US human rights report shines spotlight on Penan tribe
19 April
A new US government human rights report has highlighted the Penan tribe’s battle to protect their rainforests in Sarawak, in Malaysian Borneo, from logging.
The US State Department document cites claims by indigenous rights groups that Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s government has leased the Penan’s land ‘to logging companies and land developers in exchange for political favors and money’.
Taib Mahmud has been in power for 30 years, and won state elections last week. Thousands of Penan tribespeople were unable to vote because they have not been issued with identity cards.
The US report describes accounts that ‘logging companies harassed and sometimes threatened vocal Penan leaders’ and that ‘workers from two logging companies… regularly sexually abused Penan women and girls’. A government minister has confirmed the rapes, but no action has been taken against the perpetrators.
The hunter-gatherer Penan are fighting to keep their last remaining rainforest safe from the logging companies. One Penan woman told Survival, ‘Our land and our river have been destroyed by the logging company, by the oil palm plantation. It brings hardship and suffering to our land.’
Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘The State Department report adds weight to growing worldwide condemnation of the Sarawak government’s treatment of the Penan. The Penan’s human rights are being ignored, their forests destroyed, and their survival threatened.’
http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7228
Showing posts with label Penan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Penan. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Sunday, September 05, 2010
A distant cry for help from the jungle
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Sim Kwang Yang
Source
The year was 1993, and I was serving my third term as an opposition member of parliament (MP) of Bandar Kuching.
In the Malaysian context at the time, the core of an MP’s job was to service the constituency, by solving the little problems created by inefficient administration, like looking after blocked drains, neglected garbage collection, and attending to minor daily problems faced by the constituents. That was how politicians saw their roles in Malaysians’ daily lives.
But I had different ideas about politics. I believed that the duty of our Wakil Rakyat was to serve the whole nation, and in the context of Sarawak, to serve all the people in the state. Therefore, I devoted my energies throughout the 1990s to the contentious battle to protect the forests of my home state, Sarawak. It was a tough job, because nobody was interested in environmental protection, and the powerful timber interests made sure that we were denied access to the mass communication media.
I fought the lonely battle against the timber interests with the help of a few environmental groups and our news faced a constant blackout by local newspapers and news agencies. The general voting population in the towns were completely apathetic regarding the suffering people in the rural areas, who had little access to the urban-centric media organisations.
It was some time in 1993, that one day, the then MP of Petaling Jaya, Kua Kia Soong, walked up to me and demanded what I would do for the poor Penans in upper Baram. He had received numerous reports about the anti-logging blockades in that isolated part of Sarawak from many international NGOs. Young children had been killed by the security forces trying to evict the Penans from the anti-logging protest sites, and one young girl was reported to have been raped. I promised him I would look into the issue upon my return to Kuching from Parliament.
When I arrived in Kuching, I discussed the issue with my political assistant, See Chee How, who was then working at my office fulltime.
See Chee How has since qualified as a lawyer and he is one of the most active human rights defenders in Malaysia. He has now taken up over a hundred court cases against powerful plantation owners and loggers to fight for the rights of the Sarawak natives. He has been winning native customary land cases that have created Malaysian legal history through landmark decisions).
Arduous journey for worthy cause
After some discussion, Chee How travelled alone all the way to the upper Baram area, to conduct his own fact-finding mission. His journey took several weeks to complete and he had to travel on foot through the deep forest, as well as take longboats and long journeys over land, before he could meet the Penans personally and hold interviews with them. Fortunately, Chee How was a healthy and strong young man.
Chee How returned to Kuching and told me he had been stopped on his way back by the police at Marudi, and he was searched and questioned by the police personnel. But he did hide his photographic films so he was able to show me his photos.
After that, Chee How attempted to send the affected Penans to Miri town, to lodge police reports about deaths and the rape case at logging blockades and the suffering inflicted upon the villagers in upper Baram. Those efforts at bringing the Penans to the attention of the police were unsuccessful. The police even refused to record their police reports.
The issue of the Penans and logging in Sarawak had become so sensitive to the state Barisan Nasional leadership that minimal information about the Penan protests trickled out to the outside world. The newspapers in Sarawak were mostly owned by the timber interests in the state and so, there was a clampdown on what the Penans and other Sarawak natives were saying against the logging.
I refused to feel hopeless, because we were the only hope for the Penans and other groups to voice out their suffering, and apathy and cynicism were luxuries we could not afford. In ordinary life, even a dog being kicked has a right to howl in pain.
The Penans are the most disadvantaged members of our society. It is the duty of all Malaysians to hear their cry of pain, in our political system that favours the rich and powerful at the expense of the weak and dispossessed.
The other added obstacle in my path was the nature of racial politics that permeated civil society in Malaysia. Malaysians view all things political through the racial lens, and to ask them to see politics over and above their narrow racial considerations has always been a near impossible task.
Breaking through information blockade
I had always considered myself a Sarawakian first, and a Malaysian second, and being a Chinese was just a minor consideration, by accident of birth. In my mind, much of our political rhetoric is tinged by our racially based prejudices and these are not real political issues.
The persecution of the Penans is a universal crime against humanity. The Penans are equal citizens of our nation. Their suffering deserves our national attention, especially when they are the weakest and the most marginalised group among our citizens.
Since it was so difficult for the Penans to gain access to reporters in town, I decided to call for a press conference to bring the reporters and the Penans together.
The press conference was to be held in Kuching a few months later in 1994, and the representatives of the Penans were transported from the deep interior: from upper Baram to Kuching city. It was a logistical nightmare, but with the help of Chee How and his NGO friends from inside and outside Malaysia, we pulled off the trip.
Nearly twenty village leaders representing fifteen Penan settlements in the Baram area made the long trip to Kuching city. There, they made a police report on the rape of a Penan girl and the death of two Penans at logging blockades, and held a series of events to highlight to the world, the plight of the poor Penans. – Hornbill Unleashed
(Sim Kwang Yang was Member of Parliament for Bandar Kuching, Sarawak from 1982 to 1995)
Sim Kwang Yang
Source
The year was 1993, and I was serving my third term as an opposition member of parliament (MP) of Bandar Kuching.
In the Malaysian context at the time, the core of an MP’s job was to service the constituency, by solving the little problems created by inefficient administration, like looking after blocked drains, neglected garbage collection, and attending to minor daily problems faced by the constituents. That was how politicians saw their roles in Malaysians’ daily lives.
But I had different ideas about politics. I believed that the duty of our Wakil Rakyat was to serve the whole nation, and in the context of Sarawak, to serve all the people in the state. Therefore, I devoted my energies throughout the 1990s to the contentious battle to protect the forests of my home state, Sarawak. It was a tough job, because nobody was interested in environmental protection, and the powerful timber interests made sure that we were denied access to the mass communication media.
I fought the lonely battle against the timber interests with the help of a few environmental groups and our news faced a constant blackout by local newspapers and news agencies. The general voting population in the towns were completely apathetic regarding the suffering people in the rural areas, who had little access to the urban-centric media organisations.
It was some time in 1993, that one day, the then MP of Petaling Jaya, Kua Kia Soong, walked up to me and demanded what I would do for the poor Penans in upper Baram. He had received numerous reports about the anti-logging blockades in that isolated part of Sarawak from many international NGOs. Young children had been killed by the security forces trying to evict the Penans from the anti-logging protest sites, and one young girl was reported to have been raped. I promised him I would look into the issue upon my return to Kuching from Parliament.
When I arrived in Kuching, I discussed the issue with my political assistant, See Chee How, who was then working at my office fulltime.
See Chee How has since qualified as a lawyer and he is one of the most active human rights defenders in Malaysia. He has now taken up over a hundred court cases against powerful plantation owners and loggers to fight for the rights of the Sarawak natives. He has been winning native customary land cases that have created Malaysian legal history through landmark decisions).
Arduous journey for worthy cause
After some discussion, Chee How travelled alone all the way to the upper Baram area, to conduct his own fact-finding mission. His journey took several weeks to complete and he had to travel on foot through the deep forest, as well as take longboats and long journeys over land, before he could meet the Penans personally and hold interviews with them. Fortunately, Chee How was a healthy and strong young man.
Chee How returned to Kuching and told me he had been stopped on his way back by the police at Marudi, and he was searched and questioned by the police personnel. But he did hide his photographic films so he was able to show me his photos.
After that, Chee How attempted to send the affected Penans to Miri town, to lodge police reports about deaths and the rape case at logging blockades and the suffering inflicted upon the villagers in upper Baram. Those efforts at bringing the Penans to the attention of the police were unsuccessful. The police even refused to record their police reports.
The issue of the Penans and logging in Sarawak had become so sensitive to the state Barisan Nasional leadership that minimal information about the Penan protests trickled out to the outside world. The newspapers in Sarawak were mostly owned by the timber interests in the state and so, there was a clampdown on what the Penans and other Sarawak natives were saying against the logging.
I refused to feel hopeless, because we were the only hope for the Penans and other groups to voice out their suffering, and apathy and cynicism were luxuries we could not afford. In ordinary life, even a dog being kicked has a right to howl in pain.
The Penans are the most disadvantaged members of our society. It is the duty of all Malaysians to hear their cry of pain, in our political system that favours the rich and powerful at the expense of the weak and dispossessed.
The other added obstacle in my path was the nature of racial politics that permeated civil society in Malaysia. Malaysians view all things political through the racial lens, and to ask them to see politics over and above their narrow racial considerations has always been a near impossible task.
Breaking through information blockade
I had always considered myself a Sarawakian first, and a Malaysian second, and being a Chinese was just a minor consideration, by accident of birth. In my mind, much of our political rhetoric is tinged by our racially based prejudices and these are not real political issues.
The persecution of the Penans is a universal crime against humanity. The Penans are equal citizens of our nation. Their suffering deserves our national attention, especially when they are the weakest and the most marginalised group among our citizens.
Since it was so difficult for the Penans to gain access to reporters in town, I decided to call for a press conference to bring the reporters and the Penans together.
The press conference was to be held in Kuching a few months later in 1994, and the representatives of the Penans were transported from the deep interior: from upper Baram to Kuching city. It was a logistical nightmare, but with the help of Chee How and his NGO friends from inside and outside Malaysia, we pulled off the trip.
Nearly twenty village leaders representing fifteen Penan settlements in the Baram area made the long trip to Kuching city. There, they made a police report on the rape of a Penan girl and the death of two Penans at logging blockades, and held a series of events to highlight to the world, the plight of the poor Penans. – Hornbill Unleashed
(Sim Kwang Yang was Member of Parliament for Bandar Kuching, Sarawak from 1982 to 1995)
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
When the hunter becomes the hunted
Ka ka ka ka.....
Mariam Mokhtar from London
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
malaysianmirror.com
The Penan are subject to intimidation, violence and exploitation. They struggle to provide for themselves. Their womenfolk and young girls have been sexually abused and raped. They feel hunted, just like the game they seek in the forests of Borneo.
On Tuesday, Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of Sarawak, had a dose of his own medicine when he had to escape the clutches of demonstrators in front of the Said Business School, at the University of Oxford. He was there to address the “Inaugural Oxford Global Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum”. The protesters held placards reading ‘Penan tribe say NO to logging’ and ‘Malaysia: Stop destroying the Penan tribe’.
At the opening session, Taib’s address was “The Role of Muslim Nations in Rebuilding Today’s Global Economy”. This was followed by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Nor Mohamed Yakcop's, address “The View from Muslim Southeast Asia.
