Change We Must

Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud has overseen the brief confinement of prominent native land rights lawyer Harrison Ngau at Kuching airport.

Taib was stung by a noisy protest against his human rights record at a recent appearance at a marketing event in Oxford, sponsored by his cousin and Tanjong Manis MP Norah Abdul Rahman.

The latest police action against Harrison is being interpreted as a form of retaliation for Taib’s public discomfiture while in the UK.

Harrison, the former MP for Baram, was stopped by airport security while trying to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur on Monday. Harrison has been a thorn in the side of the Taib administration since the 1980s, when Dayak protestors began widespread blockades against logging.

He was detained without trial during Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s ‘Operasi Lalang’ police sweep in 1987, in an apparent nod to Mahathir’s ally, Taib.

Harrison had been on his way to meet other lawyers to discuss the Sarawak government’s appeal against a celebrated High Court decision in favour of Dayak landowners’ native customary rights (NCR) in Long Teran Kanan, Baram. He had represented headman Lah Anyie and other Kayan villagers in their victory against the giant IOI oil palm company and the state government.

The lawyer had also planned to attend a meeting of the so-called Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RPSO) in Kuala Lumpur, a forum between corporate palm oil interests and NGOs, established by the palm oil industry. The much vilified IOI is a founder-member of the RPSO.

According to local land rights NGO, Borneo Research Institute Malaysia (Brimas), when Harrison asked Special Branch and Immigration officers why he was being held, he was told they were “following orders from the top”.

“After explaining to the officers the purpose of my trip, they finally let me go, albeit apologetically,” Harrison explained. He was not arrested.

Over the past three decades of Taib’s administration, immigration authorities have blacklisted a number of NGO activists and impounded their travel documents.

Harrison himself had his passport seized in the late 1980s after high-profile campaigns in Europe against ‘timber politics’, the cosy ties between logging companies with Taib and his family, which had led to the loss of native land rights.

Harrison’s passport was finally returned in 2003. But his movements in Sarawak and abroad have since been monitored by the Special Branch, according to Brimas.

“The state government is reverting to its old tactics of intimidating and restricting activists from traveling abroad,” said Brimas executive director Mark Bujang,.

“Also, a few of our activist friends from Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah are not allowed to enter Sarawak. This is clearly a violation of our constitutional rights and also breaches the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People which Malaysia has agreed to adopt.”

The emperor strikes back?
Harrison told the popular blog Malaysia Today that the police informed him he was on the government’s ‘watch list’, and that he suspects the police action was connected to the recent demonstration in Oxford. Harrison told the police he had not organised the protest against Taib.

Taib’s speech at the conference on ‘Islamic marketing’ at the prestigious university’s Said Business School was meant to be an ego-boosting trip for the embattled chief minister ahead of upcoming state assembly elections.

However, the public relations coup turned out to be a public humiliation. Taib was forced to duck into the service entrance of the business school to avoid demonstrators against human rights violations, corruption and environmental degradation under his authoritarian rule.

Taib was clearly furious, and Harrison has speculated this latest police interrogation may have been part of the fallout.

Taib enjoys absolute power over the entry and exit of Malaysians in and out of Sarawak. The immigration restrictions had been formulated as part of the 18-point agreement at the foundation of Malaysia, to prevent better-educated Peninsular Malaysians from swamping Sarawak’s job market.

However, Taib has wielded arbitrary power to keep political opponents out and to intimidate local human rights activists.

Masing’s defence of Taib collapses
On July 27, the day after the debacle in Oxford, state land minister James Masing attempted to defend Taib, telling Bernama that the state government is always ready to engage with NGOs to discuss the Penan issue, one of the most infamous of native rights scandals.

“Protesting like yesterday was pathetic as we have engaged many times with NGOs on the issue of the Penan. We have nothing to hide and what we are doing now is for the good of the community,” claimed Masing.

Activists point out that NGOs have been victimised and harassed, with one example being the mass arrest of 15 Dayak NCR advocates on Malaysia Day last year, while trying to present a land rights memorandum to Taib’s office in Kuching.

“Looks like (Masing’s) pledge that the state government is willing to engage with NGOs is already beginning to sound hollow,” Mark concluded.

KERUAH USIT a human rights activist – ‘anak Sarawak, bangsa Malaysia’ @Malaysiakini

The Sarawak government has been urged to revoke immediately licenses and leases involving the Penan’s native customary land if it was serious in helping the community and the indigenous people.

The Borneo Resources Institute Malaysia (Brimas) also urged the Sarawak government to recognise the rights of the Penan and indigenous people of Sarawak.

“If the government is sincere in helping the Penans and has nothing to hide, it should immediately revoke licenses and leases which overlap with NCR lands.

“And they should immediately stop the issuing of logging licences, licences to plant forests and provisional leases over the native customary lands (NCR) and territories of the indigenous people, “ said Brimas executive director Mark Bujang.

Bujang was responding to Land Development Minister James Masing’s statement in London on Tuesday that the government was ready to engage non-governmental organisations (NGOS) with regards to issues affecting the Penan community.

Whilst lauding Masing’s statement, he however said that the government must survey and recognise the Penan territories.

“Masing’s comment is seen as a positive development, taking into account that all these years, NGOs working on social and environmental issues have been ridiculed and labelled as anti-development, anti-establishment and negative by certain ministers and civil servants.

“We believe the government should survey and grant recognition of the Penans’ native customary rights land and territories as what Prime Minister Najib (Razak) had announced recently,” Bujang said.

