(Oct 26): The Defence Ministry should consider stationing troops near Sarawak's major hydroelectric dams in Bakun, Murum and Baleh to provide better protection to the three power generating stations on tributaries of the Rajang river.

Presently, the security of Bakun and Murum is taken care by auxiliary police.

The Baleh hydroelectric project, scheduled to be completed by 2024, will be the third major dam in the state.

Ulu Rajang MP Datuk Wilson Ugak said presently the dams were relatively unguarded and the nearest military unit, the 3rd Royal Ranger Regiment stationed at the Oya Camp in Sibu, was located over 200km away.

It can take up to five hours on the Pan Borneo Highway for the army to get to Murum and another hour or so to Bakun.

To get to the dam in Baleh, the army will need to use the waterways as there are no accessible roads.

Ugak, who said he had broached the issue with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, said the army should at least consider stationing one battalion nearer to the dams for a rapid deployment in the event of an attack or threat.

"The dams are our strategic assets and should be protected," said Ugak, who was at the Tegulang resettlement centre to open the Sarawak Energy Berhad-sponsored annual Murum Penan festival yesterday.

He said since the dams were closer to the Kalimantan-Sarawak border, threats could come from any points along the porous border.

Ugak also said the army should be reminded of lessons learnt from the 1963 Confrontation with Indonesia where Indonesian soldiers infiltrated the border with ease to carry out attacks on the state.

The 944 megawatt (Mw) Murum hydroelectric dam, which has gone online in June, is about 200km from Bintulu with the 2,400Mw Bakun dam another 50km away.

The Murum dam was supposed to be officially commissioned today but the smoke, which grounded helicopter flights, forced it to be postpone to early neat year.

Sarawak Governor Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is behind the ambitious and controversial project, was to officiate the opening. – The Malaysian Insider