Little did Taib guess that he would have people demonstrating about the Penans and the destruction of the rainforest. The grand welcome he is used to, fizzled into nothing. His luxury car, carried a decoy to fool a group of protestors at the side entrance. Taib was probably transported in an embassy van, with diplomatic number plates and spirited via the kitchen, into the building.
A man who claimed he was in charge of security and who refused to give his name and the company he worked for, said, “We don’t care what the principal wants, we bundle him in, even if he does not like it.” He was suggesting that Taib may have probably wanted to make a grand entrance, but was prevented from doing so by the security detail.
Inside the conference centre, protesters were barred from entering the foyer to present their list of questions to Taib. A scheduled press conference at 12.30 p.m. just before the special speakers’ lunch, was cancelled possibly because of the risk of having to answer awkward questions.
A demonstrator who entered the foyer tried to take a photo of Taib but was immediately surrounded and forcibly ejected from the premises. She successfully took photos of him through the glass but this enraged members of Taib’s delegation who then lowered the blinds or placed screens against the glass-fronted building, to prevent Taib from being photographed.
Taib seemed like a wounded animal as he walked with Nor Mohamed Yakcop, who looked visibly angry that the demonstrators had hijacked Taib’s big day in front of the delegates who had paid £1,000 (RM 5,100) each to attend this Forum.
Evidently, Taib is surrounded by ‘yes’ men who cocoon him from dissenting views of the real world. He must have found it galling that thousands of miles away from the safe confines of his tropical riverside mansion, the Penan problem and the destruction of the forests would be haunting him in this centre of learning.
Instead of being able to sell Sarawak to the British, Taib has to justify his actions to the chairman of the British parliament’s All Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal peoples, MP Martin Horwood. The British MP has written to him about the serious allegations of the Penan. Instead of a warm welcome, Taib received a cold reception from the demonstrators and a letter from the MP whilst his host, will receive letters of protest and condemnation.
Taib may wish to reflect how it is to feel rejected, just like the Penans are rejected by their own leaders who continually thwart their attempts at seeking justice. For several years the Penan and other indigenous people have tried to seek peaceful methods to maintain their way of life. They have been harassed because they stood in Taib’s way and his get-rich schemes.
The large delegation accompanying Taib seemed bemused by the demonstrators. What they are used to is a violent reaction from the Malaysian police who are intolerant of protests, even peaceful ones.
One lady who was part of Taib’s delegation said that a child who held up a banner at yesterday’s demonstration was being subjected to “child labour.” Is she aware that Penan girls are being raped and the police in Malaysia are slow to act?
This demonstration has rattled Taib. If this seminar had been arranged during term-time, Taib would have been assured of a larger, more vocal and highly organised group. He is lucky. The police said the demonstrators were ‘well-behaved’ but the behaviour of members of Taib’s delegation was aggressive, in comparison.
Nevertheless, several questions remain unanswered.
Why did Oxford University embrace Taib with open arms knowing that his reputation is tarnished at home and abroad?
Why are his crimes - corruption, plundered wealth, destruction of the forests and land, not highlighted abroad? None of the UK national newspapers (UK) covered this event. Only the local Oxford paper attended.
How is it that the Kagame government or even the Mugabe regime can get centre-stage in the foreign news section of the UK national newspapers? Is Malaysian news insignificant? Or have Sarawakians more serious lobbying to do?
A few of the demonstrators were contemplating making a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) report against Taib. This apparently was how the British arms dealer BAE systems was prosecuted in the Saudi arms bribery scandal.
Pressure from the international community can only be effected by Malaysians when they bring it to the attention of the rest of the world. Naturally, Taib does not want to be in the news for the wrong reasons, as he has a very cushy number.
* The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysian Mirror and/or its associates.
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
malaysianmirror.com
The Penan are subject to intimidation, violence and exploitation. They struggle to provide for themselves. Their womenfolk and young girls have been sexually abused and raped. They feel hunted, just like the game they seek in the forests of Borneo.
On Tuesday, Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of Sarawak, had a dose of his own medicine when he had to escape the clutches of demonstrators in front of the Said Business School, at the University of Oxford. He was there to address the “Inaugural Oxford Global Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum”. The protesters held placards reading ‘Penan tribe say NO to logging’ and ‘Malaysia: Stop destroying the Penan tribe’.
At the opening session, Taib’s address was “The Role of Muslim Nations in Rebuilding Today’s Global Economy”. This was followed by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Nor Mohamed Yakcop's, address “The View from Muslim Southeast Asia.
Little did Taib guess that he would have people demonstrating about the Penans and the destruction of the rainforest. The grand welcome he is used to, fizzled into nothing. His luxury car, carried a decoy to fool a group of protestors at the side entrance. Taib was probably transported in an embassy van, with diplomatic number plates and spirited via the kitchen, into the building.
A man who claimed he was in charge of security and who refused to give his name and the company he worked for, said, “We don’t care what the principal wants, we bundle him in, even if he does not like it.” He was suggesting that Taib may have probably wanted to make a grand entrance, but was prevented from doing so by the security detail.
Inside the conference centre, protesters were barred from entering the foyer to present their list of questions to Taib. A scheduled press conference at 12.30 p.m. just before the special speakers’ lunch, was cancelled possibly because of the risk of having to answer awkward questions.
A demonstrator who entered the foyer tried to take a photo of Taib but was immediately surrounded and forcibly ejected from the premises. She successfully took photos of him through the glass but this enraged members of Taib’s delegation who then lowered the blinds or placed screens against the glass-fronted building, to prevent Taib from being photographed.
Taib seemed like a wounded animal as he walked with Nor Mohamed Yakcop, who looked visibly angry that the demonstrators had hijacked Taib’s big day in front of the delegates who had paid £1,000 (RM 5,100) each to attend this Forum.
Evidently, Taib is surrounded by ‘yes’ men who cocoon him from dissenting views of the real world. He must have found it galling that thousands of miles away from the safe confines of his tropical riverside mansion, the Penan problem and the destruction of the forests would be haunting him in this centre of learning.
Instead of being able to sell Sarawak to the British, Taib has to justify his actions to the chairman of the British parliament’s All Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal peoples, MP Martin Horwood. The British MP has written to him about the serious allegations of the Penan. Instead of a warm welcome, Taib received a cold reception from the demonstrators and a letter from the MP whilst his host, will receive letters of protest and condemnation.
Taib may wish to reflect how it is to feel rejected, just like the Penans are rejected by their own leaders who continually thwart their attempts at seeking justice. For several years the Penan and other indigenous people have tried to seek peaceful methods to maintain their way of life. They have been harassed because they stood in Taib’s way and his get-rich schemes.
The large delegation accompanying Taib seemed bemused by the demonstrators. What they are used to is a violent reaction from the Malaysian police who are intolerant of protests, even peaceful ones.
One lady who was part of Taib’s delegation said that a child who held up a banner at yesterday’s demonstration was being subjected to “child labour.” Is she aware that Penan girls are being raped and the police in Malaysia are slow to act?
This demonstration has rattled Taib. If this seminar had been arranged during term-time, Taib would have been assured of a larger, more vocal and highly organised group. He is lucky. The police said the demonstrators were ‘well-behaved’ but the behaviour of members of Taib’s delegation was aggressive, in comparison.
Nevertheless, several questions remain unanswered.
Why did Oxford University embrace Taib with open arms knowing that his reputation is tarnished at home and abroad?
Why are his crimes - corruption, plundered wealth, destruction of the forests and land, not highlighted abroad? None of the UK national newspapers (UK) covered this event. Only the local Oxford paper attended.
How is it that the Kagame government or even the Mugabe regime can get centre-stage in the foreign news section of the UK national newspapers? Is Malaysian news insignificant? Or have Sarawakians more serious lobbying to do?
A few of the demonstrators were contemplating making a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) report against Taib. This apparently was how the British arms dealer BAE systems was prosecuted in the Saudi arms bribery scandal.
Pressure from the international community can only be effected by Malaysians when they bring it to the attention of the rest of the world. Naturally, Taib does not want to be in the news for the wrong reasons, as he has a very cushy number.
* The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysian Mirror and/or its associates.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
After Raping Forests, they rape daughters...
Look! Is this the support that you have been giving to these Barisan Najis animals from Sarawak??? Want to wait until they rape your daughter before you can wake up?
-----------
Living in fear of rape and destruction
Sun, 27 Jun 2010
freemalaysiatoday.com
FEATURE KUCHING: Like all Sarawak’s indigenous people, the Penan are faithful practicing Christians who treat their women with respect and do not take more than one spouse.
Despite the temptations of the modern world they live a simplistic god-fearing life eating mainly from the forest.
Last Sunday, several gun-waving policemen threatened the Penan community in Long Sebayang, who had erected a blockade in protest against the savage destruction of their hereditary lands by Lee Ling Timber Company, which incidentally is linked to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s sister Raziah Mahmud.
The incident is not new.
The fact remains that the Penan are constantly harassed and intimidated by gangs of loggers - armed with heavy vehicles, chainsaws and weapons - and their foreign workers, who rape and destroy not only their rainforest but their women as well.
The Penan women live in constant fear of these intruders who prey on their villages when the men are out hunting or attack hitch-hikers looking for transport to the nearest towns and schools.
Last September, the federal government disclosed a report which revealed strong evidence of numerous rape attacks, many of them on young girls trying to get to school, some of them as young as 10.
A number of babies have been born as a result of this abuse.
Federal investigators also noted a number of cases where logging workers pressured Penan girls to enter into unwilling relationships with them.
The report said that some managers in the logging firms were indulging themselves by keeping up to “three wives” in this way.
On desperate Penan father had told the investigators that he had approached a manager asking that he choose one wife and leave the others alone, “but he dismissed our concerns.”
Said the father: “The loggers have taken away our land, so they think they can take everything even our daughters.”
BN ministers have failed to act
In spite of the findings contained in the official report, Sarawak BN ministers have remained tacit, dismissing these incidents. They have refused to take steps to bring the attackers to justice.
Instead these leaders have continued insulting the Penan and their women, blaming them for these problems.
In an interview with BBC earlier this year, Sarawak Land Minister James Masing had reportedly described Penan women as “naturally promiscuous” and “normally start relationships as young as 12 years.”
To add insult, he alleged that the Penan were “very good storytellers”.
The so-called “stories” told by the Penan community are not isolated. It also occurs in other native communities.
Under the new Score development plans announced in January, over half a million more Sarawakian natives will be pressed from their lands in the same way as the Penan.
All this so that BN ministers can continue to exploit their territories and the loggers their women.
-The original version first appeared in Sarawak Report.
Sun, 27 Jun 2010
freemalaysiatoday.com
FEATURE KUCHING: Like all Sarawak’s indigenous people, the Penan are faithful practicing Christians who treat their women with respect and do not take more than one spouse.
Despite the temptations of the modern world they live a simplistic god-fearing life eating mainly from the forest.
Last Sunday, several gun-waving policemen threatened the Penan community in Long Sebayang, who had erected a blockade in protest against the savage destruction of their hereditary lands by Lee Ling Timber Company, which incidentally is linked to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s sister Raziah Mahmud.
The incident is not new.
The fact remains that the Penan are constantly harassed and intimidated by gangs of loggers - armed with heavy vehicles, chainsaws and weapons - and their foreign workers, who rape and destroy not only their rainforest but their women as well.
The Penan women live in constant fear of these intruders who prey on their villages when the men are out hunting or attack hitch-hikers looking for transport to the nearest towns and schools.
Last September, the federal government disclosed a report which revealed strong evidence of numerous rape attacks, many of them on young girls trying to get to school, some of them as young as 10.
