Change We Must

Leaders of six Penan villages in the Apoh, Patah and Tutoh area, angry with the state government for not fulfilling its promise to help them, have refused to meet with their local elected representatives.

“They do not wish to see the MP for Baram Jacob Sagan Dungau and the state assemblyman for Telang, Usan Lihan Jok,” said Jok Jau, coordinator for Sahabat Alam Malaysia in Sarawak.

“They cannot help the Penans with their problems as a result of timber operations in their territorial domain.”

“They (Jacob and Lihan) not only have no authority to speak on behalf of the government, but they are only small men in the Barisan Nasional,” he said.

Lihan had agreed to help solve their problems last year. A five-point pledge was drawn up and signed by the Penan leaders and the government representatives.

Financial aid
One of the points in the agreement was to make an effort at introducing agricultural activities that will be sustainable for the Penan community.

The government also agreed to provide financial allocations for their housing and healthcare needs.

“The Penans are angry with Lihan and the government for failing to implement the agreement,” Jok added.

“They want to see the chief minister Taib Mahmud to discuss their problems which have been made worse by logging activities. It has been going on for almost 30 years.

“Taib is also the Minister of Planning and Resource Management of which the Forest Department is under him. He is the one who signed the timber licence.

“And he alone has the authority to implement the five-point agreement,” said Jok.

Joseph Tawie @ Free Malaysia Today

Quality Concrete Holdings as in Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd, under the stock name QUALITY and stock code: 7544, that is listed on KLSE?

Lee Ling Timber Products Sdn Bhd

Base on the company profile, the company is an investment holding company with activities in six major business segments, none of which is logging. Only one of their subsidiary, Lee Ling Timber Products Sdn Bhd is involved in the timber industry as a manufacturer of timber products and sawmiller.

Have they violated any provisions of KLSE Listing Rules, Company’s Act.

If the timber concession is awarded to Quality Concrete Holdings Sdn Bhd, some one is seriously wrong. How can a timber concession be granted to a company that do not have logging as their principal activity?

We will leave the above questions for now.

A group of villagers have accused the Sarawak forestry department of blatant disregard of their native customary rights (NCR) over their communal forests.

Activists Nicholas Mujah and Numpang Anan Suntai who are helming the group said the department was refusing to suspend the license issued to logging company, Quality Concrete Holding to stop harvesting of timber in their ‘pulau galau’ (communal forest).

“The department has been informed by the land and survey department through a letter that the area is confirmed to be native customary rights land.

“Yet the department does not want to take action against Quality Concrete Holdings, which continues to log trees in the communal forest,” said Mujah, who is the secretary general of Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia) in a letter of complaint to Suhakam.

“The logging activities have destroyed a large number of our rubber and fruit trees and cash crops,” he said, pointing out that such activities will also disturb their shrines, graveyards and their sources of incomes.

He added that the the logging activities was also polluting the people’s source of drinking water as well as disturbing the habitat of some of the protected animals such as the proboscis monkeys, orang utan, hornbills, deer and peacock.

The area is also the home of some of the rarest species of timber such as belian (iron wood) and selangan batu which fetches up to RM4,000 a tonne.

Five longhouses namely Kampung Entangor, Kg Sungai Ijok, Kg Arus, Kg Tungkah Dayak and Kg Ensika are directly affected by the logging activities.

“All these are clear violations of the rights of the villagers and environmental hazards,” he said, calling on Suhakam to carry out an immediate investigation into the violation of human rights by the forest department and the company.

Longhouse chiefs getting ‘kickbacks’
Meanwhile, Sadia has also received complaints that certain Penghulu and longhouse chiefs had allegedly received ‘kickbacks’ from the company for their cooperation.

“If this is true, then both the company and longhouse chiefs have committed corruption,” he said and urged the resident office of Kota Samarahan to investigate the claim.

His group, he said, would lodge a report with the MACC over the ‘kickbacks’ as well as against the forest department for refusing to suspend the licence it issued to the company.

The trouble between Quality Concrete Holdings and the natives began in April this year when the company received a licence from the forest department.

It allowed them to log timber in 3,305 ha of communal forests in Bukit Salbu, Bukit Birut, Bukit Bederi, Bukit Bekutu, Bukit Ijok and Bukit Sandong.

Despite their protests and blockades, the company and the forest department continue to bulldoze their way to the communal forest.

