Penan Road Blockade

Kuching
Wednesday, 8th September 2010

Penan tribe block logging roads in protest

More than 150 Penan tribespeople blocked roads in Borneo on Thursday, in protest at the destruction of their rainforest by logging companies, and at the Malaysian government’s failure to protect their land.

The protestors were marking the anniversary of previous road blockades a year ago, which brought the logging industry in the area to a halt. Last year’s blockades were dismantled at the insistence of police and government officials.

Controversial Malaysian logging giant Samling is one of the companies active in the area. The Norwegian government announced last month that it had excluded Samling from its pension fund on ethical grounds.

When the 2009 blockades ended, Sarawak state assemblyman Lihan Jok promised to help the Penan meet with the authorities to discuss their land rights, and to help with funds for the development of their communities. But he did not keep his promises, and in December last year he was quoted in Malaysia’s Star newspaper saying that the Penan must ‘stop living in the jungles.’

A Penan woman from Long Nen told Survival, ‘We didn’t want to open the blockade, but while we were going to meet Lihan Jok the police flew in a helicopter and opened the blockade. More than 12 four wheel drive cars with police and forestry people went to the blockade and opened it.’

Panai Ayat of the Sarawak Penan Association said in a statement last week, ‘The blockades last year were erected firstly, to demand

that the Sarawak State Government must recognize that we have the right to make our own decisions in relation to our NCR [native customary rights] land, and secondly, to ask that logging activities and the encroachments into our NCR land be immediately halted in order to prevent starvation incidences…

‘Many of us have gone to prison for defending our rights to this land. Thus, we will continue defending our rights for the rest of our lives.’

To read more please go to Survivalinternational.org

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Samling Blacklisted By Norwegian Government

Kuching, Sarawak
Tuesday, 1st September 2010

Sarawakian Timber Giant Blacklisted by Norwegian Government On Ethical Ground

Norwegian government blacklists Malaysian timber giant

The Norwegian government has excluded the Malaysian timber giant Samling from its pension fund on ethical grounds. Samling is logging the last remaining forests of the hunter-gatherer Penan tribe.

Norway’s Ministry of Finance sold its shares in Samling on the recommendation of its pension fund’s Council on Ethics, which investigated Samling’s activities and found evidence of systematic illegal logging and ‘extensive damage to forests and the environment.’

Announcing the divestment from Samling and two other companies, Minister of Finance Sigbjørn Johnsen said, ‘The decision to exclude these companies… is based on the Council on Ethics assessment that they are contributing to or are themselves responsible for grossly unethical activity.’

Samling has devastated much of the land of the Penan tribe of Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo. The Penan rely on the forest for food and shelter, and its destruction by logging companies has left them impoverished.

In December 2009, five Penan communities filed two lawsuits against Samling subsidiaries. A case by other Penan communities has been pending since 1998.

One Penan man told Survival, ‘Samling is trying to log all the trees in our forest. When they enter the area we will lose everything.’

Survival International’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘If all responsible investors, particularly those using public money, avoided companies which violate tribal peoples’ rights and destroy their lands, it would send a clear and long overdue signal to corporations around the world. These companies should simply be boycotted, so the Norwegian disinvestment is a very good step in the right direction.’

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Sarawak Police Force Get their Hands Dirty In Helping the Timber Company Against the Penan

Kuching
Wednesday, 23rd June 2010

The once proud, well-trained Sarawak police force are now mere lackeys of the timber companies, as events yesterday make only too obvious.

The Penan, who have been erecting peaceful jungle blockades in protest at the savage destruction of their hereditory lands, were yesterday confronted in Long Sebayang, Limbang by gun-waving policemen. They were acting on behalf of Lee Ling Timber, the other party to the dispute.

According to the respected Swiss Charity the Bruno Manser Foundation, the unprofessional, threatening and downright illegal episode came in the wake of an attack the previous day by a logging company employee on one of the Penan. The tribesman (and rightful owner of the land, according to Native Customary Rights recently upheld in the Federal Malay Court) had been viciously hit in the face.

However, instead of investigating that crime the police came to show their solidarity with the timber company. Such was their lack of impartiality and lack of professional pride that these officers even allowed themselves to be transported to the area by timber company lorries rather than their own vehicles. After shouting and threatening the Penan the police then stood by as the company officials threatened to come back again soon with ‘more gangsters’ – implying very accurately that these police had been the first gangsters!