A number of babies have been born as a result of this abuse.
Federal investigators also noted a number of cases where logging workers pressured Penan girls to enter into unwilling relationships with them.
The report said that some managers in the logging firms were indulging themselves by keeping up to “three wives” in this way.
On desperate Penan father had told the investigators that he had approached a manager asking that he choose one wife and leave the others alone, “but he dismissed our concerns.”
Said the father: “The loggers have taken away our land, so they think they can take everything even our daughters.”
BN ministers have failed to act
In spite of the findings contained in the official report, Sarawak BN ministers have remained tacit, dismissing these incidents. They have refused to take steps to bring the attackers to justice.
Instead these leaders have continued insulting the Penan and their women, blaming them for these problems.
In an interview with BBC earlier this year, Sarawak Land Minister James Masing had reportedly described Penan women as “naturally promiscuous” and “normally start relationships as young as 12 years.”
To add insult, he alleged that the Penan were “very good storytellers”.
The so-called “stories” told by the Penan community are not isolated. It also occurs in other native communities.
Under the new Score development plans announced in January, over half a million more Sarawakian natives will be pressed from their lands in the same way as the Penan.
All this so that BN ministers can continue to exploit their territories and the loggers their women.
-The original version first appeared in Sarawak Report.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Penan Attacked by Cronies of Pek Mor
Penan attacked as communities set up road blockade to protect their rainforests
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Source here and here
Instead of investigating a reported incident of violence against a Penan man by a timber company official, the police officers instructed the natives to dismantle their blockades. The police officers were using timber company vehicles, not police vehicles.
By Bruno Manser Fund
Lee Ling Group must stop violence in the Upper Limbang - Community rights must be respected
LONG SEBAYANG, SARAWAK, MALAYSIA. A Penan hunter has been attacked by a logging company official at a timber road blockade in Sarawak, East Malaysia. This has been reported this morning by Penan community sources.
According to our sources, a Penan named Aking Anung from Long Keneng was yesterday attacked by Ah New, a timber company official employed by a sub-contractor of the Malaysian Lee Ling timber group. Ah New had reportedly tried to attack the Penan hunter with a "parang" (bush knife). According to the Penan, Aking avoided being hurt by running away. He later lodged a police report in Limbang.
The incident took place at a newly erected timber road blockade near a timber camp at Long Sebayang in Sarawak's Upper Limbang region. The blockade had been set up jointly by Penan, Lun Bawang and Tabun natives in an attempt to prevent their land from being re-logged and converted into plantations by Lee Ling and its subcontractors.
"Our communities need support and we ask you to spread this news worldwide", a community spokesman said. The Bruno Manser Fund asks the Lee Ling Group to stop its violence immediately and to respect the native communities' customary rights in the Upper Limbang region.
Lee Ling Timber and the plantation company, Limba Jaya Timber, form part of the Lee Ling Group, which has its headquarters in Kuching, the state capital of Sarawak. The group is owned by the Tiang family and has been partly incorporated in Quality Concrete Sdn Bhd., which is listed on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange. Quality Concrete is linked to the family of Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud. One of Taib's sisters, Raziah Mahmud, is a member of the company's Board of Directors.
Update:
We have just got the latest blockade update regarding the situation in the Upper Limbang region of Sarawak:
According to Penan sources, the Lee Ling Timber subcontractor brought in three plainclothes police officers to the blockade site at Long Sebayang on 20 June 2010. One of the policemen was armed with a pistol. Instead of investigating a reported incident of violence against a Penan man by a timber company official, the police officers instructed the natives (Penan, Lun Bawang, Tabun) to dismantle their blockades (two blockades have been erected one of which appears to have been dismantled). The police visit at the blockade took place on 20 June betweeen 3 and 4 p.m. The police officers were using timber company vehicles, not police vehicles.
After the police left, at around 8 p.m. local time last night, the timber company manager, whose name has been reported to be Ah New (spelling might be different), hit one of the blockade supporters, Bita Pelisi, on the face and left him with his nose bleeding. Following that, the Lee Ling subcontractor announced he would bring in "more gangsters to the blockade site".
The Penan, Lun Bawang, and Tabun went to Limbang to lodge a further police report on the issue but hitherto the police have not undertaken any action. The Bruno Manser Fund urges Lee Ling Timber and contractors to immediately stop the violences against the natives and respect the communities' legitimate demands. The Royal Malaysian police is asked to investigate these incidents and to stop colluding with Lee Ling Timber.
What you can do:
Please help the Penan communities by protesting with the Royal Malaysian Police and with Quality Concrete, in which part of the Lee Ling Group is incorporated, to stop all violence and respect the community rights:
Royal Malaysian police: rmp@rmp.gov.my
Quality Concrete Sdn Bhd.: info@qchb.com.my
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Source here and here
Instead of investigating a reported incident of violence against a Penan man by a timber company official, the police officers instructed the natives to dismantle their blockades. The police officers were using timber company vehicles, not police vehicles.
By Bruno Manser Fund
Lee Ling Group must stop violence in the Upper Limbang - Community rights must be respected
LONG SEBAYANG, SARAWAK, MALAYSIA. A Penan hunter has been attacked by a logging company official at a timber road blockade in Sarawak, East Malaysia. This has been reported this morning by Penan community sources.
According to our sources, a Penan named Aking Anung from Long Keneng was yesterday attacked by Ah New, a timber company official employed by a sub-contractor of the Malaysian Lee Ling timber group. Ah New had reportedly tried to attack the Penan hunter with a "parang" (bush knife). According to the Penan, Aking avoided being hurt by running away. He later lodged a police report in Limbang.
The incident took place at a newly erected timber road blockade near a timber camp at Long Sebayang in Sarawak's Upper Limbang region. The blockade had been set up jointly by Penan, Lun Bawang and Tabun natives in an attempt to prevent their land from being re-logged and converted into plantations by Lee Ling and its subcontractors.
"Our communities need support and we ask you to spread this news worldwide", a community spokesman said. The Bruno Manser Fund asks the Lee Ling Group to stop its violence immediately and to respect the native communities' customary rights in the Upper Limbang region.
Lee Ling Timber and the plantation company, Limba Jaya Timber, form part of the Lee Ling Group, which has its headquarters in Kuching, the state capital of Sarawak. The group is owned by the Tiang family and has been partly incorporated in Quality Concrete Sdn Bhd., which is listed on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange. Quality Concrete is linked to the family of Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud. One of Taib's sisters, Raziah Mahmud, is a member of the company's Board of Directors.
Update:
We have just got the latest blockade update regarding the situation in the Upper Limbang region of Sarawak:
According to Penan sources, the Lee Ling Timber subcontractor brought in three plainclothes police officers to the blockade site at Long Sebayang on 20 June 2010. One of the policemen was armed with a pistol. Instead of investigating a reported incident of violence against a Penan man by a timber company official, the police officers instructed the natives (Penan, Lun Bawang, Tabun) to dismantle their blockades (two blockades have been erected one of which appears to have been dismantled). The police visit at the blockade took place on 20 June betweeen 3 and 4 p.m. The police officers were using timber company vehicles, not police vehicles.
After the police left, at around 8 p.m. local time last night, the timber company manager, whose name has been reported to be Ah New (spelling might be different), hit one of the blockade supporters, Bita Pelisi, on the face and left him with his nose bleeding. Following that, the Lee Ling subcontractor announced he would bring in "more gangsters to the blockade site".
The Penan, Lun Bawang, and Tabun went to Limbang to lodge a further police report on the issue but hitherto the police have not undertaken any action. The Bruno Manser Fund urges Lee Ling Timber and contractors to immediately stop the violences against the natives and respect the communities' legitimate demands. The Royal Malaysian police is asked to investigate these incidents and to stop colluding with Lee Ling Timber.
What you can do:
Please help the Penan communities by protesting with the Royal Malaysian Police and with Quality Concrete, in which part of the Lee Ling Group is incorporated, to stop all violence and respect the community rights:
Royal Malaysian police: rmp@rmp.gov.my
Quality Concrete Sdn Bhd.: info@qchb.com.my
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Survival urges Malaysia to uphold tribes’ rights
Survival’s director Stephen Corry has written to the Malaysian government, urging it to uphold the rights of the Penan and other tribes of Sarawak.
Malaysia’s Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said last month that the Malaysian federal and Sarawak state governments were, ‘in the process of finalising a mechanism on how to solve the issue of native customary rights land in the state,’ according to the government news agency Bernama. The minister made his statement during the run-up to a hotly contested by-election in the Sarawak town of Sibu.
The Sarawak government does not uphold indigenous peoples’ rights to their land, and allows logging and plantation companies to operate on it without the tribes’ consent. The Penan tribe rely heavily on the forests, and have repeatedly mounted blockades to keep the logging companies out.
In letters to the Prime Minister of Malaysia and the Chief Minister of Sarawak, Stephen Corry wrote, ‘The Sarawak government’s failure to uphold the Penan’s rights to their land is in violation of the principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The activities of logging and plantation companies have impoverished them, destroying their sources of food and clean water. We are also concerned that Penan and other indigenous people are threatened with displacement for the construction of the Murum dam and other hydroelectric dams across the state, again without their consent.
‘I urge you to ensure that the rights of the Penan and other indigenous peoples of Sarawak are respected, and that all logging, plantations and other developments on their land without their consent are halted.’
Link to Survival International here
Malaysia’s Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said last month that the Malaysian federal and Sarawak state governments were, ‘in the process of finalising a mechanism on how to solve the issue of native customary rights land in the state,’ according to the government news agency Bernama. The minister made his statement during the run-up to a hotly contested by-election in the Sarawak town of Sibu.
The Sarawak government does not uphold indigenous peoples’ rights to their land, and allows logging and plantation companies to operate on it without the tribes’ consent. The Penan tribe rely heavily on the forests, and have repeatedly mounted blockades to keep the logging companies out.
In letters to the Prime Minister of Malaysia and the Chief Minister of Sarawak, Stephen Corry wrote, ‘The Sarawak government’s failure to uphold the Penan’s rights to their land is in violation of the principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The activities of logging and plantation companies have impoverished them, destroying their sources of food and clean water. We are also concerned that Penan and other indigenous people are threatened with displacement for the construction of the Murum dam and other hydroelectric dams across the state, again without their consent.
‘I urge you to ensure that the rights of the Penan and other indigenous peoples of Sarawak are respected, and that all logging, plantations and other developments on their land without their consent are halted.’
Link to Survival International here
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Penans in search of tribesman appeal for food
Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:45
By Roselind Jarrow
freemalaysiatoday.com
MIRI: A group of eight nomadic Penan families of Ba’ Puak are on the verge of starvation unless food rations are immediately delivered to them.
“We are seeking the help of the public at large to provide us with our daily necessities as our rations have drained out after carrying out almost five months of search and rescue (SAR) operation for one of our men who went missing around the forest in Loagan Bunut National Park last year,” said the headman of the group Jepery Moyong.
“We appeal to the general public to help us with foods and provisions to enable us to sustain our community SAR operation.
“We will be starving soon and have no choice but to ask for help since we are severely facing shortages of food,” he said, adding that it was not easy to find food in the peat forest.
Jepery also said that they did not want to cause trouble and be accused for illegal encroachment into the national park.
Emang Moyong, 33, went missing on Nov 2 last year after performing at a cultural event organised by Petronas at its gas pipeline project camp site in Tinjar.
Emang was then purportedly asked to do video filming on the Penan’s way of hunting with blowpipes at Loagan Bunut National Park.