The licence is expected to expire by the end of the year.

Joseph Tawie @ Free Malaysia Today

Written by: By TUNKU ABDUL AZIZ

Although I have in my travels seen abject poverty in such diverse places as Addis Ababa, Dhaka, Dar es Salaam, Kolkata, Mumbai and Manila, I must confess to a feeling of utter revulsion and anger when confronted by stark deprivation in our supposedly well-governed and prosperous Malaysia.

Comparison of poverty between Sarawak and Malaya
The pockets of rural poverty in the Malay heartlands of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu are islands of prosperity compared to the scene that churned my stomach and assailed my sense of guilt and outrage when I first ventured into the Iban long houses on the majestic Rejang.

Little personal dignity left
It is not enough that we have robbed them of their ancestral lands and impoverished them in the process, but we also felt constrained to strip them naked of any residual personal dignity that they might still have by introducing policies that have succeeded in reducing them to the fringes of mainstream economic life.

The Dayak are the forgotten people?
The Orang Asli tribes and the Orang Hulu, the Malays from the interior, have a great deal in common with their Dayak friends. For all we care, they are Malaysia’s forgotten people, but not quite. Whenever an election is underway, be it a by-election or a general election, they find themselves the centre of attention, in great demand by the rich and powerful, all claiming to love and care for them.

The Dayak votes were bought by BN
Before the day is out, they are the proud possessors of a handful of crisp 50 ringgit notes. Four or five hundred ringgit is a princely sum to them, a king’s ransom, no less, in exchange for their votes. If some of them have become cunning, manipulative supplicants and sacrificed their values for a fistful of ringgit, remember it is we who have corrupted them.

They almost lost their value system
Years of exposure to extreme poverty and unbridled exploitation have rendered many of these once proud and noble people, nature’s gentlemen, inured and insensitive to their own traditional values and value systems. They are reduced to living from hand to mouth, on handouts, from day to day.

The Dayak trusted their Government too much
What a tragedy to befall a people whose only sin is to trust those sworn to protect their native rights. They are bewildered to find themselves dispossessed, as their land is taken away without as much as “by your leave” for commercial exploitation by the towkay friends of the powerful.

We who are strong need to help the Dayak
Talking to many of them, the Ibans, I mean, I believe the only way we can restore their pride and dignity is by providing opportunities for regular employment. We are dealing with an ancient people with a distinctive culture. Even those among them whose lives have taken on an urban aspect continue to cling strenuously to their traditional practices. We who are strong have a duty to help the weak by not foisting on the Ibans and others our culture of corruption and other despicable practices.

Corruption in Sarawak is higher then that of Indonesia during election
Some years ago, an Indonesian anti-corruption activist friend of mine visited our country during the 11th general elections, as part of a privately funded election observer mission. His group spent a great deal of time in Sarawak and Sabah and told me that he was shocked by the scale of vote buying.

Election corruption is beyond expectation
I was greatly embarrassed by his revelation because at an anti-corruption conference in The Hague at which I was invited to speak and he was a participant some two months earlier, I had said that while vote buying was rampant in party elections, the practice was unknown in general and state elections.

I was unbelievably naïve to believe the Barisan Nasional government propaganda. The scale of vote-buying must have been so massive as to shock my Indonesian anti-corruption fighter, used as he was to living and working in a corruption-infested nation. It is not that easy to shock an Indonesian over a corruption issue. But unlike Malaysia, Indonesia is on the mend as far as fighting corruption is concerned. In Malaysia, on the contrary, it is in indecently robust health.

Poverty is caused by Government corruption
Malaysia is blessed with rich natural resources and poverty as we have seen in Sabah, Sarawak, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu can only be explained in terms of governance grounded on corruption and political excesses. When we look at the personal wealth accumulated by Chief Minister Taib of Sarawak at one extremity and the Ibans at the other, one begins to wonder what the future holds for Malaysia. I am not at all sanguine.

The thieving and plundering by the Government must stop
The thieving and plundering by those in power must stop because, as history tells us, it is only a matter of time before the forbearance of the long suffering poor takes on an ugly aspect, with consequences too dreadful to contemplate. The Government of Malaysia and the state governments of Sabah and Sarawak in particular can alleviate poverty by governing in the sole interest of the people. Najib’s people first is under close public scrutiny.

Ultimately, Samling should be severely reprimanded and all their logging concessions rescinded and returned to the people.