The Penan have gained international respect because of their Ghandi-style passive resistance to the logging companies. But their problems reflect what has happened to hundreds of thousands of tribespeople across Sarawak, who have been turfed off their lands by greedy companies backed by Taib Mahmud and his cronies. Ask the Iban, Kayan and Kenya communities if they received any of the rich profits from timber or oil palm. Meanwhile, the Taibs’ foreign tower blocks are what Sarawak now has to show for what was once arguably the most magnificent tropical rainforest paradise in the world.

The Penan have been brutally treated by the invading timber companies. They are threatened by gangsters, their women have been systematically raped and their livelihoods removed. Yet the police have never investigated these appalling crimes, despite a huge volume of evidence from independent and official bodies.

It is possible that the men who turned up claiming to be police at Long Sebayang were in fact just gangsters themselves. If so where are the real police who should be sorting out such behaviour by timber companies?

These gangsters and the authorities too need to be mindful, because the world is moving on. Episodes like yesterday’s would once have remained hidden in dark and distant jungles, but these days such incidents, are reported within hours. Already news of this event is crossing the world and protests are being raised on an international level. How long can the reputation of Malaysia withstand such shocking behaviour in Sarawak?

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Penan's Deception Plan to Get Their Memorandum Reaching Taib and Jabu

31th Oct 2009

KUCHING – The Penans have learnt from the mistakes of the past and are taking the hackers’ approach.

With a little social engineering, they outwitted the security guards and officials at Wisma Bapa Malaysia to achieve what they came for – hand over a memorandum protesting against the building of dams in the Sarawak interior.

“We tricked the security guards and officials by telling them we had a letter for the chief minister and his deputy,” said Penan representative Philip Jau on Friday.

Stealth in small group

“There were four of us only instead of a large group, and we managed to deliver the memorandum to the officials, although Taib (CM Abdul Taib Mahmud) and Jabu (DCM Alfred Jabu) were not in.”

Jau was accompanied by three Penan leaders.

“We have learnt a lesson from our last attempt to hand over the memorandum,” he said, adding that 10 others were waiting away from Wisma Bapa Malaysia. On Sept 16, the same group of 14 Penans wanted to send the same memorandum to Taib and Jabu but they refused to see them. The 14 were instead arrested by the police on grounds of illegal assembly in front of Wisma Bapa Malaysia.

600 voices of dissent

Tua Kampung Madai Saluk of Long Luar, Belaga, told reporters on Friday that the 62-page memorandum contained about 600 signatures from 18 longhouses expressing opposition to the construction of dams in Baram and Murum in Belaga.

“You (the state) drown our land, our properties and longhouses and want us to move out, but to where? This is really disempowering us,” he said.

He cited the Batang Ai and Asap examples as mass relocations gone wrong.

“We have seen how the people especially in Asap suffer. Many of them have returned to their original longhouses as they can no longer bear the miseries and hardships in the new settlements.”

“We do not want to suffer like them.”

More to lose than gain

In the memorandum to the chief minister, the Penans expressed concern that the Murum dam would create social unrest and threaten their way of life apart from destroying whatever they hold dear in the land of their birth.

“For us along Sungai Peleiran-Murum, we will not be spared the impact of the dam if the government proceeds with its construction. Because of its damaging impact, we the Penans from these areas in one voice urge the government to cease immediately the construction of the Murum dam.

“We also appeal to the government not to force us to move out from our land and settle in areas far from our ancestral land,” the Penans added - Malaysianmirror, Joseph Tawie

Sarawak natives go to court over controversial dam construction

KUCHING – Six villagers from two settlements in upper Bengoh district have gone to court in an attempt to stop the building of the planned RM310mil Bengoh dam, covering about 1,600ha.

Once completed, the dam would store about 144.1 million cubic metres of water, which will be supplied to the Batu Kitang treatment plant. This would increase the plant’s current capacity of 786 mega-litre per day (MLD) to 2,047 MLD for use by consumers in Kuching and Kota Samarahan.

However, it will also affect four settlements - Kampung Tebak Sait, Kampung Bojong Pain, Kampung Rejoi and Kampung Semban, involving some 394 families.

Villagers Simo anak Sekam, Tasek anak Ayau, Eddie anak Aheng, Bodui anak Dayu, Bungai anak Bengem and Sirus anak Jon filed a suit at the Kuching High Court registry Monday morning to stop the authorities from continuing to construct the dam, alleging it affects their native customary rights (NCR) land.