He was said to have been threatened by the so-called film crews. Since then, the Penans have launched a community search and rescue (SAR) operation in the thick forest around the park area.
The Malaysian Police had also carried out a three-week SAR operation in November and December but were unsuccessful.
The police have since closed the case as their operations after failing to trace and locate Emang whereabouts.
“We the Penan families are determined to continue with our search even though the authorities have ceased their SAR operation.
“We will not stop our SAR operations as we believe that Emang is still alive,” he said.
Jepery said Emang was frightened and traumatised and and could be hiding from somebody.
“This situation can happen to any nomadic Penans as we are seldom in contact with outsiders,” he said.
Emang’s wife Usun Malin, 26 and two children Maria, 8 and Mathew, 6, are still hopeful to find him alive.
“We would only be relieved if his remains are found that is if he had died, and then we will go back peacefully to Ba’ Puak,” said Usun.
The nomadic Penan group of Ba Puak is among the few Penan nomads left in the rainforest of Sarawak.
There are about 15 families at their settlement in Long Selulung, Ba’ Puak in upper Tutoh River area in the interior part of Baram District in the northern region of Sarawak.
The Loagan Bunut National Park has an area of 10,736 hectares and was gazetted by the Sarawak State Government as totally protected area on 29 August 1991. It is more or less about 100km from Long Selulung in Ba’ Puak.
The national coordinator of Sarawak Conservation Alliance for Natural Environment (SCANE) Raymond Abin is sympathetic with the plight and distress of the nomadic Penan Ba’ Puak.
He called upon civil society organisations, government and private agencies and the public to help in the community SAR operation and provide assistance in-kind to the nomadic Penan Ba’ Puak.
He said all assistance can be done through Sarawak Conservation Alliance for Natural Environment (SCANE) at Lot 1046 Shang Garden Shoplot, Jalan Bulan Sabit, Miri, Sarawak. Tel: MY +60 85423044 +60 85423044 Call Email: scanenews@gmail.com
By Roselind Jarrow
freemalaysiatoday.com
MIRI: A group of eight nomadic Penan families of Ba’ Puak are on the verge of starvation unless food rations are immediately delivered to them.
“We are seeking the help of the public at large to provide us with our daily necessities as our rations have drained out after carrying out almost five months of search and rescue (SAR) operation for one of our men who went missing around the forest in Loagan Bunut National Park last year,” said the headman of the group Jepery Moyong.
“We appeal to the general public to help us with foods and provisions to enable us to sustain our community SAR operation.
“We will be starving soon and have no choice but to ask for help since we are severely facing shortages of food,” he said, adding that it was not easy to find food in the peat forest.
Jepery also said that they did not want to cause trouble and be accused for illegal encroachment into the national park.
Emang Moyong, 33, went missing on Nov 2 last year after performing at a cultural event organised by Petronas at its gas pipeline project camp site in Tinjar.
Emang was then purportedly asked to do video filming on the Penan’s way of hunting with blowpipes at Loagan Bunut National Park.
He was said to have been threatened by the so-called film crews. Since then, the Penans have launched a community search and rescue (SAR) operation in the thick forest around the park area.
The Malaysian Police had also carried out a three-week SAR operation in November and December but were unsuccessful.
The police have since closed the case as their operations after failing to trace and locate Emang whereabouts.
“We the Penan families are determined to continue with our search even though the authorities have ceased their SAR operation.
“We will not stop our SAR operations as we believe that Emang is still alive,” he said.
Jepery said Emang was frightened and traumatised and and could be hiding from somebody.
“This situation can happen to any nomadic Penans as we are seldom in contact with outsiders,” he said.
Emang’s wife Usun Malin, 26 and two children Maria, 8 and Mathew, 6, are still hopeful to find him alive.
“We would only be relieved if his remains are found that is if he had died, and then we will go back peacefully to Ba’ Puak,” said Usun.
The nomadic Penan group of Ba Puak is among the few Penan nomads left in the rainforest of Sarawak.
There are about 15 families at their settlement in Long Selulung, Ba’ Puak in upper Tutoh River area in the interior part of Baram District in the northern region of Sarawak.
The Loagan Bunut National Park has an area of 10,736 hectares and was gazetted by the Sarawak State Government as totally protected area on 29 August 1991. It is more or less about 100km from Long Selulung in Ba’ Puak.
The national coordinator of Sarawak Conservation Alliance for Natural Environment (SCANE) Raymond Abin is sympathetic with the plight and distress of the nomadic Penan Ba’ Puak.
He called upon civil society organisations, government and private agencies and the public to help in the community SAR operation and provide assistance in-kind to the nomadic Penan Ba’ Puak.
He said all assistance can be done through Sarawak Conservation Alliance for Natural Environment (SCANE) at Lot 1046 Shang Garden Shoplot, Jalan Bulan Sabit, Miri, Sarawak. Tel: MY +60 85423044 +60 85423044 Call Email: scanenews@gmail.com
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
'AVATAR IS REAL', SAY TRIBAL PEOPLE
SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
25 January 2010
'AVATAR IS REAL', SAY TRIBAL PEOPLE
Following the film ‘Avatar’’s win at the Golden Globes, tribal people have claimed that the film tells the real story of their lives today.
A Penan man from Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, told Survival International, ‘The Penan people cannot live without the rainforest. The forest looks after us, and we look after it. We understand the plants and the animals because we have lived here for many, many years, since the time of our ancestors.
‘The Na'vi people in 'Avatar' cry because their forest is destroyed. It's the same with the Penan. Logging companies are chopping down our big trees and polluting our rivers, and the animals we hunt are dying.’
Kalahari Bushman Jumanda Gakelebone said, ‘We the Bushmen are the first inhabitants in southern Africa. We are being denied rights to our land and appeal to the world to help us. ‘Avatar’ makes me happy as it shows the world about what it is to be a Bushman, and what our land is to us. Land and Bushmen are the same.’
Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, known as the Dalai Lama of the Rainforest, said, ‘My Yanomami people have always lived in peace with the forest. Our ancestors taught us to understand our land and animals. We have used this knowledge carefully, for our existence depends on it. My Yanomami land was invaded by miners. A fifth of our people died from diseases we had never known.’
Director James Cameron received his Golden Globes awards for ‘Avatar’ last week, and revealed one of the central ideas of the film.
‘Avatar asks us to see that everything is connected,’ he said in his acceptance speech, ‘All human beings to each other, and us to the earth.
Cameron was inspired by the Maori language of New Zealand when devising the language spoken by the Na’vi.
Survival’s director Stephen Corry says, ‘Just as the Na’vi describe the forest of Pandora as ‘their everything’, for most tribal peoples, life and land have always been deeply connected.
‘The fundamental story of Avatar - if you take away the multi-coloured lemurs, the long-trunked horses and warring androids - is being played out time and time again, on our planet.
‘Like the Na’vi of ‘Avatar’, the world’s last-remaining tribal peoples – from the Amazon to Siberia – are also at risk of extinction, as their lands are appropriated by powerful forces for profit-making reasons such as colonization, logging and mining.’
‘One of the best ways of protecting the our world’s natural heritage is surprisingly simple; it is to secure the land rights of tribal peoples.’
* * *
A feature article about ‘Avatar’ and tribal peoples is available for publication from Survival International. Contact Miriam Ross (details below).
To read this story online: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/5466
For more information and images, or to use the attached image, please contact Miriam Ross:
T (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504543367
E mr@survivalinternational.org
W http://www.survivalinternational.org/
Survival International
6 Charterhouse Buildings
London EC1M 7ET
United Kingdom
25 January 2010
'AVATAR IS REAL', SAY TRIBAL PEOPLE
Following the film ‘Avatar’’s win at the Golden Globes, tribal people have claimed that the film tells the real story of their lives today.
A Penan man from Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, told Survival International, ‘The Penan people cannot live without the rainforest. The forest looks after us, and we look after it. We understand the plants and the animals because we have lived here for many, many years, since the time of our ancestors.
‘The Na'vi people in 'Avatar' cry because their forest is destroyed. It's the same with the Penan. Logging companies are chopping down our big trees and polluting our rivers, and the animals we hunt are dying.’
Kalahari Bushman Jumanda Gakelebone said, ‘We the Bushmen are the first inhabitants in southern Africa. We are being denied rights to our land and appeal to the world to help us. ‘Avatar’ makes me happy as it shows the world about what it is to be a Bushman, and what our land is to us. Land and Bushmen are the same.’
Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, known as the Dalai Lama of the Rainforest, said, ‘My Yanomami people have always lived in peace with the forest. Our ancestors taught us to understand our land and animals. We have used this knowledge carefully, for our existence depends on it. My Yanomami land was invaded by miners. A fifth of our people died from diseases we had never known.’
Director James Cameron received his Golden Globes awards for ‘Avatar’ last week, and revealed one of the central ideas of the film.
‘Avatar asks us to see that everything is connected,’ he said in his acceptance speech, ‘All human beings to each other, and us to the earth.
Cameron was inspired by the Maori language of New Zealand when devising the language spoken by the Na’vi.
Survival’s director Stephen Corry says, ‘Just as the Na’vi describe the forest of Pandora as ‘their everything’, for most tribal peoples, life and land have always been deeply connected.
‘The fundamental story of Avatar - if you take away the multi-coloured lemurs, the long-trunked horses and warring androids - is being played out time and time again, on our planet.
‘Like the Na’vi of ‘Avatar’, the world’s last-remaining tribal peoples – from the Amazon to Siberia – are also at risk of extinction, as their lands are appropriated by powerful forces for profit-making reasons such as colonization, logging and mining.’
‘One of the best ways of protecting the our world’s natural heritage is surprisingly simple; it is to secure the land rights of tribal peoples.’
* * *
A feature article about ‘Avatar’ and tribal peoples is available for publication from Survival International. Contact Miriam Ross (details below).
To read this story online: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/5466
For more information and images, or to use the attached image, please contact Miriam Ross:
T (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504543367
E mr@survivalinternational.org
W http://www.survivalinternational.org/
Survival International
6 Charterhouse Buildings
London EC1M 7ET
United Kingdom
Monday, November 30, 2009
Penan Declare 163,000 Hectare Area In Baram Their Peace Park
November 30, 2009
Bernama
MIRI, Nov 30 (Bernama) -- A group of 200 Penan has declared 163,000 hectares of forest area in the Upper Baram as a Penan peace park, claimed a Swiss-based environmental movement, Bruno Manser Fund (BMF).
In an e-mail to Bernama here Monday, BMF claimed that a declaration ceremony took place at a remote village of Long Ajeng in Baram recently to endorse the creation of the park aimed at conserving the area, being the Penan's last remaining primeval forests, as a nature reserve.
"The Penan wish to develop tourism in their region and insist on the protection of their native customary rights," the statement added.
The statement quoted a Penan former penghulu, James Lalo Kesoh, as saying that his community still depended on the forests for their livelihood and they should needed to be preserved for future generations.
"Even though we have settled down and started life as farmers since the late 1950s, we still depend on the forests for our food supply, for raw materials such as rattan for handicrafts, for medicinal plants and for other jungle produce," he said.
Meanwhile, Long Ajeng headman Jawa Nyipa said they hoped the declaration would enable them to live peacefully with their neighbouring tribes and as "fully recognised Malaysian citizens."
"We call this park 'Peace Park' because peace is a very important concept in our culture," he added.
BMF said the proclamation of the new park marked the Penan's challenge to the Sarawak government which had earmarked the area for logging.
