Gerakan Kuasa Rakyat Malaysia interim chairman Zulkarnain Mahdar told reporters he was enraged to read in local papers Shafie’s statement that he would not listen to NGOs who want the dam project scrapped.
Shafie reportedly said this was because the dam could help meet the demand for water supply in Kota Kinabalu, which was expected to grow within the next five years.
However, Zulkarnain said Shafie should first refer the matter to his party treasurer Terrence Siambun.
“He (Siambun) was Moyog assemblyman between 2013 and 2018, and he was always against construction of the Kaiduan Dam which was supposed to be built along the same river as the recently proposed Papar Dam.
“He said he objected because the project would destroy villages as well as the natural ecosystem, orchards and burial grounds, and uproot villagers from their ancestral homes.”
Zulkarnain also noted that Siambun had actively participated in demonstrations alongside villagers and NGOs who protested against the project.
If Siambun agreed to build the dam now, he said, Shafie should lodge a police report against him for misleading the people over the past five years.
Zulkarnain also said Siambun had repeatedly brought up the matter at state assembly sittings.
“So he must have information to share with Shafie on why the dam should be cancelled,” he said.
The site of the Papar Dam, proposed by the infrastructure development ministry, is only a few kilometres from the location of the original Kaiduan Dam, both of which are along the Papar River.
It took the previous state government almost 10 years to study the proposal for the Kaiduan Dam and engage with the public, especially the villagers, on the importance of the project and what it proposed to do for those who would be affected by the construction.
The Papar Dam, meanwhile, was announced only a few months ago.
Its location has been moved several kilometres downstream, but NGOs such as the Task Force Against Kaiduan Dam claim the same villagers in Penampang will be affected along with others in Kaiduan who will have to be relocated.
“This is the price that voters in Penampang and Papar have to pay for electing Warisan MPs Darell Leiking and Ahmad Hassan,” Zulkarnain said.
“Now they have to live with their decisions and see their native customary rights lands and homes, as well as schools, houses of worship and burial grounds, submerged and destroyed by the dam against which they have fought so hard.”