Headman Jawa Nyipa (left), Long Ajeng villagers

Malaysian logging giant Samling has threatened the indigenous Penan communities of Sarawak’s Upper Baram region with the suspension of all transport services provided for locals unless they retract sexual abuse and rape allegations against the timber companies active in the region.

The new dispute between Samling and the Penan arose after the release of a report by an international fact-finding mission in July 2010. The report had uncovered seven new cases of sexual exploitation of Penan girls and women in the Upper Baram region by timber workers and had asked the Malaysian government to address the grievances of the Penan communities.

According to Penan sources, Jawa Nyipa, headman of Long Ajeng, was asked by Samling officials to sign a statement that the women in the region had retracted their allegations of sexual abuse by timber company staff.

An Independent Fact-Finding Mission Report by the Penan Support Group, FORUM-ASIA and Asian Indigenous Women's Network (AIWN) . To read report, click imagine to download.

Jawa Nyipa was told that, unless he signed the document, all transport services for the locals would be suspended. The headman refused to sign the statement but the Penan are concerned about the implications of Samling’s threat to suspend transport for the impoverished villagers in the Upper Baram region.

The Penan, who live in remote jungle villages in Borneo, rely on logging companies for transport to rural centres in order to reach the local markets, obtain medical treatment and send their children to secondary school.

Samling’s refusal to provide transport is likely to put them in a very difficult situation as they are unable to afford other means of transport. Last year, logging companies operating in the Middle Baram region ceased to provide transport for a number of communities who had voiced concerns over sexual abuse and rape by timber workers.

Samling (HKEX 3938) is a globally operating Malaysian timber conglomerate with an annual turnover of US$ 480 million.

Last week, the Norwegian Government Pension fund excluded Samling from its portfolio because of the company’s involvement in illegal logging and the fact that it had caused and is still causing severe environmental damage. — BMF

Again we make the call to the Federal Government under PM Najib to intervene and ensure that pending completion Survey of NCR Land boundaries, all development projects and logging activities affecting NCR Land be suspended!

A court case was postponed yesterday pending an Attorney-General’s chambers decision on whether or not to prosecute two men already facing extortion charges when attempting to defend their NCR land.

According to lawyer Abun Sui Anyit, the reason is the disputed area has yet to be surveyed following instruction by the Sibu High Court in January.

The order was made in the ongoing seven-year court battle between residents of 13 longhouses in the Mukah district and Sin Yang Forestry Sdn Bhd over the land.

“The survey has not been done so the land is still under dispute. As such, the community has the right to not allow anyone to take anything away from the land,” Abun Sui told Malaysiakini.

Instead, two community members, Guai Panggai and Dio Mawan were charged in May with extortion under Section 384 of the Penal Code.

According to Guai, who is also a tuai rumah, (headman) the Iban community had in March put up a blockade to stop another company, logging contractor Bintani Maju Sdn Bhd from extracting timber from the land.

“We had lodged police reports three months prior to that but there was no action so we chose to erect the blockade,” he said when contacted.

However, the company claimed that they possess a state-issued licence to undertake the work.

In their police report, Bintani Maju alleged that Guai and Dio had told their employees that they could only pass if they pay RM500.

“This is untrue. I did no such thing. In fact, now they tell us that they want to pay us RM6 per tonne of timber extracted but I have rejected their offer and will continue to reject any offer because the area is still disputed in court,” he said.

He added that despite police reports lodged, it was the police who dismantled their blockade in March and have continued to ignore their complaints.

Assaulted and charged for making threats
“We fear for our safety. The company has hired people armed with long machetes, and have told us that we will get hurt if we disrupt their work,” he said.

A community member, Orin Lingong, was beaten unconsciousness by four men believed to be connected to the company, when it became public that he took part in the blockade, said Giau.

The tuai rumah said that eye-witnesses saw Orin being roughed up, bound and brought to the police station where the he was accused of threatening the four men’s safety.

He was subsequently charged under Section 506 of the Penal Code, for allegedly threatening to kill the men.

Malaysiakini

260 California Street, San Francisco - Bijou Sakti Office Block

Sarawak Report has uncovered devastating documents which prove that Abdul Taib Mahmud, Sarawak’s Chief Minister, is the real owner of millions of dollars of property assets held in the name of family members abroad.