-- BERNAMA
Bernama
MIRI, Nov 30 (Bernama) -- A group of 200 Penan has declared 163,000 hectares of forest area in the Upper Baram as a Penan peace park, claimed a Swiss-based environmental movement, Bruno Manser Fund (BMF).
In an e-mail to Bernama here Monday, BMF claimed that a declaration ceremony took place at a remote village of Long Ajeng in Baram recently to endorse the creation of the park aimed at conserving the area, being the Penan's last remaining primeval forests, as a nature reserve.
"The Penan wish to develop tourism in their region and insist on the protection of their native customary rights," the statement added.
The statement quoted a Penan former penghulu, James Lalo Kesoh, as saying that his community still depended on the forests for their livelihood and they should needed to be preserved for future generations.
"Even though we have settled down and started life as farmers since the late 1950s, we still depend on the forests for our food supply, for raw materials such as rattan for handicrafts, for medicinal plants and for other jungle produce," he said.
Meanwhile, Long Ajeng headman Jawa Nyipa said they hoped the declaration would enable them to live peacefully with their neighbouring tribes and as "fully recognised Malaysian citizens."
"We call this park 'Peace Park' because peace is a very important concept in our culture," he added.
BMF said the proclamation of the new park marked the Penan's challenge to the Sarawak government which had earmarked the area for logging.
-- BERNAMA
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Penan : the nomads of Borneo
Dear Friend
FYI,
The last of their kind: the nomads of Borneo
LONG NEN, Malaysia, Aug 30, 2009 (AFP) – In the language of the nomadic Penan there is no word for forest, it is simply their universe, and its destruction is snuffing out the ancient lifestyle of this tribe who are among the world's last hunter-gatherers.
Wielding spears and dressed in loincloths, one small band who emerged from the Borneo jungles to tell their tale said that encroachment by timber and plantation firms has made their already hard life impossible.
They said they are ready to stop roaming and settle in villages, giving weight to fears that the 300-400 Penan thought to still be nomadic may all be heading this way, or even that their way of life is already extinct.
"Our problem is that there is just not enough to eat, there are no wild boar to catch any more," said Sagong, the headman of the group.
"The companies logged all the teak already, and now they are going to clear the land for palm oil plantations," said the young chief, who brought 15 of his people to a blockade against the timber and plantation companies.
"If that happens, we lose everything, we cannot survive this," he said."Yes it is sad to leave this life of roaming. But what can we do? We have to strive for the best for ourselves. It is our fate to face this challenge.
"A lean and muscular man aged in his 30s, Sagong said their last hope was to join the anti-logging campaign which has escalated recently in Sarawak state, on Malaysia's half of Borneo, an island shared with Indonesia.
"I came here to man the blockade and safeguard the land," he said at one of the barriers built of logs and bamboo, among seven constructed in the region in recent months to force the timber trucks to a halt.
The Penan of Sarawak, who are estimated to number around 10,000, had mostly abandoned their nomadic ways and settled in villages by the 1970s under the influence of Christian missionaries.
Even the settled Penan still retain a deep connection to the jungle, foraging for rattan, medicinal plants, fruits, and sago palm -- a starchy staple. Wild game are hunted with finely crafted blowpipes and poison darts.
The Penan have been opposing logging for decades, but the spectre of bulldozers coming in to clear-fell what is left of the jungles has proved too much to bear.Jayl Langub, an anthropologist from the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, said the nomadic Penan are being thrust into the modern world through contact with loggers, satellite TV, and the boarding schools where some send their children.
"It would be better if they made their own decision and settled at their own pace, but these changes are coming very rapidly and I think it just overwhelms them," he said.
"However much they want to remain nomadic, the changes to the landscape mean it probably would not be possible for them to continue anyway... unless they live next to a national park, or unless areas are converted into reserves.
"Ian Mackenzie, a linguist who has studied the Penan since 1991, said he believes that few of the fabled group of 300-400 are truly nomadic as most have taken up some farming and established base camps with sturdier timber huts.
"There are various reasons for it but I would say the primary reason is that it's economically untenable to live as hunter-gatherers when their jungle has been logged three times," he said.
"The end of this ancient lifestyle is a very tragic cultural loss," he said. "That's how humans were supposed to live, how we all lived a long time ago, and this is the last flicker of it gone.
"Mackenzie, one of a handful of foreigners to speak Penan fluently, said that any groups who wanted to settle should have as many generations as they needed to make the momentous transition.
"To force them to make it brutally in a few years, it's almost beyond the capacity of human beings to make that leap. It's as if you or I were dropped down in the middle of the primary jungle and forced to survive.
"On a sliver of hilltop not far from the blockade, Sagong's tribe from the district of Ba Marong has constructed three sturdy open-sided huts, raised from the ground and built of saplings and bamboo lashed together with vines.
In a tropical downpour that drenched the canopy and turned the ground to mud, they sat serenely with their children -- including a five-month-old baby -- who, despite these most basic conditions were clean, dry and healthy.
As she played with a baby monkey that the family kept as a pet, Sagong's daughter Nili smiled and shook her head when she was asked whether she liked this life in the rainforest."I would like to go to school," she said shyly.
These days few Penan still sport the traditional bowl-shaped haircut, woven bamboo hats, brightly beaded necklaces and stretched earlobes that sometimes dangle near the shoulders.
In his baseball cap paired with a purple loincloth, and bare chest marked with tattoos including Christian images, snakes and a skull and crossbones, Sagong laughed when asked about his appearance.
"I'm a new generation, I don't dress like that," he said as he stood next to his father-in-law, who wore a monkey tooth around his neck, bunches of woven bangles, and played a bamboo nose flute.
"For us the jungle was our bank, we survived without money. Our life depended on the sago palm and wild animals and for generations we have lived like this," said the older man, Ngau Anyi.
Sagong said his own band of 27 people wanted help to establish a proper house with access to schools and medical care, while still having the chance to hunt and gather in the forest.
"Our wish is to have our own village, to do farming," he said. "We see other settlements and that's what we want. We have to spend a lot of time building huts and moving around. It's a hard life.
"The plight of the Penan was made famous in the 1980s by environmental activist Bruno Manser, who waged a crusade to protect their way of life and fend off the loggers. He vanished in 2000 -- many suspect foul play.
Manser lived with a group of nomadic Penan from 1984 to 1990 and learnt to speak Penan as well as how to survive in the jungle, while gathering a huge amount of botanical and cultural information.
"We have been accused of being against development, of wanting to keep the Penan in a museum," said Lukas Straumann, director of the Bruno Manser Fund, which continues to campaign for the people of the rainforests.
"Maybe there was a little bit of truth to that. But what we hear from the Penan is that they want development, to participate in modern life, but it has to be development at their own pace."
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/afp/20090830/tap-malaysia-penan-nomads-environment-0193655.html
Regards
Hellan Empaing
BRIMAS program coordinator
FYI,
The last of their kind: the nomads of Borneo
LONG NEN, Malaysia, Aug 30, 2009 (AFP) – In the language of the nomadic Penan there is no word for forest, it is simply their universe, and its destruction is snuffing out the ancient lifestyle of this tribe who are among the world's last hunter-gatherers.
Wielding spears and dressed in loincloths, one small band who emerged from the Borneo jungles to tell their tale said that encroachment by timber and plantation firms has made their already hard life impossible.
They said they are ready to stop roaming and settle in villages, giving weight to fears that the 300-400 Penan thought to still be nomadic may all be heading this way, or even that their way of life is already extinct.
"Our problem is that there is just not enough to eat, there are no wild boar to catch any more," said Sagong, the headman of the group.
"The companies logged all the teak already, and now they are going to clear the land for palm oil plantations," said the young chief, who brought 15 of his people to a blockade against the timber and plantation companies.
"If that happens, we lose everything, we cannot survive this," he said."Yes it is sad to leave this life of roaming. But what can we do? We have to strive for the best for ourselves. It is our fate to face this challenge.
"A lean and muscular man aged in his 30s, Sagong said their last hope was to join the anti-logging campaign which has escalated recently in Sarawak state, on Malaysia's half of Borneo, an island shared with Indonesia.
"I came here to man the blockade and safeguard the land," he said at one of the barriers built of logs and bamboo, among seven constructed in the region in recent months to force the timber trucks to a halt.
The Penan of Sarawak, who are estimated to number around 10,000, had mostly abandoned their nomadic ways and settled in villages by the 1970s under the influence of Christian missionaries.
Even the settled Penan still retain a deep connection to the jungle, foraging for rattan, medicinal plants, fruits, and sago palm -- a starchy staple. Wild game are hunted with finely crafted blowpipes and poison darts.
The Penan have been opposing logging for decades, but the spectre of bulldozers coming in to clear-fell what is left of the jungles has proved too much to bear.Jayl Langub, an anthropologist from the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, said the nomadic Penan are being thrust into the modern world through contact with loggers, satellite TV, and the boarding schools where some send their children.
"It would be better if they made their own decision and settled at their own pace, but these changes are coming very rapidly and I think it just overwhelms them," he said.
"However much they want to remain nomadic, the changes to the landscape mean it probably would not be possible for them to continue anyway... unless they live next to a national park, or unless areas are converted into reserves.
"Ian Mackenzie, a linguist who has studied the Penan since 1991, said he believes that few of the fabled group of 300-400 are truly nomadic as most have taken up some farming and established base camps with sturdier timber huts.
"There are various reasons for it but I would say the primary reason is that it's economically untenable to live as hunter-gatherers when their jungle has been logged three times," he said.
"The end of this ancient lifestyle is a very tragic cultural loss," he said. "That's how humans were supposed to live, how we all lived a long time ago, and this is the last flicker of it gone.
"Mackenzie, one of a handful of foreigners to speak Penan fluently, said that any groups who wanted to settle should have as many generations as they needed to make the momentous transition.
"To force them to make it brutally in a few years, it's almost beyond the capacity of human beings to make that leap. It's as if you or I were dropped down in the middle of the primary jungle and forced to survive.
"On a sliver of hilltop not far from the blockade, Sagong's tribe from the district of Ba Marong has constructed three sturdy open-sided huts, raised from the ground and built of saplings and bamboo lashed together with vines.
In a tropical downpour that drenched the canopy and turned the ground to mud, they sat serenely with their children -- including a five-month-old baby -- who, despite these most basic conditions were clean, dry and healthy.
As she played with a baby monkey that the family kept as a pet, Sagong's daughter Nili smiled and shook her head when she was asked whether she liked this life in the rainforest."I would like to go to school," she said shyly.
These days few Penan still sport the traditional bowl-shaped haircut, woven bamboo hats, brightly beaded necklaces and stretched earlobes that sometimes dangle near the shoulders.
In his baseball cap paired with a purple loincloth, and bare chest marked with tattoos including Christian images, snakes and a skull and crossbones, Sagong laughed when asked about his appearance.
"I'm a new generation, I don't dress like that," he said as he stood next to his father-in-law, who wore a monkey tooth around his neck, bunches of woven bangles, and played a bamboo nose flute.
"For us the jungle was our bank, we survived without money. Our life depended on the sago palm and wild animals and for generations we have lived like this," said the older man, Ngau Anyi.
Sagong said his own band of 27 people wanted help to establish a proper house with access to schools and medical care, while still having the chance to hunt and gather in the forest.
"Our wish is to have our own village, to do farming," he said. "We see other settlements and that's what we want. We have to spend a lot of time building huts and moving around. It's a hard life.
"The plight of the Penan was made famous in the 1980s by environmental activist Bruno Manser, who waged a crusade to protect their way of life and fend off the loggers. He vanished in 2000 -- many suspect foul play.