Claiming on behalf of affected families

The six filed the suit, on behalf of themselves and 25 other families, proprietors, occupiers, holders and claimants of the NCR land situated at Kampung Bojong and Kampoung Rejoi. They were accompanied by lawyer See Chee How of legal firm Baru Bian Advocates and Solicitors.

See said later that the area has now been leased to a company known as Salcrajaya Sdn Bhd, a two RM2 company with Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu listed as one of the directors.

The other director is Salcra general manager, Vasco Sibat Singkang. The six villagers filed their legal action against construction team Nain Cendera Sdn Bhd (a company linked to close associates and relatives of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud), Kuching Division superintendent of lands and surveys, the Sarawak state government and the Government of Malaysia, to stop them from continuing the construction of the dam.

“We want a prohibitory injunction restraining the first defendant (Naim Cendera) and/or its employees, servants and/or agents from trespassing, clearing, using or occupying the NCR land,” the villagers said.

They also want a mandatory injunction against Naim Cendera to cease operations and to remove all structures and equipment as well as machinery from the land concerned.

Wrong and unlawful to complete dam

In their writ they also want the court to declare that it was wrong, illegal and unlawful of the company as well as the state and Federal governments to construct and complete the proposed dam.

The villagers also want a declaration order from the court that the contract between the Federal Government and Naim Cendera to design and construct the dam, which covers the natives’ NCR land, is unlawful, improper, unconstitutional and therefore null and void.

Alternatively, they want a declaration that the contract between Federal Government and Naim Cendera that the design and construction of the proposed project does not affect the plaintiffs’ NCR title.

The villagers claim that the construction of the dam impairs the plaintiffs’ rights to property in a manner which is discriminatory and unfair.

Against the Federal constitution

They added that it was also based on criteria which are not applicable to the right to property acquired and held by non-natives.

Further and in the alternative, they said the contract between the fourth defendant (Federal Government) and the first defendant (Naim Cendera) to design and construct the dam was unconstitutional as it was issued on violation of Article 13 of the Federal Constitution (no confiscation of property without adequate compensation.)

The villagers claim damages, exemplary damages; alternately aggravated damages, interest, costs and such further or other relief the Court deems fit and just.

The villagers use historical information and documents to back their claims.

Under the plan, families affected by the building of the dam will be resettled at an area of 3,000ha near Kampung Semadang not far from Bau.

(13 October 2009)

Read More Here

 
By Joseph Tawie, malaysianmirror.com

Datuk Idris Jala Appointment As Full Minister Hope Will Help Penan To Fight Robbers Of Their Forest Products

Blockade negotiations: Penan refuse to meet Sarawak officials at the proposed meeting point

Being a native of Sarawak myself, I am proud with Datuk Idris Jala appointment as a full Minister without potfolio in a Prime Minister Department. Hopefully his appointment will act as a bridge between the native of Sarawak and the Prime Minister. For all this while, the grouses of the natives of Sarawak particularly in matter related to their lands, have been fall on deaf ears by Taib Mahmud, the dying Chief Minister of Sarawak.

The latest saga happening in Baram, where the Penan mounted the road blockade as a show of protest.

Continue reading here:

Native Penan leaders from the East Malaysian state of Sarawak are refusing to meet a high-ranking Sarawak government delegation at the proposed meeting point in Long Bedian, a Kayan long-house in the Tutoh river region. According to Penan sources, the meeting is to take place tomorrow, 28 August 2009. "We are open for talks with the government, but we refuse the proposed meeting point at Long Bedian", a Penan spokesperson commented to BMF. The Penan feel humiliated by a statement of Abang Johari, the former Sarawak Minister of Penan affairs and current Minister of Housing, who alleged in The Borneo Post that foreigners were behind the logging road blockades. "We expect the official delegation to meet us at the blockade sites or at a Penan village. It is essential for the officials to see the dire situation of our villages with their own eyes and to hear the voices of our people." Long Bedian, a Kayan long-house, is a regional centre for the Apoh-Tutoh region, which is strongly influenced by the presence of several logging companies. A week ago, the Penan set up three blockades at strategic logging road locations to prevent vehicles of four logging companies - Samling, Shin Yang, KTS and Interhill - from removing timber from their native lands. In particular, the Penan aim at stopping plantation projects that would involve the conversion of large tracts of secondary forests into oil palm, acacia and eucalyptus plantations.

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