Some of the staff manning the Projek BANTAH signature booth.
Kenny
PENAMPANG: The coordinator cum organizing head of Projek BANTAH, Kenny Chua Teck Ho has called upon the people of Penampang to come and support the signature drive against the construction of the Kaiduan Dam.
They can do so by signing the the petition forms at the Coalition Against Kaiduan Dam (CAKD) booth which is located in the side door of Megalong Shopping Complex, Donggongon fronting Public Bank Berhad.
“The booth will be at that place the whole week except on Thursday as it will be shifted to the Donggongon Tamu ground,” Chua explained.
As for the progress of the signature drive, Chua also confirmed that CAKD had stated its round of collecting the signatures at Moyog earlier this month which is expected to be completed by mid January.
“The general response from the public on the signature drive is very encouraging. Apparently, while most people from the district would not want to express their disagreement about the proposed dam openly, majority of them support the signature drive,” Chua said.
He also brushed off the allegations that the signature drive was politically motivated or as a sign of rebelling against the Government.
“For those who may not know the story of how Projek BANTAH came about, Deputy Chief Minister cum the Infrastructure Minister, Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan had earlier on requested the stakeholders to register their grievances relating to the proposed dam project.
After consulting with several human right activists and NGOs, the assemblyman for Moyog, Terrence Siambun had decided to set up the Coalition Against Kaiduan Dam (CAKD) and accepted the challenge by the Deputy Chief Minister by launching Projek BANTAH, Chua explained.
So, how could there be any political motivation or even sign of rebelling against the Government in this case when Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan himself had in the first place, requested the people to state their disagreement on this proposed project, he added.
Chua is also appalled with the reaction of some people from the district who are not interested at all to sign the petition.
“Some of them said that the dam has nothing to do with them. Maybe they think so because they are from other district but residing in Penampang. Some of them even think that signing the petition is a total waste of time and would not change anything.
“As far as I am concerned, those who think or say so have no sense of love at all towards Penampang,” he concluded.