The damning discovery lays bare a system of private deals, which enabled the Chief Minister to conceal his true ownership of the properties. This was presumably in order to hide the extent of his enormous wealth, for which he has yet to provide any legitimate explanation.

Under the system, whilst it is Taib’s relatives who are publicly registered as the official shareholders and directors of the companies owning the properties, a separate, private agreement ensures that the shares are actually held in trust for him.

Documentary evidence of elaborate concealment
Among documents in its possession Sarawak Report has a copy of one such private agreement relating to the shares in Sakti International, a company that owns buildings in San Francisco. Sakti is part of a web of companies started in North America by the Taibs, which includes Sakto, a major Ottawa property company, and Wallysons, which owns the Abraham Lincoln Building in Seattle, housing a top secret anti-terrorist facility for the FBI.

Abdul Taib Mahmud's shares were held by his family members as trustees

The five official shareholders of Sakti International, which is registered in California, are Taib’s brothers, Onn Mahmud and Arip Mahmud, along with three of his children, Sulaiman Taib, Mahmud Taib and Jamilah Taib.

However, as the document which we have obtained shows, a resolution made soon after the formation of the company has privately ruled that half those shares (a commanding majority) are held in trust for the Chief Minister. The value of these shares amounts to 40 million US dollars for Sakti alone, according to the company’s own documents.

Tip of the iceberg?
However, Sakti International, estimated to be worth US$80 million, accounts for just a small proportion of the Taib family wealth. Our previous exposes have revealed a vast portfolio of further international property assets, which are owned by members of Taib Mahmud’s immediate family.

For example, Taib’s own children are the shareholders and directors of numerous companies controlling residential and commercial buildings in Canada, Australia, Britain and the United States together worth hundreds of millions of US dollars. Yet, suspiciously, many of these assets came into their possession when they were in their early 20s and still college students with no visible access to legitimate resources to invest. The inevitable question for Taib Mahmud, therefore, is whether, as in the case of Sakti International, they are also secretly holding these other properties in trust for him? If not, what explanation can there be for these investments?

A number of reports have already been made to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) regarding the recent disclosures of the Taib family wealth. These new revelations proving the direct link to the Chief Minister will increase the pressure on the MACC to respond with a proper investigation.

Further Fingerprints

Chief Minister's name in black and white, listed as a Director Of Sakti International

The Sakti International documents in our possession, released as part of the disclosure in a recent court case, provide further extensive evidence of Taib Mahmud’s involvement in the company, despite his denials of any business connections. Indeed one of the company’s earliest official documents, signed in 1987, even lists him as one of the Directors of Sakti International.

The document in question is a Domestic Stock Corporation Statement for Sakti International, which is required annually by the State of California. In 1987, the year the company was set up, its inaugural statement clearly registers Taib Mahmud, along with his brothers Onn Mahmud and Arip Mahmud, as a Director of the company. The only officer of the company is listed as Mahmud Taib, the Chief Minister’s eldest son.

It is well-known that in subsequent Taib family enterprises the Chief Minister has always scrupulously avoided including his own name in any documentation. This early mistake will undermine his constant claims that, in keeping with his role as Chief Minister, he has no direct business interests. It is clear that he, in fact, set up Sakti International, using the address of his own house in San Francisco.

Cover Up
Subsequently, records show that the structure of the company was altered to make Onn, Arip and Mahmud Taib the three Directors, while Rahman became the only officer of the company. But, as we are now able to exclusively report, Taib Mahmud secretly retained his control through a resolution by the company directors dated April 8th 1988. This resolution placed 500 of the 1,000 shares issued by the company in trust for him.

The Godfather
The Sakti documents give a fascinating insight into the manipulative methods used by Taib Mahmud to control his family members, who are supposedly the earners and ‘businessmen’ who have generated the Taibs’ legendary wealth. The five relatives who were selected to own shares in Sakti International were each been given a different number of shares. Each then surrendered differing proportions of these shares to be held in trust for the Chief Minister.

Brother Onn Mahmud gets 400 shares, but of them 200 are held for the Chief Minister, whereas brother Arip gets just 200 shares, 100 of which are in trust for Taib. Mahmud Taib has the same arrangement ast Arip. However younger brother, Sulaiman Rahman Taib, who was later made sole Director of Sakti, only gets 100 shares under the agreement and they are all in fact held in trust for his father. Daughter Jamilah also only gets 100 shares, but she gets to hold them all herself.

