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

Mupok Aku

AGI IDUP AGI NGELABAN

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?

Mupok Aku

AGI IDUP AGI NGELABAN

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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"Agi Idup Agi Ngelaban"