressing corruption in the hydropower sector.”
The International Hydropower Association’s World Congress is taking place from 21 to 24 May 2013 in Kuching, Malaysia.
It is expected to attract more than 500 hydropower experts from around the globe.
ENDS