The system ensures that Taib Mahmud has half of all the shares held in trust for himself, whereas none of the others hold more than 200 shares. In this way he clearly keeps a commanding control over the company he pretends not to own.

Taib in charge
Former employees of Sakti have testified to the controling position the Chief Minister holds over the other members of the family. Rahman, as he was known in the States, was still in college when he became sole Director of Sakti and has been described as being in awe of his father, whom he once had to wait a week to get a meeting with.

“We always considered Taib to be the ultimate boss and decision-maker” one former executive has told Sarawak Report, “It was obvious that he was the source of the money and Rahman was extremely deferential towards him”.

Where did the money come from?

Golden Wedding Couple - The Godfather and his family

The Chief Minister has so far made no comment on the string of recent exposes regarding his wealth. However, this new evidence will increase the widespread demands for him to explain how he and his family accrued the millions necessary to acquire such investments. Taib’s personal salary from his numerous concurrent positions still only delivers an official income of just under 50,000 MYR (around US $16,000) a month.

In past weeks the existence of Ridgeford Properties in London and Sakto Corporation in Ontario, Canada have also been made public. These companies own and manage numerous office blocks worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Ostensibly the Directors and owners of these concerns are Jamilah Taib and her husband Sean (Hisham) Murray, a Canadian national. However, like Sakti, Sakto was originally set up under the names of Taib family members, not Mr Murray.

Although numerous members of Sean Murray’s family now work for Sakto, all the evidence indicates that these are in fact Taib family businesses, ultimately controlled by the Chief Minister of Sarawak.

Surely the weight of evidence is now such that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission will be unable to ignore the deluge of demands requiring thorough investigation into Sarawak’s White Haired Raja? – Sarawak Report

If this there is any sustance in this article, what about the other Dayak Community, especially the urban Bidayuh and Ibans?

YB Dominique and Sdr Zulhaidah have said it correctly here (How graft, racial-religious politicking “KILLED” Malaysia’s economy) and Politics of Development – Saya pun kena tipu!

Winds of political change blow through Sarawak jungles

Winds of Change

An opposition party poster hanging in a Penan tribal chieftain’s wooden longhouse deep in Sarawak’s rainforests signals winds of political change blowing across Borneo island.

The Penan are among the most disadvantaged of Malaysia’s indigenous people, and have for decades fought a one-sided war against the powerful logging and plantation firms that are obliterating their ancestral land.

But a political transformation, which threatens to unseat the coalition that has ruled for half a century, has put Sabah and Sarawak in a powerful position.

And the poster in the Penan longhouse, promoting the leaders of the Democratic Action Party – one of a trio that make up the opposition alliance – is the sort of thing that has the government worried.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak made an historic visit last month to the interior of Sarawak to visit the Penan and other “Orang Ulu” – tribal groups known as “River People” as their homelands are located along remote waterways.

The premier, who arrived with senior ministers by helicopter in the village of Long Banga, made multi-million-dollar pledges to fund projects including a long-overdue road, a mini dam and a mobile medical clinic.

He also announced a plan to survey native lands, a move he said would give indigenous people ownership of their ancestral territory – the holy grail they have been campaigning for in vain.

“The response is great. It was very spontaneous. The promises will be delivered,” an ebullient Najib said before flying out of the jungle.

Vote for the opposition

The Authorities have been on denial mode over the rape of Penan Woman

Women and Community minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil also flew into Sarawak last month, to take charge of an investigation into allegations of rampant sexual abuse and rape of Penan women at the hands of logging workers.

“The Penan community should know that now they have someone to champion their cause and that is us,” she said.

But despite the flurry of high-level attention, and promises of action on issues critical to the future of the Penan, there is widespread scepticism over the intentions of the BN government.

After 2008 elections that transformed Malaysia’s political scene by handing the opposition alliance a third of parliamentary seats, the BN must retain Sabah and Sarawak in the next elections if it wants to stay in power.

A long journey by boat and car into Sarawak’s rugged interior found that, far from being hopeful that the new focus on Borneo will finally aid their cause, there is a strong sense of frustration and betrayal among the Penan.

Many feel cheated by promises made and broken in the past half-century since independence, and are feeling emboldened to vote against the government for the first time in elections that could come later this year.

“I will advise my villagers to vote for the opposition,” Abeng Jek, a 67-year-old former village headman told AFP as other Penan nodded their heads in agreement.