Manser lived with a group of nomadic Penan from 1984 to 1990 and learnt to speak Penan as well as how to survive in the jungle, while gathering a huge amount of botanical and cultural information.
"We have been accused of being against development, of wanting to keep the Penan in a museum," said Lukas Straumann, director of the Bruno Manser Fund, which continues to campaign for the people of the rainforests.
"Maybe there was a little bit of truth to that. But what we hear from the Penan is that they want development, to participate in modern life, but it has to be development at their own pace."
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/afp/20090830/tap-malaysia-penan-nomads-environment-0193655.html
Regards
Hellan Empaing
BRIMAS program coordinator
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Who do you trust?
Who do you trust?
A) The robbers cum theives of Barisan Najis.
B) The "good storytellers" of Penan tribespeople.
Tribes block roads toSarawak plantation developers
AFP
AFP
25 August, 2009
Hundreds of Penan tribespeople in Sarawak are blockading roads to stop forests being cleared for palm oil plantations.
Seven roadblocks are now in place, manned by Penan armed with spears and blowpipes, and loggers trucks are being prevented from reaching felling sites.
Penan chiefs say that their forest homelands are under threat from wholesale clear felling for plantations.
"Since these companies came in, life has been very hard for us," said Alah Beling, headman of the Long Belok."The forest was once our supermarket, but now it's hard to find food."
He said that the activities of the plantation companies, who want to plant palm oil trees for food production and biofuel, have also polluted local rivers and affected fishing.
Sarawak's rural development minister James Masing admitted some logging companies had "caused extensive damage". But he also maintained that the Penan were "good storytellers" and that their claims should be treated with caution.
He also said that Sarawak was committed to its goal of doubling palm oil plantation coverage to 1 million hectares.
Hundreds of Penan tribespeople in Sarawak are blockading roads to stop forests being cleared for palm oil plantations.
Seven roadblocks are now in place, manned by Penan armed with spears and blowpipes, and loggers trucks are being prevented from reaching felling sites.
Penan chiefs say that their forest homelands are under threat from wholesale clear felling for plantations.
"Since these companies came in, life has been very hard for us," said Alah Beling, headman of the Long Belok."The forest was once our supermarket, but now it's hard to find food."
He said that the activities of the plantation companies, who want to plant palm oil trees for food production and biofuel, have also polluted local rivers and affected fishing.
Sarawak's rural development minister James Masing admitted some logging companies had "caused extensive damage". But he also maintained that the Penan were "good storytellers" and that their claims should be treated with caution.
He also said that Sarawak was committed to its goal of doubling palm oil plantation coverage to 1 million hectares.
More reports here
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
New Penan blockades
Sad news from Sarawak. The Penan has been suffering. The last remaining forest (in that region) will be gone soon...and politicians keep raping...and raping.....no justice in sight...
----------
July 24, 2009 MYT 2:59:00 PM
Standoff between Penans and loggers in Borneo eases
By STEPHEN THEN
Standoff between Penans and loggers in Borneo eases
By STEPHEN THEN
Star
MIRI: Semi-nomadic Penans and timber workers involved in tense logging disputes in two different locations in Ulu Baram in northern Sarawak have retreated from the timber-blockade flash-points on police advice.
The disputing parties did not want to aggravate tension in disputes where the usually peaceful Penans had picked up spears and parangs to prevent loggers from entering what they claim were their ancestral lands, according to Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM).
SAM field officer for Sarawak, Jok Jau Evong, told The Star Friday that according to the latest reports from deep in the interior was that the Penan protestors had laid down their arms after the timber workers at the sites agreed not to proceed with their logging operations in the disputed territories.
''The standoff has eased. The police are at the site and they have the situation under control. The timber companies have withdrawn their workers and machinery from the sites.
''The Penan protestors have also cooled down. They are still there at the vicinity of the blockade sites but they are just sitting around.
''The timber workers said they are only following directives from their company bosses. If they were instructed not to proceed, they will not go any further. For now, the tension has eased,'' he said.
Asked if this meant the timber companies had aborted their plans to carry out further logging in the forests where the Penans claimed their ancestral heritage was, Jok said he had no answer.
He said that only the companies concerned would know what they intended to do now following the dispute.
The anti-logging protests at Ba'Marong and Long Paloh, some 300kms inland from Miri, had reached boiling point.
The Penans, who claim that their forests were being ravaged by loggers, blocked access roads into the forests with logs and timber debris to prevent heavy machinery and timber trucks from entering and leaving.
They guarded the blockades armed with spears and parangs.
Baram police chief Deputy Supt Jonathan Jalin was outstation and could not comment on the dispute.
However, a check with his officers at the Marudi police station showed that policemen and General Operations Force personnel who had been deployed to the blockade sites are still there.
----------
July 22, 2009
New Penan blockades as anti-logging protests flare up again
By STEPHEN THEN
Star
MIRI: Anti-logging protests have flared up again in the interior jungles of northern Sarawak where the semi-nomadic Penans live.
Two incidents of timber blockades have occurred in the Ulu Baram district, one in the upper reaches near Long Lama Village, some 300km from here, and another near Long Paloh in the middle region of the district, some 100km from Marudi town.
Sources told The Star yesterday that police in Long Lama and Marudi received reports about anti-logging protests by the Penans and have visited the sites.
No arrest has been made.
Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) field officer for Sarawak Jok Jau Evong confirmed yesterday that his office had received information from the Penans in the two areas that blockades were erected across roads used by loggers to transport heavy machinery into the jungles and access roads used to ferry logs out of the jungles.
He said there were 40 Penans staging a protest in Ba’Marong, a Penan settlement on a tributary of Sungai Tutoh, which is three hours journey by timber road from Long Lama.
“The Penan chief there, Sagung Nyipa, said the Penans from Long Nen village are also joining in the protest,” he said.
“The other protest is in Long Paloh, upstream of Sungai Patah. There are about 30 Penan men, women and children at this blockade site.
The protest in Ba’Marong is against logging operations being carried out by a Sibu-based timber consortium while the one in Long Paloh is against a Miri-based timber giant.
The protests have been peaceful.
The two private companies are also involved in property construction, road construction, oil palm projects and heavy industrial projects throughout Sarawak.
“The Penan chiefs told us that they have no choice but to resort to the blockades to stop the logging,” Jok said.
This is because their land rights have been violated and their daily source of food and water have also been destroyed.
He added that the forest reserves in Long Paloh are the last remaining forests for the Penans in that region.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
A letter from the Sarawak forest
Sim Kwang Yang
Nov 15, 08
Malaysiakini.com
The sprawling impenetrable primary rain forests in Baram in northern Sarawak is certainly not the place to lose one’s way, if one happens to be travelling through them. Nevertheless, that was what Ismail Salleh 31, and Rano Sani 26, did - losing their way in the jungle - in late October.
Nov 15, 08
Malaysiakini.com
The sprawling impenetrable primary rain forests in Baram in northern Sarawak is certainly not the place to lose one’s way, if one happens to be travelling through them. Nevertheless, that was what Ismail Salleh 31, and Rano Sani 26, did - losing their way in the jungle - in late October.
They were among 50 surveyors carrying out demarcation work for a multi-billion ringgit inter-state 500km gas pipeline project from Kimanis near Kota Kinabalu in Sabah to Bintulu in Sarawak. Then they went missing on October 28. The police sent out search and rescue teams but they could not be found. They were in great peril.
Fortunately for our lost travellers, some Penans hunting and gathering in the jungle of Long Seridan found them and brought them to safety in their mountain settlement. For the Penans, the wild frightening jungle of Borneo is just like their backyard. They have been at the forefront of many such search and rescue missions in the past.
This story with a happy ending was reported in the Star on November 3 under the headline Penans decline reward. The Penans are a shy people; they would indeed never dream of getting a reward for doing what they see as a natural moral duty to help one another in the jungle in times of great peril. Being shy, they would shun all forms of public attention.
My question is this: when the Penans need help in their turn, how is the rest of Malaysia going to respond to them?
Recently, two letters found their way to my desk. I published the first one in another net portal www.thenutgraph.com. The second letter is rather long, and so I have chosen to publish it below in my English translation of the original Bahasa Malaysia version.
The letter
The Letter is addressed to the the chairperson of Suhakam with a copy to the Ministry of Health. It was dated 9 September 2008. It goes as follows:
‘Dear Sir,
Re:A Penan patient untreated
We are writing this letter to complain about one Penan woman, J from Long B, 36 years of age, who had died due to bleeding from her private part after giving birth without getting proper attention from the Dresser (Medical Assistant) C.
Ms J had delivered her baby in November 2006. She was healthy after giving birth to her baby and there was no sign of sicknesses. Suddenly in the middle of December 2007, Ms J had found that her private part started bleeding like period, but the bleeding would not stop. She went to Long L clinic on the same month and her private part was washed and checked by a nurse named JA. After medical treatment, more blood came out from her private part in two weeks’ time. Two weeks after the treatment by the nurse, she felt very weak and almost fainted on the morning on 2 January 2008.
WKK (Village Health Committee member) Mr H went to Long L Clinic at 8.30am and met Dresser C. He told Dresser C to inform the doctor to send helicopter to save Ms J’s life because her private part kept bleeding and it was getting so bad that she could not move anymore. She couldn’t take the 40 minute boat trip from Long B to Long L because she was too weak.
Dresser C said “It is not easy to get a helicopter; it will cost us a lot of money. If the sickness is not serious, people will scold me. Just take her to Long L by today. I will go down to Marudi by today at 10.15 am by MAS”.
Mr H said “Ms J cannot reach Long L, and I was hoping you Dresser C to look after Ms J and give her some medicine while she is waiting for the helicopter”.
Dresser C said “Ms J’s husband didn’t take his wife to go down to Marudi while she was pregnant, as instructed by me, and so if she dies, perhaps that was his responsibility”.
Mr H, “Ms J did not have enough energy to go down in 2006. This sickness was not her choice either”.
Dresser C said the clinic phone was not working properly. Mr H was asking Dresser C to give him permission to use the phone at Long L’s School. He went to the said school. After that Mr H came back to meet Dresser C again just to inform him that the phone at the said school was working properly and the principal has approved its use, in accordance with Dresser CJ’s instruction.
Dresser CJ said, “I have no time and am too busy trying to go down to Marudi. If the bleeding has been going on for two weeks, usually there is no escaping death.”
Mr H said, “Ms J is still alive; she’s not dead yet. You have to try your best to treat her. She is a human being just like us”.
Dresser Charles said, “Perhaps, I might get the helicopter to Long L when I reach Marudi later, while you wait for it in Long B by tomorrow morning”.
Mr H heard from the nurse telling Dresser C that she couldn’t treat the said patient properly even if they take the said patient at Long L’s clinic. Then, Dresser C left for Marudi.
Mr H went back to Long L at 12.30 pm. Ms J couldn’t sit and talk anymore, but was still able to eat.
Finally, she died at 5.30 pm on 2 January 2008. There was no helicopter coming to Long L or Long B.
We hope there will be nobody who will not take care of the Penan people. We are not lying, if we say we do not have money to go to Marudi hospital for our medical care. We accept medical care and development with an open heart.
According to Mr H’s son, Dresser C even said to him “your father is not a good guy because he led people to mind the blockade to fight with the timber company. That makes it hard to have development in Long B.
Penan people are human too and their lives are as important as others. We disagreed with the timber’s company but agreed with the development that would provide us with the facilities such as medicine, education, clinic and MAS airport. Our land is our life.
