TNB appointed SEIA consultant intimidate natives of Pahang

A SEIA consultant with PhD title was intimidating a group of indigenous peoples of Pos Lanai, Lipis, in the state of Pahang, that they are going to loose their rights over their customary land and traditional territory and can not claim compensation on it if they refuse to cooperate with the SEIA survey. Jeffrey Hassan, chairperson of Action Committee f Pos Lanai residents who are against the proposed Telom Dam said so when interviewed by Peoples Documentary on 31Aug2014.

A meeting was held on 28 Aug by Tenaga Nasional Bhd(TNB), JAKOA( Department of Orang Asli Development) and natives of Pos Lanai who would be affected by the proposed Telom HEP. This was the 3rd meeting of similar kind, where the project proponent i.e TNB and its appointed SEIA consultant has been trying very hard to persuade the villagers to accept the SEIA survey which will be conducted by UiTM, a local University.

Jeffrey said some residents who are against the proposed Telom Dam had once against saying that they refuse to accept the SEIA survey since they reject the dam. After the meeting, the lecturer of UiTM who incharge of the SEIA survey approached jeffrey and told him: " If you are so stuborn( to not cooperate with the SEIA survey), you would lose your rights on your tanah adat( customary land and traditional territory) and most probably can not claim compensation over it when the dam starts its impoundment."

Due to this intimidation, some of the villagers had accepted the SEIA surveys. They were asked to provide their personal particulars such as ID number and full name but were not provided a copy of the survey form. Jeffrey managed to ask for photocopies of the forms, and one of them is as below:

Jeffrey felt annoyed with the attitude shown by the SEIA consultant who should have been more objective and professional in carrying out his job. He hope human rights lawyers or NGOs can help his villagers from being cheated and manipulated by irresponsible stakeholders.

The proposed Telom Dam is 195 metres in height, with 132 MW capacity. It would flood 7200 hectares of land with most of it are customary land and traditional territory belongs to the Orang Asli( indigenous peoples) of several villages in Pos Lanai. The affected villagers had questioned the justification of the dam several times in their memorandum handed over to project proponent, i.e TNB, but the later had failed to answer, they fail to publish any EIA as well, which is mandatory according to Malaysia law. Instead they persuade villagers to accept SEIA survey, which is not a compulsory measure according to laws of the country.