“All this while I have voted Barisan Nasional. We will no longer accept promises. We want change,” he said as children peeped out of their longhouse rooms to hear the elder’s frustration.

“Twenty years ago I asked for a rice machine, new zinc for the roof and concrete pavement in front of the longhouse. They said: yes, yes. I voted the ruling party. Now my stomach is empty,” he said.

‘PM not in charge, Taib is’
There are at least 10,000 Penan in Sarawak, but their way of life is under threat from extensive logging of their traditional hunting grounds, as well as the spread of palm oil and timber plantations.

The tribespeople, armed with spears and blowpipes, continue to set up blockades to stop powerful companies from wiping out the remnants of their ancestral land, but often meet with a violent response.

The plight of the Penan people was made famous in the 1990s by environmental activist Bruno Manser, who campaigned to protect their way of life and fend off the loggers, before he vanished in 2000 amid suspicion of foul play.

Lukas Straumann, director of the Bruno Manser Fund which campaigns for the people of the rainforests, is pessimistic that the new focus on the region will benefit the Penan or other indigenous tribes.

He said that Najib was not able to deliver the critical promise of land reform, which lies in the hands of long-serving Sarawak chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

“The problem is, the prime minister is not in charge. Taib is in charge,” he said. “So we do not believe they will give over the land unless there is a change in government or unless they are forced to do so by the courts.”

Further along the Baram river in the village of Long Lamai, some Penan complained that while Najib came with new promises of dams and roads, earlier pledges for drains and home repairs had not yet been fulfilled.

“The trust has been damaged. Look, our longhouses are falling apart. They promised a drain but it has not been built,” said 50-year-old Richard Jengan. “Now I will vote anyone who can help us.”

Cheated by hollow words
Bulan Teko, 40, said she and many others were disappointed that no action has been taken against the perpetrators of the rape epidemic, including loggers who preyed on girls forced to seek lifts to reach far-flung schools.

“Now the women and children are afraid to venture out alone,” she said, adding that it had added to long-standing hardships caused by deforestation.

“Logging has polluted our rivers, the only source of clean water and we continue to live in darkness at night,” she said.

“Our children read with oil lamps. And when we have no money to buy fuel, we live in darkness.”

Daud Sedin, a 35-year-old Penan who walked five hours through the jungle from neighbouring Data Bila village to meet Najib at Long Banga said he desperately hoped the prime minister would resolve the land issue.

“Logging companies encroach our land – cutting down our trees and running over our dogs. We are frustrated. We feel cheated by the government’s hollow words,” he said.

“All the Orang Ulu, especially the young, are talking about voting for the opposition.”

James Chin, political science professor at the Monash University campus in Kuala Lumpur, rubbished the prime minister’s initiative as a “pre-election ploy to win native votes.”

But he is not convinced that their grievances will overcome the vote-buying that is a staple part of elections in Sarawak, perpetuating the dominance of powerful, cashed-up ruling parties.

“Come polls, the natives will be swayed to vote the ruling party via vote buying. Remember they are poor, money will cool their frustrations,” said Chin. - AFP

This article is taken from Malaysiankini

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

This article first appeared at BBC News on 7th December 2009. We find it relevant to reproduce it here following Thief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and his entourage of bandits appearance at Oxford University earlier in the week. And the authorities continued denial of incidences of rape by workers of logging companies.

A BBC investigation into the actions of logging companies in Borneo has been told of the systemic rape and abuse of tribal women and girls – some as young as ten.

The Penan tribe are setting up blockades on logging routes

Logging companies have been accused of turning a blind eye to the allegations for nearly a decade.

In recent months the Penan tribe, armed with blow-pipes, have been blockading roads in an attempt to halt logging companies entering their ancestral lands.

Dressed in loin-cloths – semi-nomadic tribesmen hunt with blow-pipes: bamboo canisters for poison darts and their machetes hang at their waists. These are the Penan, living in the jungle of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo.

Back at their camp Leong Abid, a tribal chief, told me how the traditional Penan way of life is under threat from the logging companies.

He describes how they are destroying the land where they hunt – in many areas the wildlife – the fruit they pick – the fish in the rivers – has all but gone. If this continues, he says, there will be nothing for his children.

Sexual exploitation

A government report found widespread sexual exploitation of Penan girls

The roads built for and by the logging companies reach deep into the heart of the jungle. It is estimated that only 3% of the primary forest in Malaysian Borneo remains.