H, Committee of Health Village, Long B
J J, Eldest son of J
The letter ends there.
Truth has to be told
I have no way of verifying the facts of the case, since the Penan complainants live in the deep jungle, and I, in KL. But I have verified with the person before whom the letter was written, and to whom the letter was entrusted. This witness is a long-time close friend whose integrity is unquestioned. Penans do not lie, except for those odd ones who have been bought by the timber companies or intimidated by the government.
I have hidden the identity of the medical offender in order not to cast aspersion on him unjustly. More importantly, I have hidden the identity of the Penan complainants to protect them from vindictive punitive actions by the local Little Napoleons. In the jungle of Sarawak, nobody can hear your scream when great harm descends upon you from behind trees. Bruno Manser found that out. And so have a few Penans in the past.
The story in the letter is told in typically Sarawak native fashion, long, winding, full of details, but forever respectful. You have to use your imagination to fill in the gap, for what is important is what is not said. You may even have to dig out the map of Sarawak to appreciate the vast expensive distances over very rough terrain that has to be travelled by the Penans between the places named in the letter.
The message conveyed in this long tale in the letter is an appeal for help. They do not need logging as their form of “development”, because logging destroys their heritage and their food source like wild game and wild sago. The forest to them is like the Giant supermarket to us, except that the forest never charges them any money. On the other hand, logging only produces fabulous wealth for the handful of politico-business elites.
The Penans do need development like schools, airports, and clinics, and infrastructure to get to their hospitals in the faraway major towns in northern Sarawak. For that, helicopters are a necessity.
I wonder whether this letter has reached the Ministry of Health or Suhakam. Frankly, I do not have much faith in either of these two agencies.
So I have decided to publish this letter on Malaysiakini. There must be some place where the Penans’ feeble and plaintive voices can be heard, so that the truth can be told.
The story told in the letter is also valuable, so that Penans’ suffering is given a human face and a name. Wherever they are, whatever their skin colour, ladies all over the world can feel the excruciating pain of the type of post-natal bleeding that attacked a fellow lady by the name of J. Perhaps, J did not have to die. As the letter writer H said so eloquently, J did not choose to get sick!
If you are lost in the wild dangerous jungle, you will jump for joy if you bump into some Penan hunters, and thank them as angels sent by God to rescue you. But what if the Penans sent out a letter for your help?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SIM KWANG YANG was Bandar Kuching MP from 1982-1995. He can be reached at kenyalang578@yahoo.com
Fortunately for our lost travellers, some Penans hunting and gathering in the jungle of Long Seridan found them and brought them to safety in their mountain settlement. For the Penans, the wild frightening jungle of Borneo is just like their backyard. They have been at the forefront of many such search and rescue missions in the past.
This story with a happy ending was reported in the Star on November 3 under the headline Penans decline reward. The Penans are a shy people; they would indeed never dream of getting a reward for doing what they see as a natural moral duty to help one another in the jungle in times of great peril. Being shy, they would shun all forms of public attention.
My question is this: when the Penans need help in their turn, how is the rest of Malaysia going to respond to them?
Recently, two letters found their way to my desk. I published the first one in another net portal www.thenutgraph.com. The second letter is rather long, and so I have chosen to publish it below in my English translation of the original Bahasa Malaysia version.
The letter
The Letter is addressed to the the chairperson of Suhakam with a copy to the Ministry of Health. It was dated 9 September 2008. It goes as follows:
‘Dear Sir,
Re:A Penan patient untreated
We are writing this letter to complain about one Penan woman, J from Long B, 36 years of age, who had died due to bleeding from her private part after giving birth without getting proper attention from the Dresser (Medical Assistant) C.
Ms J had delivered her baby in November 2006. She was healthy after giving birth to her baby and there was no sign of sicknesses. Suddenly in the middle of December 2007, Ms J had found that her private part started bleeding like period, but the bleeding would not stop. She went to Long L clinic on the same month and her private part was washed and checked by a nurse named JA. After medical treatment, more blood came out from her private part in two weeks’ time. Two weeks after the treatment by the nurse, she felt very weak and almost fainted on the morning on 2 January 2008.
WKK (Village Health Committee member) Mr H went to Long L Clinic at 8.30am and met Dresser C. He told Dresser C to inform the doctor to send helicopter to save Ms J’s life because her private part kept bleeding and it was getting so bad that she could not move anymore. She couldn’t take the 40 minute boat trip from Long B to Long L because she was too weak.
Dresser C said “It is not easy to get a helicopter; it will cost us a lot of money. If the sickness is not serious, people will scold me. Just take her to Long L by today. I will go down to Marudi by today at 10.15 am by MAS”.
Mr H said “Ms J cannot reach Long L, and I was hoping you Dresser C to look after Ms J and give her some medicine while she is waiting for the helicopter”.
Dresser C said “Ms J’s husband didn’t take his wife to go down to Marudi while she was pregnant, as instructed by me, and so if she dies, perhaps that was his responsibility”.
Mr H, “Ms J did not have enough energy to go down in 2006. This sickness was not her choice either”.
Dresser C said the clinic phone was not working properly. Mr H was asking Dresser C to give him permission to use the phone at Long L’s School. He went to the said school. After that Mr H came back to meet Dresser C again just to inform him that the phone at the said school was working properly and the principal has approved its use, in accordance with Dresser CJ’s instruction.
Dresser CJ said, “I have no time and am too busy trying to go down to Marudi. If the bleeding has been going on for two weeks, usually there is no escaping death.”
Mr H said, “Ms J is still alive; she’s not dead yet. You have to try your best to treat her. She is a human being just like us”.
Dresser Charles said, “Perhaps, I might get the helicopter to Long L when I reach Marudi later, while you wait for it in Long B by tomorrow morning”.
Mr H heard from the nurse telling Dresser C that she couldn’t treat the said patient properly even if they take the said patient at Long L’s clinic. Then, Dresser C left for Marudi.
Mr H went back to Long L at 12.30 pm. Ms J couldn’t sit and talk anymore, but was still able to eat.
Finally, she died at 5.30 pm on 2 January 2008. There was no helicopter coming to Long L or Long B.
We hope there will be nobody who will not take care of the Penan people. We are not lying, if we say we do not have money to go to Marudi hospital for our medical care. We accept medical care and development with an open heart.
According to Mr H’s son, Dresser C even said to him “your father is not a good guy because he led people to mind the blockade to fight with the timber company. That makes it hard to have development in Long B.
Penan people are human too and their lives are as important as others. We disagreed with the timber’s company but agreed with the development that would provide us with the facilities such as medicine, education, clinic and MAS airport. Our land is our life.
H, Committee of Health Village, Long B
J J, Eldest son of J
The letter ends there.
Truth has to be told
I have no way of verifying the facts of the case, since the Penan complainants live in the deep jungle, and I, in KL. But I have verified with the person before whom the letter was written, and to whom the letter was entrusted. This witness is a long-time close friend whose integrity is unquestioned. Penans do not lie, except for those odd ones who have been bought by the timber companies or intimidated by the government.
I have hidden the identity of the medical offender in order not to cast aspersion on him unjustly. More importantly, I have hidden the identity of the Penan complainants to protect them from vindictive punitive actions by the local Little Napoleons. In the jungle of Sarawak, nobody can hear your scream when great harm descends upon you from behind trees. Bruno Manser found that out. And so have a few Penans in the past.
The story in the letter is told in typically Sarawak native fashion, long, winding, full of details, but forever respectful. You have to use your imagination to fill in the gap, for what is important is what is not said. You may even have to dig out the map of Sarawak to appreciate the vast expensive distances over very rough terrain that has to be travelled by the Penans between the places named in the letter.
The message conveyed in this long tale in the letter is an appeal for help. They do not need logging as their form of “development”, because logging destroys their heritage and their food source like wild game and wild sago. The forest to them is like the Giant supermarket to us, except that the forest never charges them any money. On the other hand, logging only produces fabulous wealth for the handful of politico-business elites.
The Penans do need development like schools, airports, and clinics, and infrastructure to get to their hospitals in the faraway major towns in northern Sarawak. For that, helicopters are a necessity.
I wonder whether this letter has reached the Ministry of Health or Suhakam. Frankly, I do not have much faith in either of these two agencies.
So I have decided to publish this letter on Malaysiakini. There must be some place where the Penans’ feeble and plaintive voices can be heard, so that the truth can be told.
The story told in the letter is also valuable, so that Penans’ suffering is given a human face and a name. Wherever they are, whatever their skin colour, ladies all over the world can feel the excruciating pain of the type of post-natal bleeding that attacked a fellow lady by the name of J. Perhaps, J did not have to die. As the letter writer H said so eloquently, J did not choose to get sick!
If you are lost in the wild dangerous jungle, you will jump for joy if you bump into some Penan hunters, and thank them as angels sent by God to rescue you. But what if the Penans sent out a letter for your help?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SIM KWANG YANG was Bandar Kuching MP from 1982-1995. He can be reached at kenyalang578@yahoo.com
Monday, November 03, 2008
Semi-nomadic tribe goes back into jungle after delivering lost surveyors
"...they should be given a banquet"?
C'mon, are they so cheap? Give them their basic need. The need to survive in the jungle. Give them the freedom to roam the jungle. Stop logging. Stop logging.
These are what they want!
Read the rest of the story below....
-----------------------------------
Monday November 3, 2008
Staronline
MIRI: The group of Penans who rescued two surveyors lost in the deep jungles of Long Seridan in remote northern Sarawak have declined any reward for their heroic deed.
The Sarawak police are impressed by not just the bravery and kindness of the semi-nomadic Penans but also their humility.
So too is Ba’Kelalan state assemblyman Nelson Balang Rining, who stressed that the Penans had been at the forefront of many search and rescue missions in the jungles and mountains of Sarawak but had never asked for any reward or publicity.
Surveyors Ismail Salleh, 31, and Rano Sani, 26, went missing on Oct 28 while carrying out demarcation work for a multi-billion ringgit inter-state gas pipeline project between Sabah and Sarawak.
The two men were in a group of 50 surveyors that is handling the task of drawing up a land route to lay the 500km-long gas pipeline from Kimanis near Kota Kinabalu to Bintulu town, the gas capital of Sarawak.
The duo were found in a mountain village on Saturday afternoon following an aerial and ground search mission launched by the police.
They were rescued by a group of Penans, who were out hunting and gathering jungle produce, and escorted to the village.
Baram district police chief Deputy Supt Jonathan Jalin said he had spoken to the group of surveyors via satellite phone from Long Seridan yesterday.
“They are weak, but otherwise unhurt. They confirmed that it was the Penans who saved them, not any of our search parties.
“The group of Penans led them out from the jungle to a settlement after giving them food and water.
“My conversation with them was brief because of connection problems, but the surveyors said the Penans left them in the hands of the villagers and promptly went off into the jungle again.
“We (police) are trying to find out who these Penans are, and which settlement they are from. We must give them due credit,” he said.
Asked if the duo would be brought out for medical treatment, DSP Jalin said that they were still recuperating in the camp and did not seem to be in need of urgent medical help.
Long Seridan is located between Long Lellang and the Bario highlands. It is eight hours by land from here via Long Lama village.
Balang, whose constituency also covers Long Lellang, Bario and the area north of Long Seridan, said the Penans who rescued the duo should be given public recognition.
“It is the Penans’ nature to be helpful and yet shun publicity. They know the jungle like their backyard. They are capable of walking from Long Lellang to Bario non-stop,” he said.
