Yong: Papar Dam shocker

KOTA KINABALU: The unreported answer at Parliament Senate by the then Pakatan Minister of Land, Water and Natural Resources on 19 December 2019 will send shock waves throughout Sabah because the Pakatan Federal government revealed that the Warisan Sabah State government had already appointed a company to undertake the RM3 billion Papar dam project using the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) (Pembiayaan Kewangan Swasta) with a company from China. The Minister, Xavier Jayakumar, had disclosed in Parliament Senate that, “since the appointment of the company had been made before approval was given, therefore the implementation of the project will have to be borne by the State Government.”

This means that the Sabah state government, for reasons never disclosed, has decided to forgo the federal funds of RM3 billion and to make Sabahans bear the burden of RM3 billion Papar dam project. That was in 2019 when Pakatan Harapan and Warisan were the federal government.

The Pakatan federal Minister had, in the same answer to a question from Senator Adrian Lasimbang, explained that the federal government had supported the Sabah State government to implement a “Papar Dam Feasibility Study” under the Fourth Rolling Plan 2020 Budget. (See Q &A attached).

 

Earlier, on 19 July 2019, Senator Adrian had asked the same Minister whether an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on the Papar Dam has been done and the outcome. Minister Xavier disclosed that under the Environmental Quality Act, an EIA is mandatory. In the absence of the EIA report, the Sabah government approval of the Papar dam project to the extent of appointing a company (from China) to undertake the project is therefore legally in doubt. (See Q & A and comments by Senator Adrian Lasimbang)

 Company linked to the controversial RM3 billion Penang undersea tunnel project?

The letter of intent, dated 10 October 2019, issued by the Sabah Jabatan Air to a KL-based company raises the question of the link between the Papar Dam project and the controversial RM3 billion Penang undersea tunnel project. According the corporate and business international media, the company Wira Syukur (M) Sdn. Bhd. is linked to the Penang Undersea tunnel.

The Warisan caretaker government owes it to the rakyat to come clean on this issue as soon as possible.

I call on the Penampang MP, Datuk Darell Leiking to remember his water tight promise to cancel the Papar Dam and to seek his conscience.

Darell was a senior Minister in the then federal cabinet, a senior leader of Parti Warisan. He might hope that his promise to cancel the Kaiduan Dam project (renamed Papar Dam) will be forgotten. But, as the Malay saying does, the mouse deer forgot the trap, but the trap does not forget the mousedeer (pelanduk melupakan jerat, tapi jerat tak melupakan  pelanduk ). –

Datuk Yong Teck Lee

Ex-Chief Minister, SAPP President