According to the government and the companies logging has its positive side: progress. It has, they say, given remote tribal communities access to schools, clinics and other villages.

But our investigation has uncovered disturbing evidence that it has also exposed young women and vulnerable school girls to exploitation, abuse and rape.

I spoke to Mary, a teenage girl who was tending to her baby daughter amid swarms of flies. The child’s legs were covered with running sores. It’s a desperate scene. Mary fell pregnant after she was raped.

With the help of a translator she tells her story. How she was hitching a ride to school and was picked up by a logging company driver and two other men. They stopped off overnight. She was dragged from her room, beaten unconscious. She awoke naked – left in the dirt.

The federal government of Malaysia has set up a national action committee to investigate allegations of sexual abuse.

But in the latest visit in July, 2010, there seem to be an about turn by Datuk Sharizat Abdul Jalil, Minister of Women, Family and Community Development that it is indeed sexual exploitation by the workers of logging companies, meaning the rape allegation was rubbished by the authoroties.

Its report alludes to a dozen separate cases – mainly school girls hitching the four hour ride to and from school – children as young as 10.

“The findings were basically that there was indeed sexual exploitation of the girls – especially where school children who during the journey back and forth from the schools have to use the transport provided by the lorries and lorry drivers of the timber companies,” says Ivy Josiah, one of the authors of the report.

“They were open to exploitation either sexual harassment or sexual molestation and even rape.”

“From what we understand this became the norm – it has been happening over a period of 10 years – and it is systemic in the isolated areas like the jungles of Sarawak.”

‘Storytelling’
The state government of Sarawak – those responsible for signing the logging licences – dismisses the federal government report as misplaced outside interference.

They change their stories, and when they feel like it. ... Dato Sri James Jemut Masing

“I think this is where we get confused I think… the Penan are a most interesting group of people and they operate on different social etiquette as us… a lot this sex by consensual sex,” says James Masing, the Sarawak Cabinet Minister for Land Use.

When I told Mr Masing that I had spoke to a young girl who said she had been beaten unconscious and raped, he replied: “They change their stories, and when they feel like it. That’s why I say Penan are very good story tellers.”

The main logging companies operating in the area are Samling Global Ltd and the Interhill Group.

Both companies say their own internal investigations found no evidence of sexual abuse or rape by their employees and that they are cooperating with the authorities.

Hundreds upon hundreds of stripped timber trunks are stockpiled at the Samling logging storage depot. Caterpillar track grabbers load barges waiting to ship their cargo down river for export.

Since the 1980s the Penan communities have been fighting through the Malaysian courts to try and protect their lands. But it is a lengthy process and, in the meantime, the government continues to issue licences and the companies continue to log.

The main logging companies operating in the area are Samling Global Ltd and the Interhill Group.

Both companies say their own internal investigations found no evidence of sexual abuse or rape by their employees and that they are cooperating with the authorities.

Hundreds upon hundreds of stripped timber trunks are stockpiled at the Samling logging storage depot. Caterpillar track grabbers load barges waiting to ship their cargo down river for export.

Since the 1980s the Penan communities have been fighting through the Malaysian courts to try and protect their lands. But it is a lengthy process and, in the meantime, the government continues to issue licences and the companies continue to log.

Only 3% of primary forest in Malaysian Borneo remains

“When the companies tell the people you have no rights over this land – we have the licence here – this is given by the government. Now the native says – we have been living here for the last 100 years since our ancestors – why do we need to have document of title?” says their barrister Baru Bain.

“To win their case to maintain the kind of life they have – as it is today with the present policy that the government is having – I’m very pessimistic of that – I don’t see any hope for them in the future.”

Disheartened by the legal process, the Penan are now taking matters into their own hands – armed with machetes and blow-pipes, they recently set up blockades.

Unga, a Penan tribesman, told me that the logging companies were “destroying the way of the Penans’ life”. And he said that the Penan would use blockades, blow-pipes and machetes to defend their culture, adding “we believe we can win”.

The allegations of rape and the blockades have started to draw international attention to the plight of the Penan, so far considered a national domestic issue for the state and federal governments of Malaysia.

But two years ago the HSBC bank pulled out of Samling following concerns about its logging activities. And now campaigners hope more international pressure may yet be bought to bear.

BBC News