Balang called on the police and the survey firm to try to trace the Penans who saved Ismail and Rano, saying that at the very least, they should be given a banquet.
Staronline
MIRI: The group of Penans who rescued two surveyors lost in the deep jungles of Long Seridan in remote northern Sarawak have declined any reward for their heroic deed.
The Sarawak police are impressed by not just the bravery and kindness of the semi-nomadic Penans but also their humility.
So too is Ba’Kelalan state assemblyman Nelson Balang Rining, who stressed that the Penans had been at the forefront of many search and rescue missions in the jungles and mountains of Sarawak but had never asked for any reward or publicity.
Surveyors Ismail Salleh, 31, and Rano Sani, 26, went missing on Oct 28 while carrying out demarcation work for a multi-billion ringgit inter-state gas pipeline project between Sabah and Sarawak.
The two men were in a group of 50 surveyors that is handling the task of drawing up a land route to lay the 500km-long gas pipeline from Kimanis near Kota Kinabalu to Bintulu town, the gas capital of Sarawak.
The duo were found in a mountain village on Saturday afternoon following an aerial and ground search mission launched by the police.
They were rescued by a group of Penans, who were out hunting and gathering jungle produce, and escorted to the village.
Baram district police chief Deputy Supt Jonathan Jalin said he had spoken to the group of surveyors via satellite phone from Long Seridan yesterday.
“They are weak, but otherwise unhurt. They confirmed that it was the Penans who saved them, not any of our search parties.
“The group of Penans led them out from the jungle to a settlement after giving them food and water.
“My conversation with them was brief because of connection problems, but the surveyors said the Penans left them in the hands of the villagers and promptly went off into the jungle again.
“We (police) are trying to find out who these Penans are, and which settlement they are from. We must give them due credit,” he said.
Asked if the duo would be brought out for medical treatment, DSP Jalin said that they were still recuperating in the camp and did not seem to be in need of urgent medical help.
Long Seridan is located between Long Lellang and the Bario highlands. It is eight hours by land from here via Long Lama village.
Balang, whose constituency also covers Long Lellang, Bario and the area north of Long Seridan, said the Penans who rescued the duo should be given public recognition.
“It is the Penans’ nature to be helpful and yet shun publicity. They know the jungle like their backyard. They are capable of walking from Long Lellang to Bario non-stop,” he said.
Balang called on the police and the survey firm to try to trace the Penans who saved Ismail and Rano, saying that at the very least, they should be given a banquet.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Taib family's CMS to benefit from dam
Anil Netto Sep 30, 08
Malaysiakini
Who will foot the bill for the resettlement of those affected by the new RM3 billion Murum dam?
''Is it Sarawak Energy (Berhad) or will it be passed on directly to the state government and hence the taxpayer,'' asked one Sarawak-based activist, who declined to be identified.
In the case of Bakun, the mega-dam in central Sarawak which is still under construction, compensation to indigenous people and resettlement cost the Sarawak and federal governments over RM876 million.
''But there are still Bakun residents who have not received compensation even though they left the Bakun area 10 years ago,'' noted the auditor-general in his 2007 annual report.
Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB), which is 65 percent owned by the Sarawak state government, will fund the Murum dam. It was reported in June that SEB would issue bonds to finance the project.
SEB has been in negotiations with infrastructure firm Cahaya Mata Sarawak (CMS) and the multinational Rio Tinto Alcan to supply 900-1,200MW of electricity to power a huge smelter. A power purchase agreement was supposed to have been signed by Aug 31, and there has been no news since.
Both CMS and Rio Tinto are in a consortium, the Sarawak Aluminium Company (Salco), to build the US$2 billion aluminium smelter with an initial annual capacity of 550,000 tonnes, which could later be expanded to 1.5 million tonnes. The smelter is located in the Similajau area of Sarawak, not far from the proposed Murum and Bakun dams.
Rio Tinto Alcan, which has a 60 percent stake in Salco, owns bauxite mines, alumina refineries and aluminium smelters around the world.
CMS, a listed infrastructure firm controlled by Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud's family, is a major producer and supplier of steel, cement and other construction materials in the state. Taib (photo, far left) has been chief minister of Sarawak for more than 25 years.
According to the firm's 2007 annual report, the substantial shareholders of CMS are the chief minister's daughters, Jamilah Hamidah and Hanifah Hajar, son-in-law Syed Ahmad Alwee Alsree, and family concern Majaharta Sdn Bhd, each with a 14 percent stake.
Taib's wife Lejla has an 11 percent stake while sons, Sulaiman Abdul Rahman and Mahmud Abu Bekir, own 9 percent each.
Taib's brother-in-law, Aziz Husain, on the other hand, happens to be managing director of SEB.
Why the need of so many dams?
Sarawak plans to lure such energy-hungry industries by providing an abundant supply of cheap electricity within the 320-km long Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score), an economic development region, managed by the state, where abundant power would be supplied to energy-intensive private industries.
Score, launched by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in February 2008, aims to tap into the state's 20,000MW hydropower potential by building even more dams in the longer term.
Sarawak's current installed capacity is just 980MW, adequate for its current needs of about 750MW, but it aims to expand its hydro capacity to 7,000MW or more over the next decade by building a string of 12 dams along the various rivers in the state.
While smelters could create jobs and contribute to GDP, the funding for the dams required to supply cheap electricity will have to be raised by the state or borrowed from public pension funds (as in the case of Bakun).
And while indigenous communities are displaced, many foreign workers will have to be brought in for the construction of the dams. And then there are the
environmental costs.
''Will that justify building Murum at a probable estimated cost of RM3 billion, with likely cost overruns to RM5 billion?'' asked a Sarawak-based academic, who declined to be identified.
In the case of Bakun, ''cost over-runs of RM708 million were approved by the Finance Ministry even though the contract was for a fixed lump sum with all risks to be borne by the main contractor (a consortium of private Malaysian companies and China interests),'' chided the auditor-general in his report.
Sarawak Hidro, the Bakun dam developer, has outstanding borrowings (as at end-2007) of RM3.4 billion. It had received RM3 billion from a state-managed workers' pension fund, the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) in 2007, and RM400 million from a state-owned pension trust fund in 2002.
The EPF loan is guaranteed by the federal government. The federal government had also allocated RM1.8 billion for the project between 1997 and 2004. Sarawak Hidro has already spent RM4 billion on the project.
Natives: Better bomb us now
So is Murum really necessary?
''For energy needs in Sarawak, we don't need the Murum, because Bakun is more than enough to supply the state's needs,'' says Raymond Abin of the Borneo Resource Institute (Brimas). ''Of course, (much of) this will not go to the really rural areas but will supply industry's needs."
"The impression among many sceptics is that these are all self-serving projects," said another senior academic in a Sarawak-based university, carefully weighing his words while requesting anonymity.
All these funds are not helping the most affected communities like the Penan.
''This is not development for the Penan. This is not assisting the Penan,'' says Weng, a Penan whose home will be submerged. ''This is killing the Penan. As our old headman said before, better bomb us now than 'kill' us slowly!''
- IPS
Malaysiakini
Who will foot the bill for the resettlement of those affected by the new RM3 billion Murum dam?
''Is it Sarawak Energy (Berhad) or will it be passed on directly to the state government and hence the taxpayer,'' asked one Sarawak-based activist, who declined to be identified.
In the case of Bakun, the mega-dam in central Sarawak which is still under construction, compensation to indigenous people and resettlement cost the Sarawak and federal governments over RM876 million.
''But there are still Bakun residents who have not received compensation even though they left the Bakun area 10 years ago,'' noted the auditor-general in his 2007 annual report.
Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB), which is 65 percent owned by the Sarawak state government, will fund the Murum dam. It was reported in June that SEB would issue bonds to finance the project.
SEB has been in negotiations with infrastructure firm Cahaya Mata Sarawak (CMS) and the multinational Rio Tinto Alcan to supply 900-1,200MW of electricity to power a huge smelter. A power purchase agreement was supposed to have been signed by Aug 31, and there has been no news since.
Both CMS and Rio Tinto are in a consortium, the Sarawak Aluminium Company (Salco), to build the US$2 billion aluminium smelter with an initial annual capacity of 550,000 tonnes, which could later be expanded to 1.5 million tonnes. The smelter is located in the Similajau area of Sarawak, not far from the proposed Murum and Bakun dams.
Rio Tinto Alcan, which has a 60 percent stake in Salco, owns bauxite mines, alumina refineries and aluminium smelters around the world.
CMS, a listed infrastructure firm controlled by Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud's family, is a major producer and supplier of steel, cement and other construction materials in the state. Taib (photo, far left) has been chief minister of Sarawak for more than 25 years.
According to the firm's 2007 annual report, the substantial shareholders of CMS are the chief minister's daughters, Jamilah Hamidah and Hanifah Hajar, son-in-law Syed Ahmad Alwee Alsree, and family concern Majaharta Sdn Bhd, each with a 14 percent stake.
Taib's wife Lejla has an 11 percent stake while sons, Sulaiman Abdul Rahman and Mahmud Abu Bekir, own 9 percent each.
Taib's brother-in-law, Aziz Husain, on the other hand, happens to be managing director of SEB.
Why the need of so many dams?
Sarawak plans to lure such energy-hungry industries by providing an abundant supply of cheap electricity within the 320-km long Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score), an economic development region, managed by the state, where abundant power would be supplied to energy-intensive private industries.
Score, launched by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in February 2008, aims to tap into the state's 20,000MW hydropower potential by building even more dams in the longer term.
Sarawak's current installed capacity is just 980MW, adequate for its current needs of about 750MW, but it aims to expand its hydro capacity to 7,000MW or more over the next decade by building a string of 12 dams along the various rivers in the state.
While smelters could create jobs and contribute to GDP, the funding for the dams required to supply cheap electricity will have to be raised by the state or borrowed from public pension funds (as in the case of Bakun).
And while indigenous communities are displaced, many foreign workers will have to be brought in for the construction of the dams. And then there are the
environmental costs.
''Will that justify building Murum at a probable estimated cost of RM3 billion, with likely cost overruns to RM5 billion?'' asked a Sarawak-based academic, who declined to be identified.
In the case of Bakun, ''cost over-runs of RM708 million were approved by the Finance Ministry even though the contract was for a fixed lump sum with all risks to be borne by the main contractor (a consortium of private Malaysian companies and China interests),'' chided the auditor-general in his report.
Sarawak Hidro, the Bakun dam developer, has outstanding borrowings (as at end-2007) of RM3.4 billion. It had received RM3 billion from a state-managed workers' pension fund, the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) in 2007, and RM400 million from a state-owned pension trust fund in 2002.
The EPF loan is guaranteed by the federal government. The federal government had also allocated RM1.8 billion for the project between 1997 and 2004. Sarawak Hidro has already spent RM4 billion on the project.
Natives: Better bomb us now
So is Murum really necessary?
''For energy needs in Sarawak, we don't need the Murum, because Bakun is more than enough to supply the state's needs,'' says Raymond Abin of the Borneo Resource Institute (Brimas). ''Of course, (much of) this will not go to the really rural areas but will supply industry's needs."
"The impression among many sceptics is that these are all self-serving projects," said another senior academic in a Sarawak-based university, carefully weighing his words while requesting anonymity.
All these funds are not helping the most affected communities like the Penan.
''This is not development for the Penan. This is not assisting the Penan,'' says Weng, a Penan whose home will be submerged. ''This is killing the Penan. As our old headman said before, better bomb us now than 'kill' us slowly!''
- IPS
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