Friday, July 27, 2012

Megaprojects like Bakun Dam are doomed to abysmal failure in Malaysia...

Malaysian Robber Barons Mahathir Mohamad & Taib Mahmud (Azlan Zamhari/Malaysiakini)

Umno mafia boss & ex-finance minister
Daim Zainuddin
More than 8 years have elapsed since the following information came into my hands, but very little has changed in Malaysia.

Robber barons continue to misrule and ruin the landscape with their grandiose multibillion-ringgit megaprojects (mostly unnecessary, extravagant and purely decorative) - impoverishing humble folk, exposing them to unknown hazards, and leaving them landless and desperate.

Bakun Dam - the ultimate monument to hubris, megalomania and terminal myopia - was first approved by the Malaysian government in 1986. It was shelved in 1990 after the recession of 1985 led to a drastic decrease in electricity demand.

Prime minister Mahathir Mohamad decided to revive the Bakun Dam project in September 1993; and in January 1994, a privatized contract was awarded to Ekran Berhad - a construction company owned by Sarawak timber tycoon Ting Pek Khiing, whose main expertise was fast-tracking resort hotels.

Sarawak timber tycoon
Ting Pek Khiing
The Bakun Dam swiftly turned into a financial nightmare - except for Ting Pek Khiing who received RM1.1 billion compensation on top of free access to all the precious timber found within 10 square kilometers of the site. It was a colossal white elephant that should never have been attempted - because it was patently unnecessary and massively destructive of the primordial rainforest and its diverse flora and fauna - including indigenous human tribes who have inhabited the region for countless generations.

Alas, all robber barons are driven by their inflamed egos that tend to see serious obstacles as mere challenges. They also have a nasty habit of being obnoxiously arrogant and insatiably greedy.

The accursed Bakun Dam (image courtesy of Sarawak Report)

I received a copy of the following email on 14 April 2004 from Susanne Wong of International Rivers, a global NGO dedicated to saving free-flowing river systems from being dammed in the spurious name of "development":

From: Susanne Wong
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Subject: Leaked information on Bakun


We recently received emails from a former cost controller for Bakun who quit because of frustration over construction delays and cost overruns. He leaked the attached documents to us which contain information on costs and the plan to get the project back on schedule.


Obviously this information and the contact's identity must be treated very sensitively. We're not sure what we can do with this information and thought you could best use it in Malaysia for some media exposes of the project or whatever you see fit. I've included the email exchange between us below.


Hope you can use this. This disastrous project just seems to be getting worse.


Best wishes,
Susanne

On top of massive environmental and social ruin, shoddy construction and low-grade cement (Sarawak Report)

From: "Whistle Blower"
To: Susanne Wong
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004
Subject: Re: BAKUN HYDROELECTRIC


     Ms. Susanne,
It's my pleasure to assist you. The construction is behind schedule due to the inexperience of the contractor (Sime Engineering) who has undertaken this project. For your information, Sime Engineering does not have the capacity and expertise to handle big civil projects. They have only done several oil and gas projects such as building and fabricating oil rigs. The 'screw up' is mainly due to late approval of the design and delays in awarding the sub-contractor package. 
     The cost overruns incurred are mainly due to the lack of proper ground surveys. For the entire 10 square km area, only l8 boreholes were done. The contractors made their first mistake by excavating the wrong area. They excavated approximately 600,000 cubic meters of overburden and still could not find enough rock for the dam fill. After the extra survey was done, they found out that they would need to excavate approximately 2,000,000 cubic meters to find rock. Sime Engineering is unable to decide if they should continue excavating that area or start all over again elsewhere. The cost overrun to date is already around USD52 million.
     The project is one year behind schedule now. The 6-month recovery plan has yet to be approved by the Ministry of Finance. Original cost estimates only focused on construction but did not include design, procurement, and so on. Many details are still kept secret by the ministry.
     Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd (SHSB) are facing financial problems. They have voiced their intention to issue a bond for this project but the 2nd Minister of Finance (Nor Mohamed Yakcop) said there is no hurry to issue bonds for Bakun. I bet you know the reason why.
     Actually, this project is not bankable, since the return of investment takes a long period and there is an oversupply of power (especially after the Aluminium Smelting Project by GIIG was shelved).
     Lastly, think about passing the information to your Malaysian counterparts, e.g., Sahabat Alam Malaysia and Suaram. I think we have to play it smart. In Malaysia we have an act called the Official Secrets Act (OSA). Since this information can be regarded as government secrets, I trust you will handle it professionally. This is not the US, where people can speak freely.
     Regarding the photos, I will have them burned on a CD and mailed to you if you provide me the address.

