ANTIDOTE The Baram dam controversy has awoken Sarawak rural communities to deals letting people own timber licences, oil palm plantations and land-grabbing at the Mulu National Park.

Sarawak BN is likely to lose Baram to PKR in the coming parliamentary election, as a consequence of BN forcing through plans for the hugely unpopular Baram hydroelectric mega-dam.

The dam across Sarawak’s second-longest river, budgeted to cost at least RM3 billion, will evict 20,000 farmers from their homes and submerge 40,000 ha of land - or half the size of Perlis.