He added the exercise should also cover other areas occupied by the indigenous people of Sarawak.

Land for Penan
Bujang also called on Masing to disclose the exact location where 300 Penans were purportedly given land by the state government to hunt.

“We are still in the dark over this matter,” he said.

On the Penan rape victims, he also called on the state government to look into their plights and immediately order a police investigation.

“We do not wish to see the state government dragging its feet on this matter and blaming the NGOs for not being cooperative.

“The police should not close these cases even if at this moment there is lack of evidence to charge the perpetrators.

“As a first engagement, we would like the state government to call for a dialogue with the social and environmental NGOs and discuss further issues affecting the indigenous people and the environment in Sarawak,” he said.

Masing had, on the sidelines of the inaugural Oxford Global Islamic Branding and Marketing Forum , told newsmen that the state government was always ready to engage with NGOs to discuss issues affecting the Penans.

“We have nothing to hide and what we are doing now is for the good of the community. We have never run away from the NGOs,” he said.

Joseph Tawie @ Free Malaysia Today

While this is music to our ears, the message is clear, PM Najib do not buy the stories of Taib and his gang of lap dogs.

To ensure this is done systematically, PM Najib must ensure a committee to oversea this survey must not be entrusted into the sole care of Land and Survey Department.

We suggest they rope in the assistance of Dayak NGO such as SADIA and BRISMAS to ensure impartiality of the survey team.

Failing which the very reason the will power to survey all NCR Lands and have it gazzetted have been delayed till PM Najib see the real need for it to be done for Barisan Nasional to remain in power will end up as just retheoric and the allocation of RM20 million of tax payers money wasted.

Subsequent to the announcement by PM Najib, we have hypocrites coming up with the new land policy by Thief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and the Deputy Thief Minister Alfred Jabu. Read all about it here. Incidently Thief Minister Abdul Taib and all his cronys are the very same gang of thiefs and bandits resisting the call by Dayaks and Dayaks NGO to have all NCR Land surveyed!

Similar to the reduction of Land Lease Renewable announced in Sibu, is not too late to implement the survey of NCR Land now that educated and more aware Dayaks are arousing the awareness of the rural Dayaks? Will this now see the day of the light?

KUCHING: It took 47 years for the government to decide to survey native customary rights (NCR) land, issue titles and return the land to the rightful owners. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak allocated RM20 million to carry out the survey works.

Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud should have made the announcement instead of Najib as land matters come under the purview of the state. So, why did Najib make the announcement? And why did Taib refuse all this while to survey NCR land?

Najib made the decision last week after visiting Long Banga, Baram, an interior seldom visited even by Sarawak state ministers. He must have heard about the Dayaks’ grouses after he took over as prime minister last year. To learn more about their problems, he sent his Sarawakian minister Idris Jala to seek the truth. And based on Jala’s reports, Najib announced the decision.

It not only caught state government leaders by surprise, it also embarrassed them. But Najib does not seem to care; his federal government’s survival depends on solving the problem. To continue to occupy Putrajaya, he must win over the Dayak-majority parliamentary constituencies. There are 23 Dayak majority and Dayak-mixed constituencies.

The decision puts great pressure on the state government to survey the NCR land. It must show support and react immediately.Thus, the state government issued a press statement not only to concur with the prime minister’s announcement but also to say that Taib’s government has approved a new NCR land initiative.

By Joseph Tawie @ Free Malaysia Today

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ULU BALINGIAN – Gangsters seems to be running the show on the current native customary land dispute between a logging company, Bitani Maju Sdn. Bhd. and the Iban communties of Sungai Tepus, Ulu Balingian.

A group of gangsters in 10 cars have been intimidating the natives ever since the natives have set up a blockade on the 12 March against the said logging company.

A total of three police reports have been made against the company, but until today no action is taken against the company or the gangsters that are currently roaming the area.

The blockade has since been dismantled by the police however, the natives still continued with their protests.

The Iban communities of Sungai Tepus, Ulu Balingian are protesting against the illegal logging activities conducted by Bitani Maju Sdn. Bhd. in their native customary land territory.

Surprisingly, it is the police that are guarding the company workers carrying out their illegal logging operations.

Last Saturday, two of the longhouse members from Rumah Osay were assaulted by a group of gangsters while they were on their way home from Selangau bazaar. One of them managed to flee but another was badly beaten up by the gangsters.

According to Banyau Ak Timbang, the person who managed to flee from the gangsters, “I was riding together with Oren Ak Linggang from Selangau bazaar and as we were about to approach our longhouse junction when a car approached us. I noticed Penghulu Thomas Jawa Ak Latu was in the car and the driver of the car forced us to stop.”

“The other occupants of the car came out and we do not recognise them at all. We got into a heated argument with them and then suddenly they started attacking us”, said Banyau.

Banyau said he managed to escape from his attackers but Oren was left behind.

According to Banggau Ak Panggai, Chaiman of their Joint Action Committee called Gerubat, “I told Oren to lodge a police report about the attack at the Balingian Police Station the next day. However, instead of taking down his report, the police arrested Oren.”

“The gangsters seems to be controlling the police and also our community leaders”, claimed Banggau.

“Our communities are leaving in fear at the moment as the police cannot guarantee our safety. We do not want any untoward incident to happen, so we appeal to the police to from harassing us any further,” said Banggau.

Bintulu.org