Aerial view of Bakun Dam

From: Susanne Wong
Date: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 
Subject: Re: BAKUN HYDROELECTRIC


Dear Mr. Whistle Blower,


Thank you for sending the recovery plan and spreadsheet. It is extremely useful information.


Can you provide more information on the financial problems with SHSB? I would like to send the information to my colleagues in Malaysia but wanted to check with you first to make sure this is okay. I'm sure our colleagues at Sahabat Alam Malaysia and Suaram would be very interested in using these documents to expose the problems with Bakun. Would it be acceptable if I forward them this information and put them in direct contact with you? If you prefer, IRN can act as an intermediary and pass the information on to our friends in Malaysia and we can keep your name confidential. Please advise.


Regards,
Susanne

At 01:11 AM 4/9/2004, you wrote:


Ms. Susanne Wong,

Herewith something for you to read, it is the Recovery Plan for Bakun Hydroelectric. It was drafted last November, 2003. Until today it has yet to be approved by the Ministry of Finance.


Bakun Dam ‘Unsafe’ ~ Exclusive Evidence on Corner-Cutting and Sloppy Construction Practices

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

David Wilcock on Financial Tyranny & The Biggest Scandal in History

The Department of Justice - home of the US Marshals - has now blown the lid off of the biggest financial scandal in human history... after a highly covert three-year investigation. The LIBOR scandal has started the Great Revealing of Financial Tyranny. Mass arrests must begin with mass charges, and mass court cases - and that has now arrived. Disclosure of many great hidden truths will follow...

THE TIME HAS COME
By David Wilcock

Every person on Earth is increasingly aware that our world is ruled by corrupt forces - to an almost Biblical degree. The astonishing events that have unfolded since June 27, 2012 have made that much more obvious - even for those who have been in the greatest denial. This process has been fascinating to watch - not to mention remarkably rewarding.



After many years of hard work to expose the truth, we are finally seeing results - on a worldwide level. The knowledge will spread much, much more with each passing day. Critical information was leaked to us from highly classified insider sources, working for the good of humanity. Current events have proven that their plan is still very much in effect.

THE FINANCIAL TYRANNY SERIES: A FULL BOOK-LENGTH INVESTIGATION

Every word of this investigation has been released for free. The bulk of our original findings are in the Financial Tyranny series. The first and largest portion of our extensive investigation was released on Friday, January 13th, 2012. The remaining elements took almost another month to finish, and were published on Thursday, February 9th. You can begin by reading Sections One through Seven of Financial Tyranny here. Then go here to complete Sections Eight through Ten.

This truth is admittedly painful to accept. You will probably have to go through a grief process once you understand the full scope of what is going on. Nonetheless, it is absolutely essential for everyone, as a planet, to end the denial and face the truth of our world - as it actually exists today.

THE MEDIA IS ALSO IMPLICATED

The Great Revealing has not yet become the one thing everyone is talking about. The arrests and resignations have only just begun - and the mainstream Western media is equally as culpable as those controlling the financial system. After all, it's the same people.

This is one of many popular notions that are proven in Financial Tyranny. It is no longer a "conspiracy theory." Vast psyops have been used - including tens of thousands of professional online hit-men, paid to look like normal people sharing their opinion. Shame has been a very powerful weapon to stop people from learning the truth. No one wants to be "crazy" or hated for their beliefs.

You are about to see a variety of article links where the writers express surprise that the American media isn't covering this story yet. As you are well aware, this has nothing to do with the press being "shy." They are simply staring into the face of their own destruction.

THE COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION - WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

On June 27, 2012, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, filed a surprise legal order against Barclays Bank - in a move that has shocked the world. A wealth of emails were presented, giving irrefutable evidence that Barclays was manipulating their own credit score - to generate almost unthinkably vast profits.

Here is the link where you can download the legal order yourself - and a photograph of the top page of this historic document.

This may not seem like a big deal at first - but in order for Barclays to have rigged their own credit score, they had to be conspiring with all the other biggest banks in the world. These are the banks they are supposedly in competition with.

This story has taken off with unprecedented, explosive force in the UK - but is almost non-existent in the US, except on Huffington Post and alternative news sites.

This legal action required extraordinary secrecy to perform. Had the Cabal gotten wind of it, they would have killed everyone involved.


ALL THE BIGGEST BANKS ARE IN BED TOGETHER

Indeed, the world just found out that all the biggest banks are in bed together. They are all implicated in a vast conspiracy to lie to the public, and create artificial investor confidence that benefits no one but themselves.

Mass criminal charges are already being prepared - by labor unions, local banks, local governments, state governments and federal governments - as a result of this move by the Department of Justice.

All the evidence is now freely available, as we will see - and the story is nearly moving faster than we can keep up with at this point, with new developments on a day-by-day basis.


SOME PEOPLE PROMOTE A GENOCIDAL BELIEF SYSTEM

Some people are so war-weary that they refuse to believe anyone in government, military, finance, intelligence or the judiciary could be a trustworthy human being - or want to do the right thing. As I have said before, this is ultimately a genocidal belief system that seeks to paint the world in black and white, reinforce victim consciousness, and create an "us" versus "them."

The reality is that humans are complex creatures. No one is "all good" or "all bad." Each person is quite capable of thinking for themselves - regardless of where they work. Plenty of people now realize that the goals and aspirations of this cabal could literally destroy our entire planet. We cannot simply stand back and watch it happen. Actions must be taken.


THE NUMBER OF "GOOD GUYS" IS NOW AS HIGH AS 75 PERCENT

Between 70 to 75 percent of the United States military community is now aligned against the cabal as of this past week. This is according to top Pentagon sources I am in contact with, by one degree of separation - as a result of years of building up insider contacts as a public investigator.

Critical steps have been taken to remove powerful opposing forces that were loyal to the cabal - who would have sabotaged this planetary healing process. Many brave men and women have put their lives on the line to uphold their Oath of Enlistment - and defend our freedom. They deserve our respect and support.

There is nothing more dangerous on Earth than to take on the ruling cabal. This also makes it a uniquely powerful act of valor. As a result of these heroic efforts - including criminal investigations - we are now seeing a Point of No Return for the global bankers.

If you don't grasp that yet, the wealth of excerpts you are about to read may well change your mind.

THEY HAVE BEEN WEAKER THAN WE REALIZED ALL ALONG

In truth, these financial institutions have been much weaker than they led us to believe for years now - since at least 2007. They have played around with their own credit reports to convince everyone that they are still a worthwhile investment. If they had told us the truth about how much trouble they were in, they would probably have already been exposed and defeated.

A vast international alliance has been financially choking off the Cabal for years now - knowing that their collapse is inevitable. They are still too powerful to be exposed until a collapse becomes visible to all. Their fraud is so vast that it encompasses every single type of financial investment there is - stocks, bonds, commodities, currency, mutual funds, derivatives, mortgages, loans, you name it.

All the money there is in the world - either real money or fake numbers in a computer - has been manipulated to create the largest financial fraud in recorded history... so far. Many experts now estimate the amount of investments that are affected could be as much as 800 trillion dollars.


[Source: Divine Cosmos]